Suggested New Forum: "The Traveling Pianist"

I've been active on the Piano World forums for over a year, and these forums really enrich my piano-playing experience. Thanks so much to Frank and all the moderators for providing this very valuable service!

In that time I've seen and participated in a number of threads relating to the challenges of being an amateur pianist who must travel a lot. The specific subjects have been many and varied, including, for example, how to locate a practice piano at the destination city (e.g., at hotels, schools, churches, and dealers); offers to "trade" practice time for pianists who travel to each others' cities; the challenges of airline and train travel with a digital piano; which digitals might best accomodate a traveler, and new developments in "travel pianos"; travel cases; etc.

Given a certain level of interest in these inter-related topics, would it make sense to open a new PW Forum with several starting topics like those above in order to centralize these sorts of comments and encourage further discussion?

In any case, thanks again to Frank and the moderators for all you do for piano lovers around the world.

It could be good, but I think it's more theoretical good than actual good because, judging from how things are on the site in general, I think there wouldn't be enough such activity to make people look on that forum very much. There's two things involved in that: The amount of activity on what you mentioned, which I think wouldn't be enough, and the way people go about looking at the site, which seems not to involve looking much at forums besides those that someone is most active on. For example, look at how little the "Parties/Cruises/Meetings" and "Concerts/Competitions" forums get looked at or posted on, despite the broad interest in those subjects. I think this purpose is better served by continuing to post this kind of thing on the most applicable existing forum, usually Pianist Corner (classical or non-classical) and/or Adult Beginners Forum. But let's see what other people might think....

I agree with Marc_C; I don't think that there would be enough "traffic" on such a forum to warrant creating it and I think that few posting there would be noticed by most of us.

Much better, I think, to post in one of the "most popular" forums as the need arises.

Regards,

Given that I had to hunt to find THIS forum......:)

I think that at tops a stickied in one of the forums with "where to find pianos when travelling" would do the trick.

I asked piano world to start an intermediate forum awhile back and it was shot down. They like to keep everything the same. That is why the Adult forum is such a mish mosh...and the piano forum confuses new users...I don't think they would add the one you suggest, good luck.

But funnily, that thread seems to show the problem that's been mentioned on here, that people tend not to look at forums besides the main ones they're on, and very likely wouldn't see such posts if they were on a separate forum:

Look how long it took you to reply to that post on your thread! Apparently you didn't go back there for over a year and a half!

I left for over a year after that thread and gave up. I only came to the suggestion thread area because I was directed from another thread. An intermediate thread would be totally different that a suggestion thread.

And the only reason I responded was to bring it to the top...

Nice try...

I agree!!

But the reason I said what I did was that you seemed to be commenting on the current suggestion, as though the site would reject this one only for bad reasons. I wasn't talking about the merits of what you said on the other thread. You gave up on that other thread, and then didn't look at this forum at all for such a long time. All I'm saying is, that's typical for most things. It may well be different for an "Intermediate" forum; I don't think it would be different for this.

With respect, Casini, I think the different types of questions, problems, and issues that have been raised in multiple forums by traveling pianists are much broader than that single question (and a generic answer). I tried to allude to the scope of the questions in my opening post above, though doubtless a lot could be added to that.

Recognizing everything others here have said in their kind and thoughtful responses, I still personally think that a separate forum would be best, perhaps with a "sticky" near the top of the ABF and Pianist Corner forums directing (and linking) people to the new Traveling Pianist forum.

I'd even be willing to moderate it if no one else expressed an interest.

I second (or third, etc.) "a stickied in one of the forums with 'where to find pianos when travelling' would do the trick." Just what I would have liked to have for a recent business trip to San Diego, and several times a month in different cities throughout the US.

Is there a relatively easy way to develop a format, and then allow forum members to add their information, to a quick reference list indexed by city or region? Those who have practice spaces available could indicate so, and whether there is a fee, hours, etc., and those who have successfully located off-the-beaten-path pianos and practice rooms could share their secrets.

Regular search engines are effective for finding a Zumba class, folk dance session, or some type of workout in another city - and most list a one-class or transient rate - but no avail for finding piano practice rooms.

Could we also encourage schools and organizations that have practice rooms or pianos available include that information on their commercial websites? How would music schools that participate in the forum feel about including this information on their websites?

Anyway, I appreciate and support your efforts to make this topic more visible on the site, and will be happy to share resources that I come across in the course of my travels.

With respect, the topic proposed in the original post is much broader than just the question of where to find a piano in the destination city.

But if no one else interested, this won't go anywhere.

Anyone else?