This week I found my 36th decorated piano (http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=87ZA3GHcD9Y ) at the White River
Junction VA canteen—July 1—played a little ditty for a few Veterans having
their coffee. It made me think of my own piano and my own Veteran Dad.
My piano came from my grandmother when I was in the 8th
grade. My grandmother was the conservator of an old lady’s estate (and I
thought my grandmother was an old lady!) When the older woman passed away, my
grandmother received the piano. She sold it to me for $150 dollars. I paid her over
many months with my babysitting money. The piano was part of my bedroom
furniture like a desk would be in another kid’s room. I would spend hours of my free time picking
out tunes and trying to sight read sheet music from whichever musical score of
the day was popular. I had had lessons for a year when I was five years old and
I could read music a little but I learned more by copying others, mostly my mother.
Without sheet music, my mother taught me
Stardust and Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C sharp minor. Unfortunately, I can only recall the first
few bars of most songs. My dad (with high tone deafness and tinnitus from his
exposures to blasts in the Korean War) preferred what he called “rinky dink”
music like The Entertainer. (As explanation, I refer you
to another blog of a much better piano player:
http://spitzfire.com/ragtime-wtf/
)
My piano is a Wurlitzer spinet and it has made it from San
Diego, CA to So China, ME intact (although needing more frequent tunings due to
the humid New England summers.)
Seeing all the pretty pianos re-used for the good of the
many (and having total strangers approve of my blathering on the ivories) makes
me want to practice again and get good enough to go out at a Veteran’s canteen
or Community Center and regale the older crowd.
Most of my repertoire is older than my age mates (under the tutelage of
my mother and grandmother….) and we could all use a little more magic of music .
