Hi All,

Below are the opening paragraphs from the new WebPages at
Player-Care relating to the Opinion Poll which ended 2/1/98.
The pages are at:

    http://www.player-care.com/survey1a.html    and
    http://www.player-care.com/survey1b.html

Musically,
John (john@player-care.com.nospam)

 - - -

Player-Care Survey Results (2/1/98)

I have to admit to being a bit overwhelmed by the vast array of reasons
that people have for "Liking" or "Disliking" Player Pianos. However, it
doesn't change the fact that a lot of interesting information was collected
and I did discover the most popular reasons why people "Like" Player
Pianos. By far, the most common response was simply 'listening to live
music on a real instrument without having to actually play (it)'. This
category was divided into a number of groups like A) Interacting with the
instrument, B) Bringing people together, C) The memories of past good
times, D) Pretending and E) Exercise. The second most popular reason was
'intrigue'. People seem intrigued for various reasons from mechanical to
musical but by far, the majority of respondents in this category were
intrigued by the mechanical aspects of the unit. The third most popular
reason is that they enjoy working antiques and that by using and
maintaining them, they are helping to preserve a part of history.

The two most popular reasons for "Disliking" the player piano are the
expense of repairs and electrified units. In general, people had very
little to say that could be considered serious dislikes. While some didn't
like electrified units, about an equal number enjoyed the aspect of not
having to pump the unit if they didn't want to. Most of the people in that
category and those with similar comments did indicate that there was quite
a difference in the quality of the music. They stated that the electrically
driven pump made the music less 'lifelike'.

Further, there were a few rather touching stories about how an individual
came to love their player piano. And even though some of them are not
really very precise with regards to what they liked or disliked, it's
pretty easy to tell their feelings by reading their story. All in all, I am
pleased by the results I gathered and I believe the best way to present
them is to simply list every single comment. Naturally, all the names and
identifying information have been removed to protect the privacy of the
individual even if they did give their name. Some of you readers might be
able to tell which responses came from people involved in the business and
yet some of the responses from very involved people were not that much
different from those who just enjoy the player piano. I hope you find the
reading entertaining.

So perhaps Joyce Brite was correct in stating that the survey was too
open-ended. And I fully admit that nothing of a statistical nature came
from the survey. It was, none the less, interesting and everybody that
responded seemed to enjoy themselves. I was a bit surprised to find that it
was more the music than the memories associated with the music. And to that
end, my previous feelings about what trips people's triggers about players
was slightly off the mark. Basically, they like live music. BTW, there were
(I believe) around 90 responses.

Musically,
John A. Tuttle (john@player-care.com.nospam)