[PW] Re: Fire drill tune?

[JT Thompson]

Perhaps in modern times this is so, but in my childhood I attended a 
rambling old boarding school in the Irish midlands. While the music 
rooms were away in a wing of the school, and you could only hear a 
distant tinkling and squeaking from the piano and fiddle lessons 
there, if the upright piano in the Recreation Room was played, it 
resounded through the school. There were 160 children at school 
there, as far as I remember.

>As well as what Bill says, the idea of a fire drill being announced 
>by a school piano would only work in a one room school house where a 
>piano might possibly be heard but it would not be needed in this 
>type situation, as the teacher would simply tell the students to 
>leave. It would not work in other situations because of limited 
>noise penetration of the piano and for this reason, a bell or device 
>that could be heard throughout the school was required to ensure 
>that all would hear and comply.