The piano guy was here yesterday; he spent about 90 minutes, taking the piano apart and seeing where we stand. He's coming back at the beginning of November for the first tuning. He's thinking it will take three tunings to get it back to where it should be. All of the keys work, just not when they should. 
Two keys are a little "funky" and he may have to do some work on them.
We're not sure where we stand on the dampers yet. Dampers stop the key from "echoing" after you stop hitting the key. My keys echo quite a bit; he said it all depends on how crazy the echoing makes me. Replacing dampers will be a little on the expensive side, about $600 or so. The tunings will run between $250 and $400, depending on how things go. To get it into concert performance will run on the higher side; to get it to where I can just play will be lower. But overall, things are not as bad as I thought they would be, especially for a 50-year old piano that spent most of its life in a house with a wood-burning stove.
I've been playing again. I can still read the music and I know the songs. It's just trying to get the right hand to play in sync with the left! Not easy!
I can play my right hand, I can play my left hand.....putting it all together? Not so much!
Does anybody remember the old red Thompson piano lesson books? That's what I started out with back in 1959, starting with Teaching Little Fingers to Play and then going from the First Grade books to the Fifth Grade. I still have the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grade books, but lost the First and Second, so ordered them from Amazon. I still have Your Favorite Solos book (orange cover), but lost Your Favorite Solos for the Advanced Pianist (green cover) and I can't find that one....it's sold out at Amazon. I'll keep looking, but I'm a long way from that book anyway at this point.
I doubt the piano will really be ready for serious playing much before the beginning of the year. This guy is super busy and I think he fit me in as a favor to Rick, more than anything. He and Rick went to school together and they think highly of each other. But I can still play around with it and see where it takes me.
There was an article in the AARP magazine about pianos, which reiterated what Tom and I talked about yesterday. Basically back in "the day" it was proper to have a piano in the house and children took piano lessons. It's just the way it was. And then with the next generation, people got busy with other things, and kids didn't want lessons and parents didn't really care. Now, there's a glut of really nice pianos out there that people don't know what to do with. Older folks are going into nursing homes or downsizing and nobody wants the piano. People think they might be worth something and they're really surprised when they can't even give them away.
We talked about whether I should invest in the piano I have or buy a good used one. Tom said that, til I found a place for the one I have now and got rid of it and then bought a different one and got it into the house, using professional movers, who know how to move a piano, I'd be just as far ahead to keep the one I have. Which is fine with me.
So, while I'll never be a concert pianist and I'll never be able to play Billy Joel's Root Beer Rag, I'm going to have some fun along the way and maybe I can, at least, get back to where I was. I'm excited to start!
ETA: The kids are not amused when I sit down to play. The first time I played, The Beast started howling!
(I like to tell myself that she was singing along with the music, but I don't really believe that.) The cats took off for the bedroom, but then they came out and sat around with their ears flattened down. At least Jackie has stopped howling and the cats don't run for cover anymore. But they're not amused by any of it.
Two keys are a little "funky" and he may have to do some work on them.We're not sure where we stand on the dampers yet. Dampers stop the key from "echoing" after you stop hitting the key. My keys echo quite a bit; he said it all depends on how crazy the echoing makes me. Replacing dampers will be a little on the expensive side, about $600 or so. The tunings will run between $250 and $400, depending on how things go. To get it into concert performance will run on the higher side; to get it to where I can just play will be lower. But overall, things are not as bad as I thought they would be, especially for a 50-year old piano that spent most of its life in a house with a wood-burning stove.
I've been playing again. I can still read the music and I know the songs. It's just trying to get the right hand to play in sync with the left! Not easy!
I can play my right hand, I can play my left hand.....putting it all together? Not so much!Does anybody remember the old red Thompson piano lesson books? That's what I started out with back in 1959, starting with Teaching Little Fingers to Play and then going from the First Grade books to the Fifth Grade. I still have the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grade books, but lost the First and Second, so ordered them from Amazon. I still have Your Favorite Solos book (orange cover), but lost Your Favorite Solos for the Advanced Pianist (green cover) and I can't find that one....it's sold out at Amazon. I'll keep looking, but I'm a long way from that book anyway at this point.
I doubt the piano will really be ready for serious playing much before the beginning of the year. This guy is super busy and I think he fit me in as a favor to Rick, more than anything. He and Rick went to school together and they think highly of each other. But I can still play around with it and see where it takes me.
There was an article in the AARP magazine about pianos, which reiterated what Tom and I talked about yesterday. Basically back in "the day" it was proper to have a piano in the house and children took piano lessons. It's just the way it was. And then with the next generation, people got busy with other things, and kids didn't want lessons and parents didn't really care. Now, there's a glut of really nice pianos out there that people don't know what to do with. Older folks are going into nursing homes or downsizing and nobody wants the piano. People think they might be worth something and they're really surprised when they can't even give them away.
We talked about whether I should invest in the piano I have or buy a good used one. Tom said that, til I found a place for the one I have now and got rid of it and then bought a different one and got it into the house, using professional movers, who know how to move a piano, I'd be just as far ahead to keep the one I have. Which is fine with me.
So, while I'll never be a concert pianist and I'll never be able to play Billy Joel's Root Beer Rag, I'm going to have some fun along the way and maybe I can, at least, get back to where I was. I'm excited to start!
ETA: The kids are not amused when I sit down to play. The first time I played, The Beast started howling!
(I like to tell myself that she was singing along with the music, but I don't really believe that.) The cats took off for the bedroom, but then they came out and sat around with their ears flattened down. At least Jackie has stopped howling and the cats don't run for cover anymore. But they're not amused by any of it.
