I was in Dubuque Iowa a while back and ran across the Fenlon Place Elevator.
Of course it made me think about how it could help you learn piano.
Quick story below:
“In 1882, Dubuque was an hour and a half town – at noon everything shut down for an hour and a half when everyone went home to dinner.
Mr. J. K. Graves, a former mayor, former State Senator, also promoter of mines and a banker lived on top of the bluffs and worked at the bottom. Unfortunately, he had to spend half an hour driving his horse and buggy round the bluff to get to the top and another half an hour to return downtown, even though his bank was only two and a half blocks away.
Mr. Graves liked to take half an hour for his dinner, then a half an hour nap, but this was im-possible because of the long buggy ride.
As a traveler he had seen incline railways in Europe and decided that a cable car would solve his problem. He petitioned the city for the right to build. The franchise was granted on June 5, 1882.
John Bell, a local engineer, was hired to design and to build a one-car cable modeled after those in the Alps.
The original cable car, which was built for Mr. Graves’ private use, had a plain wood building, that housed a coal-fired steam engine boiler and winch. A wooden Swiss-style car was hauled up and down on two rails by a hemp rope.
Mr. Graves’ cable car operated for the first time on July 25, 1882. After that, he had his gardener let him down in the morning, bring him up at noon, down after dinner and nap, and up again at the end of the work day. Before long, the neighbors began meeting him at the elevator asking for rides.”
Mr. Graves simply decided one day to stop taking the long, hard way to get home.
He decided a straight path would suit him much, much better.
Traditional piano lessons are the path around the bluff in the buggy. If you have the time (and the patience) you can get there.
The “Layer Method Of Piano” is like the Fenlon Elevator.
Straight to the top.
All the complicated, overwhelming, exhausting parts of traditional piano lessons are bypassed.
All it takes is a decision.
All aboard!!!!
Hop on the elevator here;
