You may not know this, you may not care, but right now there are a lot of people that have pianos but don't want to keep them. The cost of repairing old pianos is going through the roof and the people that are trained to tune them are no longer getting enough business to continue doing that for a living. That means that within our lifetime, maybe sooner, we will no longer have any music coming from old pianos.
This is insane right?
Not so insane says consumerist:
As lovely and elegant as pianos can be, and as many memories one might have of plunking away at "Heart and Soul," if you've got one that doesn't work and aren't willing to spend the money to fix it, it just turns into a huge piece of furniture taking up room in your home. Since the value of used pianos, uprights in particular, has gone down in recent years, owners are starting to dump pianos instead of trying to fix them or giving them away.
The New York Times says it's becoming increasingly common for piano movers to turn into piano dumpers, as owners of used pianos call them to dispose of non-working instruments. Sometimes the movers take them apart to sell off pieces or even burn them as firewood.
All those working parts that come together inside a piano to produce beautiful music are also very expensive to repair, and require the attention of skilled experts. There are less of those technicians around these days, however, while music lovers can get a kick from less expensive digital pianos and keyboards, as well as cheaper imported pianos.
Maybe it's time to start learning how to play piano!
