THE
STORY OF THE POLY-PAD
It was a hot and muggy
day in July 1990. Having just
taken inventory of the instruments and accessories used in the string methods
class I had been teaching for more than a decade at the University of Kansas, I
was reminded of our shortage of adequate shoulder rests for the violins and
violas. I was about to put in a
request for more shoulder rests when it occurred to me that I had never much cared for what we
had been using. In fact, I wasn't
really happy with any shoulder rest I had ever used.
In a moment of
inspiration (or was it desperation?) I decided to see what it would take to
make a truly comfortable shoulder pad.
To begin with, what shape should it be? I found a piece of foam rubber, took out a pair of scissors,
and began snipping away, setting the foam piece on my shoulder from time to
time to see how it felt.
Eventually I found a shape that seemed to fit comfortably, but the piece
of foam was too large to be practical.
I cut it down to something closer to the dimensions of a typical
shoulder rest, and it still felt surprisingly comfortable. Thus, on July 22, 1990, was born the first poly-pad.
While cutting out a few
more pads of similar shape, I noticed that the design was really quite simple
– so simple, in fact, that I couldn't understand why shoulder rests were
not already made this way. Why not
have something that simply follows the slope and curve of a human shoulder?
I made the first pads
using creamy white foam padding, a kind used for seat cushions. While the shape felt right, the
material was too squishy to offer adequate support. I managed to find a company that sold foam products of various
densities. I chose a charcoal grey
polyurethane foam that worked well, and I still use a similar product. I now also offer a blue foam of slightly
greater density for those who want a firmer shoulder pad, as well as pink pads in sizes M and smaller.
As the pads were now made
from polyurethane foam, I decided to call this thing I had created the
POLY-PAD.
So far I had been cutting
poly-pads freehand – hazardous, slow, and inconsistent. To make my work easier and safer, I
designed and built a simple but effective pad-cutting jig. With this device I've been able to make
tens of thousands of poly-pads over the course of over twenty years.
As soon as I began using
the poly-pad on my viola, I noticed that my shoulder, neck, and back discomfort
previously associated with viola playing began to go away. I told some of my string-playing
acquaintances about this. Some of
them also began using the poly-pad, with similar results.
After a period of time using
the poly-pad and enjoying "secure, comfortable support with a shoulder pad you almost
don't feel," I discovered that I could now play fairly well even without a shoulder rest.
In fact, I found that I was more comfortable
with no shoulder rest than with any commercially available shoulder rest.
For my string class, the
poly-pad proved to be much more than a mere replacement for the shoulder rests
we had been using. To my surprise
and delight, the poly-pad made these novice players feel immediately
at ease with their instruments – no more of the usual complaints ("it
hurts!"). What's more, the
poly-pad enabled the students to learn almost instantly how to hold the instrument
correctly, and most of the usual posture problems simply no longer existed!
I began sending poly-pads
to colleagues in various parts of the country to try. Their reaction was encouragingly positive, and sometimes
quite enthusiastic. Word began to
spread, and in April 1993 I began selling these oddly-shaped pieces of polyfoam
for $5 apiece. Sales began slowly;
that first year I sold 72 poly-pads to players in 10 states and Canada. I could not have envisioned that within
four years the number sold would increase tenfold and continue to grow.
In early 1998 a viola
student of mine came to her lesson one day and announced that she had set up a
website for me at tripod.com. She
told me the web address, username and password so I could add to the site. I had absolutely no experience with
website maintenance, but I gradually learned enough to edit and add my own text
and pictures. Now people
world-wide could learn about the poly-pad! As I also compose, I began publicizing my music on this
website. And as I have an
irrepressible (and quirky) sense of humor, I couldn't resist adding a bio about
a mythical ancestor, violist/composer Ludwig Wolfgang von Kimber.
In 1999 poly-pad sales
quadrupled from the previous year, with sales in 29 states and six foreign
countries. In addition to selling
to individual players and teachers, I was now selling large quantities to
school string programs as well. By
2007 poly-pads had been purchased in all 50 states, DC, and 20 foreign
countries.
For a few years I made
and sold only the large size poly-pad.
It was a British customer who asked whether I could make a smaller
size. This request resulted in the
medium size. When I later began
making small and extra small sizes, too, Suzuki teachers began spreading the
word among themselves. As more and
more teachers, studios, and school string programs began wanting poly-pads for
their students, local music dealers began to stock them.
I began getting requests
for an even higher poly-pad for tall players with long necks. I added extra-large to the list of
sizes, but with a cautionary note that anyone thinking they need a higher
shoulder rest ought first to consider a higher chin rest.
The newest size poly-pad,
created in 2008, is the lily-pad, inspired by a teacher named Lily who wanted pads
for her very tiniest violin students.
Apart from the addition
of more sizes, the poly-pad remained essentially unchanged for twenty years. From time to time I responded to requests
for pads varying slightly from the original design. In the summer of 2010, shortly before the poly-pad's 20th
anniversary, I decided to consider introducing a slight design modification that
I myself had been using for some time.
I sent samples to a number of long-time poly-pad users, requesting their feedback.
The amount of enthusiastic response
persuaded me to begin offering this new "streamlined" poly-pad to the world.
As a violist and composer I sometimes feel odd that I'm known mostly as the "inventor" of the poly-pad. Then I remember that one of my childhood dreams was to invent something that would be useful to many people; I just had no idea what that invention might be!