The Musical Conclusion – Or Perhaps I Should Say the New Beginning

When last I posted, I was getting ready to head home to Nova Scotia for the Holidays. Of course I was looking forward to visiting with family, but I was also kind of excited because I would finally get to meet my new piano!

We actually had a bit of a rough ferry crossing on the way over – it was very windy. Normally I am quite happy to sit and read for the 3 hour crossing but for the first time I found I couldn’t settle down to that. But, we arrived in one piece and hit the road for Greenwood.

We made a quick stop in Middleton at Husband’s family home, then continued on to my parent’s house for hugs and greetings and lunch and my first look at the Digital Piano. Or the box anyway.

There it is; the new piano, sitting right next to the old.

We had a lot of fun fitting that box into our little VW Rabbit for the trip home, let me tell you. I really should have taken a picture, but Husband was seeming a little cranky about the whole thing so I didn’t want to push my luck. It did fit, but let’s just say it was a very cozy car ride.

We came home on Sunday, Dec. 27, and my [NS] sister came over to Saint John the next day to spend New Year’s with us. Somehow we didn’t accomplish much during our visit, other than a lot of relaxing. I did make a start on clearing space and reorganizing things in the basement, but that was about it.

We dropped Sister off for the 9 am ferry yesterday. It was starting to snow a bit, so on the way home we made a stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things since the forecast was saying we were in for a lot of snow.

Then, finally, I got back to work on reorganizing the basement and Husband helped me to put the piano together. Actually, he did most of the putting together, I was mainly there to hold things.

The cats really enjoyed the box that the piano came in.

I really should have got video – Zappa was going nuts in there.

But, with all of our attention focused on the piano, Zappa did not waste any time checking it out either.

Frank did make a few appearances, but I didn’t manage to get him on camera.

Finally, it’s here, it’s all set up and ready to be played. Technically, you are not supposed to set anything on top of the piano (so says the instruction manual), but in an effort to keep the cats from jumping up on it (they are not exactly feather weights, my giant felines), I did set a few lighter things on top.

I have a collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia (my father and my father-in-law both give me collectibles when they come across something they think I will like) that used to sit on a shelf in the spot the piano is now occupying.  A lot of it is going to be packed away for the time being, but I picked a few things for guard duty. There is a set of Coca-Cola coasters (which I bought for myself), a polar bear (from father-in-law), a small bear (which I think came from my Sister) and a clock radio (from my Dad).

I have another polar bear that my Dad gave me years ago. He’s too big to fit on the piano, so he’s keeping the piano books company.

I have to say, after all of that, I did approach the actual playing of the piano with a certain amount of trepidation. It’s been years! I don’t really want to think how many…But I was pleasantly surprised/relieved. I had brought my piano books from home and sat down to give them a try. I am definitely rusty, but it’s not as bad as I thought it might be. People have been telling me that it will come back pretty quickly – Husband too and he’s never even really heard me play – and it looks like they were right. I had one good long session yesterday, but I was at the piano a total of 5 times from the time we had it all set up (around lunch time) to when I went to bed last night. I am having so much fun already!

And as it turns out, we did get a bit of snow…

When we had dropped Sister at the ferry terminal it was just starting, but the snow came down pretty heavy for most of the day.

I took these pictures early afternoon yesterday.

And then I took these this morning…

So far today it has been back and forth between rain and snow. I still have some work to do to get things tidied away in the basement and I’m thinking I’d like to get in some yoga;  exercise has been almost non-existent and I should start easing back into it.

And of course, the piano is calling to me. Tomorrow it’s back to work, but today there is still time to play!

Thinking Musical Thoughts - Part II

The I'm Thankful Edition

When I went searching for my first post about this, it was way further back than I thought. At the time, I intended to write a second post within a couple of days...But it didn't happen, and the more time went by, the more it seemed to make sense to wait for the idea that sparked the original post to come to fruition.

I'm not there yet, but thanks to my parents I'm a step closer.

The first post was a reminiscence about my growing up years, tinkering away on the family piano. I never had piano lessons, but I loved to play and managed to learn a bit on my own. It's something that I still miss doing.

What led me to post about it was receiving a letter in the mail from my Great Aunt; the letter included a cheque. My Great Aunt is in her late 80's, she is widowed and has no children. She had sold her house and sent a gift of money to each of her nieces and nephews. It came as quite a surprise, as I'm sure you can imagine. While I very much appreciated the thought behind it, it also made me sad; I guess because I saw it as a way of getting ready to say good-bye.

I was talking to my Mom about it, and she said I should use the money for something that I really wanted. Then she said I should use it to buy a piano. As soon as my Mom said that, I knew it was the right thing to do.

