Piano Key1

It’s no secret that professional piano players use techniques that amateur piano players don’t. So what else is new? Professional golfers use techniques that amateur golfers don’t use (at least not very well), and pro ball players use techniques that sandlot and weekend athletes don’t use — or again, not very well.

So it’s not surprising that professional piano players have some tricks up their sleeves that the rest of us mortals don’t have. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try to emulate the great pianists. We may not pull it off as well as them, but we sure can have a lot of fun trying, and who knows? Maybe a few of us can actually learn these techniques well enough

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Temperature and humidity.

In positioning your piano, you should strive for evenness of humidity and temperature. Since a piano is made mostly of wood, it is greatly affected by seasonal change. If there is lots of variation in humidity and temperature, your piano will easily go out of tune. Humidity fluctuations can also cause cracking of the wooden soundboard and damage to the finish.

For these reasons you should never put a piano next to a frequently opened outside door or in front of a picture window. Never put it near heating ducts, hot air registers, or radiators. Protect the piano against direct sunlight, humidity and sudden changes in temperature. You need to ensure a temperature of about 72 degrees Fahrenheit

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It is true that used pianos are sometimes better than new ones. The 1920 were marked by pianos of the highest quality. But a word of caution must be sounded. Before buying a used piano, seek the advice of a professional technician, or buy from a reputable piano dealer. There’s often a fine line between a good deal and a piece of junk. Only a tuner-technician is suitably qualified to tell you whether a used piano is worth buying.

Inspect a used piano rigorously. Perhaps much more thoroughly than you would if it were a new piano. Play every key with the right hand pedal depressed so as to get a true impression of the tone. The keyboard, hammers, and pedals

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In A Shot at Glory, Robert Duvall plays the inspiring manager of a lower-division Scottish football (soccer, to us Americans) team. Management wants to make major changes to the team to keep it financially viable such as taking on a star player for more visibility and even moving to another city. In order to prevent the move, the manager has to find a way to become the best team in the nation, despite the odds stacked against him and problems at home with his own family.

The film seems to be a perfect match for Glasgow-born Mark Knopfler, and brings him full circle back to his Scottish roots with Local Hero and

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If you are rearranging furniture in your house, or even moving it to a new location, professionals have a few tricks of the trade to make moving easy and smooth.

The sheet I use is clear heavy duty sheet. It is four times the thickness of those flimsy one use furniture covers, and more like the scuff proof grade used by sofa manufacturers. Indeed furniture shops / warehouses may be the place for the amateur mover to scrounge some old sheet.

If you are moving a wardrobe, refrigerator or chest of drawers, plastic sheet is a useful tool:
Fold up the sheet so it is a least 4 folds thick. You should end

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