We got a piano! It’s been my lifelong dream to learn to play piano, but my nomadic lifestyle has never allowed me to get one, and keyboards, well, even the nicest ones, are not the same.
My grandmother was classically trained, and so was a good friend of my mom’s. As a kid they taught me a few dittys, but mainly I was always amazed watching them play those classical piano compositions. They would play all over the keyboard, crossing their hands, making music that seemed impossible to create with just two hands.
Over the years I’ve played pianos every chance I had. For a whole summer I worked moving pianos for the Aspen Music Festival. We moved over 180 pianos, each one twice, once to take it to its classroom, or professor or visiting musician’s home, and then at the end of the festival to pick them up and load them back on the 18 wheelers to send them back to the store until the next year.
That summer I spent a lot of time with pianos, from student uprights to concert grands, and my love for those monster-sized instruments just grew. Every time I sit at a piano, I wish I had taken years of lessons. Even without them, over the years I’ve learned a few things here and there. I can play some simple songs, and play some simple rhythms and such, enough that I could probably fake my way in a band context. An ex-girlfriend of mine who didn’t really know how to play the piano, used to fake her way to free dinners at restaurants that had a piano by improvising on the black keys. Everyone loved it and the restaurant would always give her a free meal. I can play that way too. But I don’t want to play piano in a band, and I don’t want to fake my way to free dinners. What I’d like is to be able to take the score of a Chopin mazurka or a Rachmaninoff prelude and sit on the piano and play it. And yes, I know that’s going to be a tough one. For now, however, I’d settle for making a piano sing. That would make me happy.
So now we are “settled” in North Carolina. We own a business, have a child, and we love the town we live in. And we live in a house where a piano can breathe. And I was told people were giving them away on craigslist if one would just go take it out of their house. So, thinking it’s now or never, I started looking for a piano. I looked for a couple of weeks, and although there were several pianos listed on craigslist, they all would say “needs work” and if they had a picture, the picture wouldn’t really give you much of a clue as to what “needs work” meant.
I was considering the difficulty of being able to go examine a free piano and then have to come back with a crew to move it or just politely say, no thanks. And the main problem is that I don’t know enough about pianos to be able to fully assess the condition of one if it’s not something obvious. So I got in touch with our friend Alex. Alex is one of the best piano players I know. I’ve seen and heard him play by himself and with others, many times, blues, ragtime, jazz, country, classical, you name it. I’ve played with him on a couple of occasions and he just recently recorded some piano parts for the New Town Drunks record. So when it comes to me needing a piano opinion I go to him. I was thinking maybe he’d go with me to take a look at some of these free pianos to see if they were at all worth the effort. But when i told him I was looking for a piano, he beamed and said, I have a piano I can give you.
He had recently broken up with his girlfriend, and his childhood piano was in her house, and she wanted it out. We live in a small town but I was still surprised to find out that not only had this been his childhood piano, but it had also been his girlfriend’s sister’s childhood piano. So there were a lot of lessons that had been given on this piano. He told us if we wanted it and could go get it, it was ours. And now it would be my daughter’s childhood piano.
Within a couple of days I got together a couple of friends and we went and got the piano. It was an easy move even without all the proper piano-moving tools. It’s a beautiful Lester spinet piano from the 50s, and in great condition. And it sounds so beautiful in our big room! Here’s the piano, where it sits now, though it will soon be moved to an inside wall for its final location. 
I’m just as happy as can be. Thank you Alex!
Now I have to go find those music scores and get to work. I guess the yo-yo tricks will have to wait.
hey, my boy just started piano lessons and I am amazed by the book. It is awesome! this is for 5 year olds, so I think 2 year olds are a little out of the question at this point, but soon! Definitely look into it. It makes the whole thing fun and gives them the OK to go ahead and touch every key in the first lesson on the first go, if they want. And it comes with a CD that they play along with. I’ll send the name of it later, but it sure beats ‘Three Blind Mice’ when I learned.
After a week and a half, Abe is playing a little song by heart almost every time he walks by the piano.
What a cutie. Jealous too, I’d love to have a piano in the house.
I took piano lessons as a small child. So did most of my cousins. It was a chore that took away from our play time.
wow. That must be really great Anaconda. I was dropping Electra off at daycare when she was 3 (still three now, but soon t o be four) and the “teacher” asked her to play the piano while I filled out some paperwork. I was rushing through it, and not paying too much attention to her– until I realized that she was playing a song I actually recognized.
My kid was playing London Bridge and I wouldn’t have known it at all if I hadn’t been there a little longer than usual for her drop off. There were about 15 kids in her group and they had just started teaching the piano to them two weeks prior. I was really amazed.
Kids should be given more credit, and more tools to be creative because god knows that when they need to express themselves.. we all need as many positive avenues for them as is possible.
beautiful kid. Cool piano.
My First Piano Adventure by anancy and Randall Faber is the name of the books. About $10.
Cute story uns. And thanks for the book rec stacey.
W, you should out craigslist.