Piano History, Piano Types, Restoration samples, Small Piano lesson

Ever wondered when the piano was invented? Who invented it? What were the main stages of improvement in the design?  Chris Welch gives an overview.

 Here Chris discusses some of the different styles of secondhand piano on the market in the UK. We look in more detail at the beautiful ornamentation inside some of the Victorian pianos, then examine the rosewood exterior. What was the social background in the UK that caused so many pianos to be made? Why is there such a decline in acoustic piano playing? What are some of the skills that piano playing develops?

Chris Welch starts to demonstrate how once you've learned a few rules about stringing chords together you can soon learn to play in any key, and put a melody line over the top.He demonstrates the formation of major chords/,minor chords, straight flattened 7th chords usually referred to as 7th chords, and then the more wistful major 7th chords. Finally he demonstrates the use of diminished chords and the common use of descending bass harmonies in his song, but which also appears in Hotel california and Dire Straits. (Chris momentarily forgets he has gone further than Grade 8  in classical guitar , actually gaining ALCM Diploma signed by Andrew Lloyd Webber's father himself. Chris Welch has owned www.Piano-s.com /AC Welch pianos since 1981)

This month...

Just so you all know, this month I am restoring a grand piano for somebody. Although I began in October, with halfterm and having some kind of virus, i was effectively wiped out for a week.The job must be completed by end of November.


This is the joblist:
Strip the whole piano down to bare wood, and stain medium brown, and french polish  (Shellac laquer).
Send away all white keys to be recovered in grained celluloid ivory lookalikes....(no elephants, right!)
Strip of all the old string set and tuning pins
Respray the metal frame (see picture)
Restore soundboard
Send away all bass string rubbing to get a bespoke set made for the piano from a stringmaker
Replace all treble wire strings and tuning pins (pegs)   and all bass strings and pins.
Replace all string felts, cut to measure
Replace all the damper felts
Tune gazillions of times until stable
Set up the piano action to all the new parts
Repair loose flapping bits of veneer

So you can see....my time at the moment is limited