I Like To Play (Pianos)

I shared in a previous blog about a beautiful angel named Mrs. Pearl Kelly who saw I was a latchkey kid and loved to teach piano. So she asked my parents if she could teach me -- I believe I was about 8 years old or maybe a bit closer to 9 years old, but either way she got permission to teach me to play piano. I don't remember how many days a week she taught me. It may have been 4 days per week after school. The only time she probably didn't teach me was on Fridays, as like our family, she also was a Seventh Day Adventist and observed the Friday sundown to Saturday sundown Sabbath. I owe her for my exposure to music and playing an instrument. Although, I learned to also play guitar, the piano has always been my favorite instrument to play as I am able to easily play and sing at the same time.

After she taught me to play piano, my Mom acquired an old antique piano from who I believe may have been one of my cousins. It was very old and slightly out of tune on the very low and very high notes. So the notes I usually played on were pretty tuned. I used to have fun with that piano. I discovered if I put thumb tacks on the hammers, when I played it, it would sound like a harpsichord. It wasn't the prettiest of pianos, so my Mom got a great idea -- she loved to paint and antique everything in our house. So she painted the piano black and avocado green and then put gold antiquing all over it. It looked pretty retro after that renovation. When we moved from that house in 1975, the piano did not move with us. So for quite awhile, I didn't play as much on the piano as I did the guitar.

Because I was into music and would quite often choose electives that had to do with music, it seemed I always had access to a piano to periodically play. As I shared before, I had a boyfriend my senior year who showed me how to play improvised piano -- to this day I can play most any song using his method.

When I was on my own, with my second husband, he bought me a used piano. When we divorced, he kept the piano. So at some point, I ended up trading a guitar for a Casio Electric Piano. You know playing a traditional upright piano vs. a Casio Electric piano is definitely not the same. On a traditional upright piano as you hit the keys, you can play soft or harder depending on how you are feeling the music, with a digital keyboard it's all one tone. The advantage of digital pianos is that you can definitely have different tones verses the one traditional piano sound. Today I heard a comparison of the differences in piano quality to a regular telephone vs. a cellular one. You get a call on your Landline and you can hear the voice clearly vs. the cellular one that sometimes gives you horrible reception.

In 1994, I was working in my district job where I was able to finance a beautiful brand new Yamaha piano -- it was a Yamaha P2 piano -- it was small, but it sure sounded pure and beautiful to play. I loved that piano and played it all the time. Well once again, during one of my divorces in 1997, I came up short with a payment for one month to pay for actually the final payment to my piano. I could not pull together enough funds and they were not willing to negotiate with me. They said I signed a contract and if I didn't pay it by a certain date, they would have to repossess the piano. I told them, even if it is my last payment? They said that is according to the contract I signed. And because at that point in my life I had too much pride to borrow any money, they did as promised and carted off my beautiful piano even though I only owed a little over $380.00 on it. I had already paid thousands of dollars in payments toward it. It was a very sad day for me. After they removed it, a friend of mine who later became my husband asked me where my piano was. I told him what happened. He told me after it was gone that he would have paid that last payment for me. It was too late and during that time, I was obviously being irresponsible when it came to handling my budget. See piano below:

Also in a previous blog, I talked about a 100 year old piano that I had acquired for free from the district I worked for and played that for several years. Then when I moved to Washington gave it to my BFF. In Washington, I bought a used upright piano that desperately needed tuning. Playing an untuned piano is not the most relaxing thing to do. So that pretty much became a piece of furniture, until when we moved from Washington, I gave it free to someone on marketplace. When I moved to Los Banos, I again bought an upright piano for $400 plus paying a mover to pick it up and deliver. Again, another untuned piano, but I would play that one a little more often because it wasn't horribly out of tune. Soon, I busied myself with other things and that piano also became another piece of furniture. Until one day, a girlfriend of mine had a granddaughter that wanted to take piano lessons, but needed a used piano. I told her she could have mine for free, but that it needed tuning. She picked it up and had it tuned and it worked out perfect for her granddaughter to learn on.

I ended up purchasing a Yamaha digital piano with weighted keys from Guitar Center. That appeased my need for playing a piano for a couple years. Then I heard my little grandson playing it by ear. He could really play and he was enjoying playing it, so being the grandma that I am, I told my daughter to go ahead and take it home and keep it for him so he can learn to play while he was at home. He still has the piano and has become quite proficient in playing songs on it. 

When I relocated to the Bay Area to be near my companion, I ended up purchasing another electric piano using my Rewards from a credit card. I think it only cost me about $350 -- so you can imagine the high quality tunes that came out of that instrument. My companion recently started asking me to play that piano while he is doing his physical therapy exercises on his stationary bicycle. He likes to hear me sing and play the piano. We were talking about how pure my playing could sound on a traditional upright piano. I told him how different the sound quality is, so he told me to look around for a piano I might like.

I looked on Marketplace on Facebook and people are practically giving pianos away. I found several Yamaha pianos that were available, but then we thought about having to go somewhere we don't know and then once we decide, how do we pay them and then we would have the responsibility for moving it by hiring a piano moving company. After all was said and done, I found that there was a Music Exchange in San Francisco where they sell new and used pianos. They also deliver for far less than what hiring a piano mover would cost us. So today, my life was changed and my companion bought me a brand new Yamaha B2 Upright Traditional Piano -- we decided on this particular piano because they were having an anniversary sale and it ended up being only $1400 above a used one I was looking to get. Because it is new, it came with a 10 year warranty and all the extras. It will be delivered to me on Tuesday. See new piano below:

When I sat down to play it, my eyes welled up as I heard its deep tones and how perfectly tuned it was to play. Even my companion noticed a significant difference. I can't even begin to tell you what an amazing gift this is to me -- I told him, you don't have to buy me a Christmas gift this year. Our sales representative told me, if you like this piano come over here with me. He had me play on a $160,000+ grand piano. Oh my goodness, the quality of that piano was unbelievable. As I pressed its keys, I couldn't help but think -- if this is their best and the sound coming from it was so amazingly beautiful, what will heaven's instruments be like? I can tell you, the piano that will be delivered on Tuesday will be just as amazing to play and I've waited a long time to have another quality piano to play on. I know that God is using my companion to bless me beyond what I deserve. I tell him all the time how God is using him to bless me, not only with tangible things, but with everything in my life. I've never had someone who was so selfless, loving and generous to me. He told me that he felt the same way about me being a blessing to him and how I have changed his life for the better.

I can't wait to place all my music books on it and practice playing all the different songs from each book. Always my favorite music has been worship songs and to be able to sing and worship God on it will be so wonderful. I'm hoping I'll be able to become more proficient as I practice on it again.

1 Corinthians 14:15 -- "So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding."

Psalms 14:4 -- "Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!"