Of course, I have no idea how to go about buying a piano. I am easily daunted by this sort of thing. My usual solution is to say to Husband "I want to buy this" and he will get all research-y and tell me what my best options are. However, his reaction to "I want to buy a piano" was "We have nowhere to put a piano."

He did not know me in my piano playing days - once I moved away from home I didn't have access to one, and I'm sure I'm so rusty now I could barely pick out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Still, this took a bit of the wind out of my sails. As far as I was concerned, I would find space. But I also a bit lost about the whole thing. I didn't have enough money for a full size piano, nor enough space. Apartment sized pianos can have less than impressive sound, and I wasn't even sure if I had enough money for one of those. I was aware that there are electric pianos that sound pretty good, but again, on my own I felt a bit overwhelmed.

So, the money has been sitting in a savings account, waiting.

Saturday when I got home from shopping, Husband said my Mom had called. I wondered why she had called, since I knew she & my Dad were in Halifax for the weekend and she usually wouldn't call when they are away from home. She called back a short time later to tell me that they had seen a Digital Piano on sale at Costco and they thought I might be interested. By that time there were no longer at Costco, so she told me what she could remember about it and said I could think it over.

I got off the phone and told Husband and he said "Where are we going to put a piano?" Seriously, the man has got to get a new line.

I went to the computer and Googled the brand so I could check the dimensions. I then got the tape measure and measured the wall where I thought it would fit. Then I told Husband. "Well you're going to have to move stuff." Okay, he got a new line and it's not much better.

Yes, I will move stuff. It is worth it to me to rearrange things. Just like it was worth it to him to get a TV that I think is too big for our living room.

Anyway, that is not the point of this post. I am not here to grouse and complain about my husband's lack of enthusiasm. I am here because I am so thankful.

I talked to my Mom again and said to go for it. She said if it turns out I don't like it, we should be able to return it, so really we've got nothing to lose. Then she said she was excited. I was excited too.

I was going to wait until I actually got the piano, to post about this, just in case I end up not keeping it for some reason (I have this deeply ingrained tendency to expect things to go wrong). But I felt like this deserved a post of its own. Because I truly am so grateful for my family.

I am grateful to my Great Aunt for thinking of me, for making this possible.

I am grateful to my parents for thinking of me and knowing me so well - almost better than I know myself it would seem. I was almost in tears when I got off the phone, I think I just felt so overwhelmed. It's good to have people who will always take care of you - even when you don't realize you need taking care of.

I'll be paying my parents back, from the money sent to me by my Great Aunt, so technically I'm buying the piano for myself. But it feels like a gift.

Thinking Musical Thoughts, Part I

I grew up in a house with a piano, and a Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma had been a teacher for many years and she was great fun. She spent lots of time with us and we would cut and paste paper, paint and color and have all kinds of crafty fun. Every now and then I get the urge to sit down and cut out paper snowflakes and remember those time with my Grandma.

I don't know how old the piano was, but I don't remember a time when it was not there, when it did not look old, and come to think of it, I think it even had a bit of an aged smell to it. We lived in an old farm house, a two generation home that had been passed down through the family. I honestly don't know if the piano was already there in the house when my Grandma married my Grandpa, or whether she brought it with her, but I do know that she used to play.

I loved the piano. I am told that at a very young age, I started picking out tunes on it on my own. So my Grandma taught me a few more.

Then Auntie A, my very favorite aunt, decided she wanted to learn the piano. At first she would come up and use ours to practice, and she had a book of children's songs designed to teach piano playing. They started out simple and got more difficult and she let me use it to learn to read music and to practice playing. Then she got her own piano to practice on at home. Being the kind aunt that she is, she copied all of the songs into one of those music exercise notebooks for me, so that I could keep practicing.

I never did have lessons, but I loved to play and did the best I could, teaching myself. Over the years, Auntie A photocopied other music for me. It's all still at my parents house, where the piano is. Unfortunately, the piano is out of tune now - there is no one left at home who plays, and the old gentleman that my mother used to have in to tune it has passed on. The last time I had tried to play it, on a visit home, it was so badly out of tune that I gave up.

Something happened recently that has me thinking about buying a piano. And today, as my mind was wandering, in the strange and rambling way that it does, I thought of those painstakingly copied children's tunes that my aunt had given me. It's not that I didn't appreciate it at the time - I was very happy to receive that notebook and I used it for a long time. But it occurred to me today how much work that must have been; I'm sure I didn't realize it at the time, but it must have taken Auntie A a good amount of time to do all that copying, so neatly and so carefully done. I suddenly had the urge to sit down and write a thank-you letter to my aunt, 30 years after the fact.

Would that be strange? Auntie A has certainly done many kind things for me over the years, and I hope that I have always remembered to be appreciative. But that really meant a lot to me, and it still does. Heck, give how long it has been since I've touched a piano, I would probably need that little notebook to start over again!