I got a great gift from my nephew several years ago... a piano... a Yamaha piano to be exact. My sister gave it to her son when she didn't have room for it I guess. Her son, "Mick", gave it to me when he didn't want to haul it back to California from Georgia somewhere around 2005. He had finished his bachelor's degree at a private school in town while living with me. He said the piano was a gift for free room & board but knowing Mick? It was much more likely he was just too lazy to move the thing back home.
I know whereof I speak! Nephew Mick is not known for his sentimentality. When my mother gave him oil paintings done by his father - Mick didn't know what to do with them one day during a garage cleaning rampage - and he tossed them on the "take to dump" pile. My mom had held on to those paintings - some of them quite lovely - with great affection for many years. To say she was fried would be expressing it delicately... but I digress...
So I have this wonderful Yamaha piano that for several years sat in storage until I had a place of my own again. With all the moves, it's gotten a tad banged up. The cabinet could use a refinishing - but the sound is wonderful - when it's in tune which it isn't right now. The piano tuner will be back up next month and I'm hoping that with the advent of spring (and my humidifier) it will hold it's tune better this time. The strings stretch as "Peter Piano Tuner" told me they would after not having been tuned for so many years. But since the weather has been running from 0 to minus 30 with windchill - the house is dry and the heater running most of time. Not good for a piano's tone.
Nevertheless, I continue to attack the instrument with a steely determination to master it's mysteries. I've had maybe 4-5 months of piano lessons over the last year - and not being blessed with a patient nature - I decided I couldn't wait for 10 years to pass before I could read music (I may be dead and buried by that time) and therefore would get sheet music of a song I liked and learn to play it. It took a year of listening to the composer play the piece over and over and following the music but I know it by heart - if not exactly employing exemplary wrist position and fingering technique. The song is "Overcome" by pianist and composer David Nevue. Although it was scored at the passing of his father some years ago - it's title says something else to me. You can learn to do anything even at the age of 60. I'm now working on my next piece, again by David Nevue, "No More Tears". That is rather appropriate as well... I'm not sure why - but I can actually play a song on the piano not written for a 7 year old. I'm the Billy Joel of the old single church lady set - I can listen and with a bit of help from a score - play the piano... at least one song.
Now if I could just afford to replace my Canon DSLR that broke 2 years ago... I could be the Annie Leibowitz of the old single church lady set... How hard can it be to get the lighting just right?
