Frank & Camille’s

Camille Scheidemann

You sell new and pre-owned pianos. How do you help your customers find the right piano for them?

We sell new and pre-owned pianos, digital pianos and player pianos. We ask many questions about their musical requirements and their visual requirements. Whether they’re beginners or advanced. We do a lot of talking to be able to guide them to the right instrument to suit their requirements.

Many of our customers are beginners or parents of students learning to play. And a lot of our customers are upgrading from portable keyboards. We do many player piano installations. That’s usually an older clientele that wants the piano to play for them. Maybe their kids used to play for them and they want a piano to bring musical joy into the house again.

Has playing the piano always been a passion of yours? 

Yes, since I was five years old I’ve had the passion to play. My parents got me this little Emenee organ, and I started lessons at 10. I was hired at 10 and a half to work at the mall. I was the little girl playing at the mall and shoppers would come around and watch. I did that every weekend.

I was accepted to Juilliard Prep School when I was 12 but I decided I did not want to go because being a professional musician was not my passion. I love people and I love pianos and organs, but the business is really what I love. I love the business of meeting people and finding the proper instrument for them. I still get so much joy out of it after 48 years.

You don’t just sell pianos. You provide services like tuning, storage, rentals and appraisals. What is your favorite part of the business?

Finding the right instrument for the customer is my favorite part but I also really enjoy refurbishing pianos. Many people have pianos that they’ve had for 50 years. They don’t want another piano. They need their piano to be functional and look good. I don’t physically do the refurbishing, that’s not my job, but I get a thrill out of seeing an old piano come to life. That’s very rewarding.

What goes into the process of a piano restoration?  

Typically, the first part of it is getting the piano thoroughly cleaned – inside and out. We take the piano apart and clean all the parts you don’t see. We clean the residue and dust that collects over the years that prevents the piano from playing properly. Then we perform an action regulation which is respacing all 88 hammers and resurfacing them. We shave them. The third thing is to pitch raise and tune. We bring it to the standard A440 pitch. Those are three things we do to get an old piano to sound good and feel good again. We can also tend to the cabinet. Some people keep the old cabinet the way it is, and some people want a French polish or to stain in a different color and refresh the whole cabinet. That is if it doesn’t need parts. Those are refurbishings – when we don’t have to change anything. If we have a replace a part, that’s a restoration.

You sell and deliver pianos to families, schools, musicians and venues nationwide. How do you ensure the piano arrives in pristine condition?

We only use professional piano movers. They only move pianos. They don’t move furniture or other instruments – only pianos.

Do you have any favorite brands or models of pianos?

On the acoustic piano side, I prefer Baldwin. And I’m in favor of Casio and Korg digital pianos.

Digital pianos really have their place too. They’ve become so realistic, like an acoustic piano. And they give you a lot of options like headphones for silent playing. And you can change up the sounds to strings or orchestral sounds. They’re great.

You offer piano lessons. Tell us about your lessons.

We have several teachers who teach in the store. We have a whole group of teachers that meet at our store that we refer to. It’s the Association of Piano Teachers of Long Island (APTLI). We have a studio in the back of our showroom for lessons.

What are the health benefits of learning to play the piano?

They’ve had studies where they show for adults that it lowers blood pressure. And for children, there are a lot of benefits. It’s very helpful for hand-eye coordination, spatial reasoning, and concentration. Piano in particular, not just music in general, even helps children with test scores.

What advice do you give someone who wants to learn to play the piano?

Just enjoy it. Don’t feel like you have to practice every day – that’s not true. You can enjoy practicing whenever you can. It’s going to be a wonderful part of your life. It’s going to be a great journey.

For parents of children learning to play piano, I tell them that they don’t need to feel like everyone who plays the piano needs to be a concert pianist. They should be doing it just for their life skills to help them be well-rounded individuals. Children don’t need to practice every day and play for two hours. There are some that are serious and that’s great and they’ll do that on their own. The piano is for everyone. My advice is that everyone should take piano lessons but take it in stride and enjoy it. Sometimes my children wouldn’t practice at all during the week but they’d practice with the piano teacher, and that’s okay. It should be for rounding themselves out. It’s nice to play sports, play music, schooling and academics – it all goes into rounding out their personalities and their lives. The piano is something you can play your entire life by yourself – you don’t need a band, you don’t need an orchestra.

Notable figures who have bought pianos from Camille:

• Billy Joel
• Norah Jones
• Chevy Chase
• Regis Philbin

January, 2025