The Evolution of the Petersen Music Stand
It all started at a gig when a few of us had another bad experience with a wire music stand. Sure, buying the stand didn't break one's bank account, but it was gangly-looking and unreliable. Putting heavy books and scores on the stand made all us musicians nervous, when what we really needed to focus on was our performance. Music's challenging enough, right?
We all loved to play with the sturdier, solid black metal stand (available at some gigs), but if we wanted to carry one with us, not only would we have to pay extra bus fare for this companion, but getting one into a friend's car trunk might damage upholstery, the stand AND our friendship!
We were frustrated, yet again. Why, after all our years invested in music education, wasn't the market supplying us with a quality, portable music stand? Why was there only one choice? Why, after spending $500 on a trumpet or, for some players, more than $10,000 on a violin, did we have only a $10 option for a portable music stand? Why did the principal violinist have the same choice as the beginning student?
Well, seven years later we have our answer: many companies have spent years trying, but it's so difficult to combine stability, portability and affordability that these companies simply gave up.
But, as in music itself, we knew that practice makes perfect. And so we kept "practicing" and persisting in our efforts to design and build the world's next music stand - a stand that combines the best features of the existing portable design with the best features of the black concert stand design.
What we thought would take us about 10-12 months has taken us seven years! We enlisted the help of fellow musicians, music educators and industrial designers. We spent hours in focus group sessions identifying the problems with current music stand design and asking musicians what they really wanted.
We drafted countless ideas, analyzed computer-generated drawings, fabricated hundreds of models and spent thousands of hours in evaluation sessions.
After all our efforts, we think we finally have it. We call it the Petersen Music Stand. We hope you like it.