Welcome New Piano!

 Yesterday afternoon, we welcomed a new instrument into our household of many instruments:  a piano!  Our friends were moving and needed to find it a new home.  They had gotten the piano from another mutual friend who was moving across the U.S. and couldn't take it with him.

I have wanted a piano for a long time.  When my grandmother moved into an assisted living facility, I wanted to bring her upright piano down to me, but it didn't work out that time.  When my mother-in-law lay dying, I got a Casio keyboard, but that wasn't exactly what I wanted--I could never get it to sound like a piano.  I never found a stand for it, so to practice on it, often I leaned over a coffee table.

I like a piano for many reasons--it stays set up, so practicing here and there should be easy.  It's not like they keyboard where I'd need to pull it down, dust it off, plug it in.  I'm hoping that I'll practice the piano even if I only have 10 minutes.

It's a smallish piano, an upright that's not as tall as most uprights.  It doesn't take up nearly as much room as I expected that it would.  I need to talk to my musician friends to get a reference for a piano tuner, but even out of tune, it's got a good tone.

I hope that having a piano that's in tune will make it easier to tune our other instruments, particularly the mandolin.  My spouse has several digital tuners, but I don't find them very easy.

But most of all, I want to play again.  I took several years of lessons as a child, so I can read music.  I can play the right hand easily, less so the left, and putting both hands together is a challenge--but a fun challenge.

I love the idea that I'll be challenging my brain in a way that's more fun for me than Sudoko or learning a foreign language (although I do want to learn a foreign language).  I love the idea that I'm getting in touch with something my younger self knew how to do.

It's a bit battered, but I find that to be part of its charm.  Much of our furniture has history, so it fits right in.

Welcome new piano!  I am so glad you've found your way to us.