It’s happening. Finally, something’s kicked open that rusted, locked door in my brain, releasing the sleeping skills therein stored so long ago. After weeks of scales, arpeggios, and interval training, after struggling to play well-known favorites and failing to be able to sightread even some of what I consider to be rudimentary pieces — Hayden, Mozart, Bach 2-Part Inventions — finally, FINALLY my fingers are finding and playing advanced level music without me having to glance at them and adjust my position. I’m reading, my hands moving where they should, as they should. Of course, what is listed as ‘advanced’ on the music books isn’t really. It’s about on a par with what I was playing at thirteen and fourteen — polyphonic and polyrhythmic — but my eyes are reading the music, my brain instantly translating what is read relatively accurately to my hands. Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C# Minor is now within reach again, as are pieces by Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt….
In for a Digital Grand
So, for the last three months, I’ve been eyeing my pianos — my acoustic pianos — thinking, I really ought to get back to playing regularly …get back to serious practice. After all, I’m not writing novels or books, right now (though that itch has been making itself known, too). I’ve successfully resisted the idea, though. It would mean getting a piano tuner/piano repair person in to go through both instruments — expensive (VERY).
Yesterday, along comes my husband (via cell phone conversation), who asks: “What would you think about playing piano, again? …As part of zentao, the music. I mean actually performing.”
I gulp, thinking about all the work and expense that means, me getting my chops back along with potentially having to restring and refelt one or both of my pianos. I mean, they’re both antiques, now, the upright grand built in 1917, the spinet in the 60s. And they’ve been moved and moved and stored and moved, again.
Then Forrest starts talking his musical Geek Speak — MIDI triggering, patching into the sound system, and a bunch of other jargon that I don’t understand.
Ummmm….
He talks on, speaking dreams and wishes, visions and hopes. I listen, my brain reeling as it starts connecting dots here and dots there. He’s not talking acoustic piano. He’s talking digital. Wow.
As he elaborates, I’m getting more concerned, more wary, and, simultaneously, more relaxed to the idea. I have the training and skill, though, as mentioned above, I’m very out-of-practice. And I can hear his excitement at the potentials he envisions, the first tune he wants to do being a Michael Hedges piece. He’ll arrange it tonight for me to play.
Now, we own three electronic keyboards. But we don’t (…or didn’t) own a digital piano, which is a completely different instrument.
He’s set on a VERY expensive keyboard he’s read the specs on. Meanwhile, I’m frantically doing a search for digital pianos. The keyboard he’s talking about is or can be a digital piano. It has the weighted keys. But it is not a digital grand. It’s a professional keyboard, designed for triggering stuff I don’t understand. A digital grand piano, on the other hand, is, in fact, a fully sampled grand piano.
As he talks to me throughout the day, I feel the inevitability. This is going to happen. It’s only a matter of ‘when’, and, since we’re both ‘now’ people, I realize that, yep, I’d better find what I want, and it has to be something we’ll both be happy with.
Yamaha makes the very best digital grand pianos. I hit Yamaha USA. I study the specs. I also go check out the unit he wants, and, no, it’s NOT a digital grand piano, which is what I want. Back to the digital grands. I read through the specs, the features. I look at the reviews of the one that first caught my eye. I check out the one I tried over in Spokane in July, a unit sitting on the main floor at Hoffman’s Music. I liked that unit. A lot. And it wasn’t over-the-top expensive. My eye travels back to the top-of-the-line model. Sigh. It’s got the top-of-the-line sampling, the GHS keyboard, and the damper resonance enhancements, which makes it act, play, and sound like a top quality acoustic grand.
Without telling him of my decision, I order one, and I order the three pedal add-on, because I play Rachmaninoff, not just Bach and Chopin. I need all three pedals, thanks. Would feel lame without them. Deal done, I text him about it. He’s good about it. In fact, this morning, he’s excited — more excited than me.
Me? I’m okay with the idea. I’m resolved to the fact that, yes, once again I’m going to be working very hard to get myself up to speed …up to the performance level he needs for what he envisions. Luckily, the piano is an easier instrument to play than the flute. (Yes, really.) I’m in for a grand — a digital grand. It’s coming in Friday.
-
Just for You!
Just for you, Laura Belgrave, this blog is set up with a white background and black text. There will be no more complaints about my preference — a real preference, by the way — for black backgrounds. On this blog — just for you (and for anyone who shares your preference) — it’s glaringly WHITE!!
-
Categories
- a lifeway
- art, artist
- audio books
- author/novelist
- book and novel promotion
- deeply moving, silent, still
- family, friends, students
- flute
- for the love of the living
- jessica-anderson-k-9-mystery
- martial artist
- musician
- north idaho life
- nova
- off the cuff
- other professional business
- passions
- piano
- politics, culture, society
- professional life
- semi-pro
- the personal side
- thoughts on the fly
- Uncategorized
- webmaster, website design
- you gotta love life
- you know who you are
- zentao
-
Recent Posts
- What was in the Trailer?! February 25, 2022
- Latest News February 25, 2022
- Update broke this blog. Trying to get it rolled back. February 3, 2022
- Book 2 of The Jessica Anderson K-9 Mysteries is in the Works June 30, 2021
- Death Scent is Launched, Audio Being Mastered, Book 2 Well Underway May 2, 2021
Archives
- February 2022
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- May 2020
- June 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- May 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- February 2017
- December 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- September 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2013
- June 2013
- January 2013
- July 2012
- July 2011
- June 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- August 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- August 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
-
‘I ask that Smith College stop reducing my personhood to a racial category. Stop telling me what I must think and feel about myself,’ she said.
‘Stop presuming to know who I am or what my culture is based upon my skin color. Stop asking me to project stereotypes and assumptions onto others based on their skin color.
‘Stop demanding that I admit to white privilege, and work on my so-called implicit bias as a condition of my continued employment.’
–Jodi Shaw
So say we all.