It was a long time coming and long over due. I hadn’t given her a good tuning in quite a while and she needed it. The change of seasons has dropped most of her keys by a good step or more. Grandma’s Piano.
She is an old Premier Baby Grand who’s age I do not know. Quietly she sat for years in the living room of my folk’s house. Waiting. I was the only one that sat down and played around with her trying to keep her somewhat in tune. But she was quite old and tired and was only able to sing in key for the brief time I spent with her.
The years of being exposed to the intense sun coming through the large picture windows was just too much for her. The southern exposure had take its toll. Her finish, once gleaming on a burled and tigered wood case, had long since crackled and feels much like an alligator’s hide. Her peg block had cracked years ago and her hammer’s felt pads had begun to separate. Several of her ivories had flicked off some keys and had been respectfully stowed away in an envelope taped under the bench seat.
My folks, preparing to downsize, were not sure as to what to do and asked me if I wanted it. If I didn’t want it they were going to have it hauled away as they had been told that its not worth anything lest it were fixed. Not an insignificant investment. Sad. I jumped at the chance.
She was originally purchased in New York in the early 1900s and found her way to Upper Saddle River, New Jersey and when family moved to the Bay Area of California she of course went as well. Eventually in the mid 70s she was moved to my folks house in the Chicago area. Now she was about to make one more trip: out East, not all that far from where she started.
After a thousand miles in the back of a cold moving truck, she arrived, missing a leg, which finally appeared after a long search about two weeks later. Somehow her leg had gone on to see Northern New England before being unceremoniously dropped at my kitchen door with a note that simply read “oops, sorry about that”.
I did quite a bit of research and consulted with a number of piano “experts” who would come and examine her and give the occasional “tsk, tsk” and “hmmmmmm” which was something I found a bit distasteful.
By autumn I had made my decision and had her taken in to be restored.
She was home by Christmas. Hammers, leathers and action reworked and adjusted, felts, gleaming new strings and pegs, her soundboard re-supported and solid, a new peg block and a host of other things. She looks like new. I asked that the case – that now alligator-hide finish not be touched – leave it be. In my eyes, she has aged gracefully.
A couple of weeks following her restoration, after she had the chance to acclimatize to her new home, I called in the piano tuner to give her a “professional” tuning and adjusting her action. He was quite impressed by the piano – “very fine, very fine indeed, this is indeed a very fine piano, beautiful”
It has been a while since her last tuning and so I started tuning her this evening. Will not take me long really. I have my tuning hammer, dampers, a tuning fork. Its not difficult and once I get in mode it goes rather quickly.
Do I play? Not as well as my sister. Once in a while, when there is no one around, I’ll sit and play. The acoustics here are quite fine and the sound fills the great room like a concert hall. On a quiet day with the rain, snow or leaves falling I’ll drift over to the piano. I like the solitude. I sound quite a bit like Elton John and play like George Winston when there is no one around to hear – but I’ll keep that between us, she and I.
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Hey Tony… I didn’t see this in my earlier visits to your site.. I’m still amazed that you have time to do all of this!! The piano looks fantastic.. I’ve never seen it in that condition!! A man of many talents.. but you are a fantastic musician!!! Don’t sell yourself short!!!
Miss you…
Sarah