Wishing you a Happy and Prosperous Year for 2011!

Christmas 2010

This Christmas I offered to lead a carolling party as a pianist.  

I had an opportunity to play an older piano called a Bluthner.  It's known as the accompanist's piano and has a gentle touch and lovely soft sound.  What a delight!  It was unlike any piano I have ever played and I hope to have a chance to play it again.

The piano I played looked a lot like this one, with beautifully carved legs and a cafe au lait wood tone.  Absolutely stunning to look at and to play!

The other piano I played this holiday was an upright Yamaha.  Not nearly as pleasureable to play as the Bluthner!  It had a more modern piano sound, clean and loud.  

This one I ended up performing on by default one day.  I arrived at the home where my grandmother is living, to accompany her to a gypsy swing ensemble performance.  Somehow that group did not arrive and so my grandmother (and others) were ready for entertainment and nothing was happening.  I offered to play Christmas carols.  One of the residents went to her suite and brought back several old carolling books and I sight-read through them.

The residents enjoyed my playing.

My baba LOVED my playing.

I wished I had been practising more the past couple of decades!

North Point's iBand

Yet another way to play piano!  and play in ensemble.  Wow.

Changing the strings on your piano is just more complex than changing the strings on your guitar

Today I found out that when you want new piano strings for your piano, they are custom made for YOUR piano.  Wow...


I had no idea.


I am used to stopping by the music store and picking up a set of guitar strings when I need them...or a set of violin strings or banjo strings.


There is a special computer program that calibrates the width of a string to 1/1000th of an inch.


Measurements are affected by what type of piano you have, how old it is, how long the strings are at present.  The piano is such a complex instrument with so many little bits and pieces.


I feel like someone who has always had a car but never looked under the hood.  The car needs special parts and they are special ordered.  It's exactly the same with a piano.

Moms have better imaginations than you think

I played piano for years beginning at about 3 years of age and as a teenager was still not a fluent player.  

Somehow between the ages of 12 and 18 my skill level and performance ability just blossomed.  My mother was incredibly insistent that I would learn and play music so I could have that as a life skill.  She just did not give up...and believe me...I fought her about this.  

She even had our piano teacher move into our house!  So I lived with my piano teacher for many years.  While this might seem remarkable to some of you...I am amazed we all lived with my mother!

I had many musical friends and I seemed to be less able than all of them at that time.  Most of those friends didn't play piano though.

They played easier instruments (well...to me they seem easier) like violin or viola or a wind instrument or a brass instrument.

With those instruments you read one melodic line of music and that's it. That's it!

With piano, you read two different clefs simultaneously.  So your brain has to remember two systems of dots and then each hand plays a different system (different notes) at once.  It's a harmonic and contrapuntal instrument.   So much more going on with piano.

More dots on the page to decipher and translate into something musical.   Not as challenging as the organ though!  Look at all the keyboards the organist has to play and think about...the organist even plays tunes with foot pedals.

In the end, my continued efforts took me far beyond what my friends or I might have imagined!

My mom had a better imagination than all of us in our short-sighted teen years! 

Test-driving your Piano

Imagine test-driving a 100 year old car...a 50 year old car...a 25 year old car...a 5 year old car...  

The older a car (and a piano) get the more there is to watch out for and to keep 'em running smoothly you need a good mechanic (in piano land they call the mechanic a "technician").

My husband is so great.  I am talking in circles right now about whether or not an old piano is really the right move and will there be surprise break-downs with an old piano and will I really be okay with the featherweight touch of an old piano...

He knows nothing about pianos and he's patiently listening...

He compares my quandry about whether or not a 100 year old piano is a good choice to his passion for BMW's and test-driving one.  Is it a good one?  The mechanic thinks it is.  If you're not sure after the mechanic tells you it's probably okay, what do you do?  


You test drive it again!


There are so many things that can go wrong with old cars and perhaps with old pianos. Generally, you don't keep a BMW for 50 years or more though.  


We DO keep pianos in our family for 50 years or more.  I can imagine this piano might outlive all of us...if it's a good one that is.

I have always told parents to choose a piano they like.  

If you like it you will be happy, I say.  

And they are.  

It's so much easier to give that advice.  I am trying to listen to that advice now.

But how do I know for sure???

I thought I found one I liked (it's more than 100 years old) and then I read up on 100 year old pianos on the internet...wow...if this really is a good piano, it will be a rarity.  Most piano tuners and technicians steer people away from pianos that old.  

My budget doesn't allow for a really good piano...so I'm looking for a piano I like.


I guess I'll take it for another test-drive.  I'll ask the piano shop guy if I can drive it by myself.

FREE Piano - says the ad

So I've begun my search for our piano.  I go to craigslist.  There are 3 upright pianos listed. Two are $200 and one is FREE.   I call them all.  The $200 ones are gone by morning.  The free piano is still available.

When I get to the free piano....I am surprised.  It doesn't look like I imagine it might...on the phone he said it wasn't a livingroom piano...it's a basement piano.

I imagine it looks like this!

  

But it doesn't. 

It looks more like this...but with more wear and tear, scratches and an unimpressive finish.

I like the free piano.

I play it and say I like it.  They tell me they were counselled to take it to the dump.  sigh...

