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.