Welcome to our summer update. It really is my intention to script more than two updates a year, somehow, they never seem to command the priority to match my intention. It is a strange thing but the quieter we are in the showroom, the less time I have, as I fill my days with more tunings. Busy people will always be busy springs to mind.. I count myself very fortunate in this regard, I have never deviated from the plan for tuning to provide a stable income without reliance on the showroom profits to put food on the table. It has been, and continues to be, a wonderful model and I can honestly say that I love both the service and sales elements to my business and, of course, they complement each other beautifully. I am after all a piano specialist and not a trained salesperson, in fact I have never been on a sales course in my life! I think of myself as someone with expert knowledge who can introduce customers to our pianos, to explore them with the relevant information to potentially select a suitable instrument. Michelle and I both love this process of discovery and place great value on this being an enjoyable experience for all visitors. I then get the added joy of preparing each piano to perform to its full potential and to witness the pleasure that they bring when settled in their destination. I am ever grateful to my father for introducing me into this fine trade.
How have things been since the last update? Well, in truth we are in interesting times, which I believe was an ancient Chinese curse. Overall, the showroom has been quieter than we would like but when it is busy it reminds us how much we miss it when its not! I am sure that I could have found a grammatically better way to write that, but I’ll stick with it. It seems that most small businesses that I speak to are having a lean time and this certainly resonates in the piano trade. I could now go on to explain how the demise of the Chinese market has sent a shock wave through the world’s piano makers and the fallout thereof, but I’m not going to. Google will provide meat on the bones of this if you are interested. Suffice to say that our world of pianos is being forced to change and adapt and it is my intention that we will embrace this and find a way forward. Yes, musical education is poor at best in our schooling system, technology provides instant and immediate gratification to our young people and reduces their creative capacity, but that is now, I will not accept it will always be thus. Music nurtures and enriches our souls; it has the power to access emotions in us that cannot be drawn from technology. And that is the power of a beautiful piano, to return that musical creativity with feeling and emotion, something that can only be achieved with an acoustic, real instrument. Perhaps people will look back to look forward and rediscover the creative things that draw more from us and offer greater fulfilment and joy.
Despite the mentioned above, I feel positive, optimistic, and ready to embrace change and evolve our business. What this evolution looks like I’m not sure yet, but the intention is there, and everything starts with a thought, a desire. I have an open list of actions to complete, that is being added to regularly, to ensure we create a future for our business. We have some wonderful pianos and our service is second to none, the challenge we have is to attract more visitors to the showroom to try our instruments. If you are reading this you are our advocate, word of mouth has always been our greatest source of new introduction, thank you.
Since writing we have seen some beautiful pianos selected and delivered to appreciative homes. We now house two upright models from the quality German manufacturer Sauter. These are beautiful instruments and our very first one was delivered to a home in the New Forest, chosen for its beautiful, resonant tone. Sadly, our beloved Grotrian-Steinweg had to cease piano making in their Braunschweig factory, however, I am in regular contact with them and their beautiful pianos will be back, most likely in a different manufacturing location, I will keep you posted! Sauter are a perfect addition to the showroom as a top-quality German piano with a beautiful musical tone. The impressive Wilh. Steinberg P125 model remains a popular choice of piano, it is simply a sensational piano for the price, almost unbelievable! We have got to make sure that we continue to supply fantastic pianos within different price ranges, the Wilh. Steinberg pianos excel against similarly priced pianos and are regularly chosen for their musical performance. Kawai remain a popular choice too with recent offers tempting many buyers, particularly on the K300 model. Kawai have recently announced a commitment to service from their dealer network, something we embrace and support. Every piano has to be expertly prepared before delivery to a customer with a quality tuning and maintenance service to follow. This has fallen short in recent times from some suppliers, it is right that the correct supply and support is encouraged with this excellent range of pianos. Finally, for this paragraph, we received two beautiful restored grand pianos yesterday from Barry Caradine. Barry is at the top of his profession in restoration, his restored pianos are truly exceptional. We have worked with Barry for some years now and supplied some very fine pianos restored in his workshop. This latest delivery included a fabulous Bechstein model B and a Bluthner model 11 that I have known for some time, both are truly exceptional pianos that I am very excited to have in our stock. With the price of new pianos rising, a top-quality restored piano has once again become an enticing option.
I have thoroughly enjoyed writing this update, now I must leave to tune the piano of a local piano teacher. I will try, as ever, to add the next update before too long but experience tells me not to promise! Life is good, business is going to improve, and I am looking forward to working through my list of actions. All visitors are welcome, Michelle and I never tire of proudly showing our pianos, send us an email, text or even a WhatsApp to arrange your visit, you will be most welcome
All the best,
Ben
