This "fun" thread probably speaks to all of us who love our player
pianos.  Peter Neilson's recent posting reminds me that there's
something in human nature that makes us want others to join us in
appreciating something wonderful.

Peter describes the "listen-to-me" interloper, but we don't just have
to vie for the attention of self-taught, inept pianists (and their
following).  It's as bad or worse when some reasonably adept pianist
couldn't care less about our baby.  The few times I've convinced one of
these critics that the player mechanism in my old Steinway upright is
actually a means to make music have pleased me very much.

Also, listeners don't always have to be aggressively disinterested to
disappoint.  There are the seemingly appreciative folks who somehow let
us know (maybe by an inattentive comment when man, machine, and paper
have just done something worth a slight nod and a smile) that they
really don't "get it."

Still we pump and still we preach.  And still, I think it's worth it.

But as much as I love to share the fun, some of my fondest moments over
the last 35 years have been when no player mechanism quirks happen to
be bothering me, no notes are hanging up (as the F# below middle C is
now), the planets are in just the right places, and I can really enjoy
getting into a few rolls, "all by myself alone."

Paul Murphy