Oh my

[kyburg]

Remember that piano I had in the garage? The one covered with 70's vintage avocado green paint, antiqued?

I took it to the refinisher with the dresser and highboy. Actually, Jim arranged for it to be moved over there -

The dresser and highboy came with us to the new house - the piano was put to the back burner. It's a huge piece, and was going to take some work to restore. Since we did not even know where we were going, leaving it with the refinisher was a good choice while we closed escrow and moved into the new house.

They began stripping it today. She called me from the refinisher and warned me that she might need us this weekend to come see it - that was Tuesday, I think.

She called me again today, all aglee - they had finished stripping the reader board - the first piece.

The piano is solid, quarter-sawn oak. Priceless. You can't buy one anymore, they don't make them. Quarter-sawn oak is exorbitantly wasteful, albeit gorgeous. You just can't get the wood anymore - it's too scarce.

She says it looks just like a tiger. Hence, the name tiger-stripe oak. I was told it was mahogany - this is okay. I like oak better.

Dad left it out in the rain.

Mom wanted me to drag it out to the dump.

Sis said I was wasting my money restoring it; by the time I finished, I could have just bought a new one.

Once the insides are restored, it will be playable.

I just wish I knew more of its history - I know it spent time in a honky-tonk bar - but it's nearly or just over 100 years old and was built in New York. Where it has been and the music that could have been played on it. Boggles the mind.

Soon, it will be home. And I'll be able to start playing again.

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Sounds beautiful and fabulous. Yay!

ok so call me a...

[ulesegisa.livejournal.com]

Re: ok so call me a...

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Oh, it gets better.

This piano was given to me by Cliff's mother - it was a legacy to her from her grandmother. They purchased it with the $100 settlement from her estate - someplace in Monrovia, I would think.

They put it in a corner all of the time the kids were growing up - had it tuned (they found a box of nails had been dropped down inside the sounding board to give it a more honky-tonk sound - hence, how we knew it had been in one), and while it never held the tune well, it was playable.

However, once Cliff was diagnosed with diabetes, Mom was too ill to learn to play and the children were never given lessons.

The fact that it is gorgeous and playable will be something it hasn't been in over 40 years.

I can't wait.

[asssssssssp.livejournal.com]

i so understand the joy of having faith in something everyone else sees as junk- in restoring it's beauty, discovering it's history and having it in my life to show the continuity of what life is all about - treasures!

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Thats wonderful, so glad you kept faith in the instrument and have been rewarded... so what will be the first thing you play on it?

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

That's going to be a trick. The last time I actually had sheet music to work from was when I was 13 - and everything was lost in a house fire that ended my piano playing career.

I have some of Elton John's stuff, and of course, I have the Barry Manilow playbook - but I doubt I'll be up to that!

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

"of course" you have Barry Manilow? As in you are a big fan of his, or that its the kind of unwanted thing that lingers even when the good stuff is lost? :>
Lots of free classical piano sheet music available online, not so much pop stuff though.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

I remember the last set of piano lessons I got (junior college, 1981) was from a Bartok book -

Would not mind a few links if you have some favorites -

But I really think I am going to need to pick up lessons again - I can do well with fingering within two octaves of middle C, but after that, finding the notes above and below the staves often sounds like some child sounding out words. There has to be a way to read that better than the way I've fudged out over the years.

Also, when and how to use the pedals was never explained to me.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Piano Passion has good links, and there's some good familiar stuff for free at virtualsheetmusic.com/ tho they want you to buy most things, as well as stuff at Sheet Music Archive.
I can sympathise with the reading thing, having played flute most of my life I never had to trouble with the bass clef, and even my harp only goes down to the G below middle C, so learning the whole of the rest of the lines and spaces for piano and for my music theory course was a tad challenging.. seems to be more a matter of practice (and scriblling little pencilled letters under the bars at times *ahem*)
Pedals I'm not too sure on either but various of the pieces I've tried playing of late have only been achievable with the pedal to sustain the played note giving me time to move my fingers and get the rest of them... Think I need to get Jo to give me more formal lessons at some point, instead of the usual hit and miss format of me wanting help with stuff!
Oh, you might have fun at Musicnotes, they have a nifty plug-in you can download and then have the music played on your puter with the notes hightlighted, lots of free samples of the first page or so of a whole host of things, handy to get an overview of the level of the music, their download versions are pretty cheap too.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Ah! I knew there was a reason I put a network connection in the kitchen/dining room!