Well, I think it's still playable.  Maybe not the greatest but...the dump???

It's been in their family since the early 1900's...it was the grandmother's piano and now all the grandkids have learned to play on it...obviously there is a sentimental attachment on their part...but why on mine???

They have a new piano given to them by an aunt...it's a Petrof upright...shiny black and modern "touch".

Beautiful tone.  Lovely case...a piece of living room furniture for sure.

I still like the old one though....which is funny for me because I usually have a gut reaction that steers me away from older uprights.  The keys feel loose and wiggly and the tone is unbalanced and too bright or too bassy or too something.  This old FREE piano feels kind of comfortable.

I say, don't take it to the dump.  I don't know if it's the right piano for our house but it's still playable and there has got to be a family somewhere that would love to have it...for FREE.

I go to Barkman's Pianos and talk to Glen about it.  He doesn't believe in taking pianos to the dump either....electric pianos maybe...but acoustic pianos....they can be saved.

The next day I leave a message....call Glen, I tell them.  He will keep your family piano out of the dump.

Finding the right piano

I am beginning the search for our piano.

I wonder how long it will take?  Days?  Weeks?  Months?  Years?

Now that I see the piano as a member of our family I have a feeling I may be more discriminating than I might otherwise have been.

   

I wonder if this search will be like looking for a mate?  

or an adoptive child? 

or a new friend?

Will there be many pianos I will be forced to discard for some reason?  

Wait for years to finally be bestowed a piano given up by another family? 

 Will I happen to meet the piano and find we resonate together and become like long lost friends?

Be Quiet!

"Be Quiet!"
"Not that again!"
"Couldn't you have picked the flute?"

If you heard that in your home you would not be inclined to practise piano much.   We never heard that in our home from an adult.  Siblings...yes.  Parents...no.

The sound of music being practised is a little like having kids running around your house all the time.  You have to be okay with noise and mistakes and a cacophony of sorts.  Of course, some kids are quiet practisers.  They focus and play their tunes and it's enjoyable to listen to.  It brings a smile to your face.

After many years of quiet, focussed work a budding pianist is likely to play something with more intensity to it.  Maybe a little Beethoven.

Beethoven: Sonata No. 8, Op. 13 in C minor. (1st Movement) Performed by legendary pianist, Claudio Arrau.

I remember as a teenager playing this Beethoven piano sonata and loving it.  My sister would hear the opening chords and groan, "No...not that one again."  She would get as far away from the music as she could get.  She didn't like the angry, full sound of it all.  

Lucky for me my mother knew I needed the emotional release available through the playing of music of this intensity. 

How many lessons does it take to become a pianist?

That's kind of like that philosophical question..."If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Is becoming a pianist a matter of lessons or a matter of attitude and effort?  Or just taking the action to press the keys?

Do you need the label to play?

Can you just play?  For fun?  For sound?  For release?  For yourself?

Are you a pianist if you play for yourself?

Maybe it's a matter of self-confidence and if you think you are then you are.

Maybe.

The Magic of the Black Keys

  


The History of "Amazing Grace":  Story told by Wintley Phipps.  
"Amazing Grace" sung by Wintley Phipps.        

He gives a memorable keyboard theory lesson.  Enjoy!

Happy Friday!                

Electric or Acoustic?

My husband and I have been talking about pianos.  I need one.  He's okay without one.  

This fall I realized I "needed" one in our home.  Having a piano or two at my music studio down the street is fine but my home just hasn't felt like a home without my piano.  I used to have a piano at home and two at the studio.  There have been changes in the last few years and now there are two pianos at the studio, one at my nephew's home and not one in our home.  I seemed to be coping well until this past fall. 

My wonderful husband lovingly suggested we will talk about pianos and come to some sort of consensus about having one.  He thinks we should get a digital/electronic piano.  It makes sense to him.  He didn't grow up with a piano in his house.  He grew up with books and art and conversation and philosophy and the magic of classical literature.

We live in a small house.  Having a piano would impact everyone who lives in the house because there isn't a separate room for the piano.  If it's electric then you can wear headphones when you play it and no one will hear you.  From his perspective that's perfect...what if he wants to watch soccer or hockey or football and I want to play piano at that time?  

I don't think this is a consensus issue.  I think it's a quality of life issue.  I suggested headphones for the TV and continue the rally for an acoustic piano.  

Acoustic pianos have vibrations that your entire body will absorb as you play.  I think hearing piano music in a family home is...well...awesome!  I grew up in a home where the piano was the focus and the TV lived in the basement with the spiders.  I'm okay with a piano taking over the sound space in a home.  I think it gives a home soul and love and spirit!

Now there is serious consideration for a move to a slightly bigger house with a separate room for a piano.  Until then...I'm writing a blog about the missing member of our family...the piano.

Piano in the Family

Is there a piano in your family?

Usually if there is a piano in your family someone will be taking piano lessons or have taken piano lessons and someone somewhere in the family will have questions, criticisms or comments of some kind about it all.
Perhaps this blog will...
- jog your memory
- elicit questions 
- explain something you've always wondered about
- give you peace of mind
- make you mad
- inspire you
If you are reading...let me know!