Our Piano

One of my favorite childhood memories- like way up there in the top 5, is listening to my mother play the piano as I lie (lay?) in bed at night. This was not an every night thing. Maybe a once a month or 2 months thing, and I don't remember it much at all in my teenage years. At the time I was even aware of how much I loved it. I remember knowing then that I would cherish the memory my whole life. It's the type of memory that when I'm a very old lady and can't remember where I am or who the people around me are, I'll babble about my mom playing old rag-time songs, hitting lots of clunkers, and filling our house up with a feeling of comfort and love.

Since back in the 80's people just generally didn't take pictures on a daily basis like now, (afraid to miss their child's first hiccup or almost feeling like it didn't happen unless they get some social media feedback of the event) (#imguiltytoo), I couldn't really find a picture of our old piano. This is as good as I could get.  Me looking on top for an Easter egg circa 1984.

Oh boy and does that painting of the trolley in front of the Golden Gate Bridge give me flashbacks to the past!


Sadly, I never learned to play. My mom tried to give me lessons for a short while, but when I started to push back at all, she caved quickly. Apparently with 5 kids, 3 younger than me, it just wasn't worth the fight. I do regret that. I wish I could fill our home and some little hearts at night with "Tootsie" and "Ragtime Gal" like my mom did.

But fast forward to my own kids. Holly's been taking lessons for over a year now using my sister's keyboard, and Sadie will start lessons probably this year. And as of now, I'm not planning to make lessons an option for the little two. Just- "Your taking lessons! Yay!"

Anyway, once we got our tax return this year it was top priority to get a piano. This ended up being a big process because never playing myself, I had no idea what to look for or really what I wanted.

This is one of Holly's last times playing on the keyboard.
 

When my mom came out recently, she got to play some of her songs for her. Practice is much more fun with an audience :) And mom was able to help her fix a few things she was playing wrong. Sad to say, I really can't help her anymore. I'm glad I'll have Holly to give Sadie some help later on.


Originally I was planning to buy a new piano. But once we looked at prices and all the tons of pianos on Craigslist my mindset began to change. New pianos are basically made in China now along with everything else in the world. And as I started to learn about pianos, and all the different styles through the last 100 years, I liked that every piano has a story with it. We also realized that lots of piano stores selling used pianos were painting them. So to make an even longer story a little shorter, we looked on Craigslist for a great deal and a shape we liked, took it to a company that paints pianos, and had them tune it and make it purdy. We are so happy with it. We got the piano from a guy for $50! It hadn't been tuned for over 10 years and it needed some TLC but it's going to get plenty of love now. It makes my heart (and sometimes my mouth) sing when Holly plays it :)

I love having piano music fill my home again.