Pianos I recently encountered
I think I have already said several times that when I learn a new composition, I feel like I am meeting a new person. It is like we are having a conversation where we are slowly getting to know each other. Well, the same thing happens when we play on different pianos. If you play violin, flute, clarinet, or any instrument you can bring to your rehearsals and concerts, the feeling is always the same. You play your instrument that you know and trust. Of course, the conditions and the environment are different, and we have to take that into account, so it changes the feeling a little, but that confidence you already have in your musical instrument is unbreakable.
With the piano (or, for example, the organ) the matter is different. If I have a performance on an acoustic piano, whether it is a grand piano or an upright piano, I have to go to the venue and try the piano first, to get a feel and get to know how it reacts to my fingers and hand movements. How it reacts to my energy. My action provokes a reaction that the piano gives - the sound.
The first two photos were taken in the concert hall where I accompanied the choir in one concert, a bit more than a month ago. I attended a few rehearsals with the singers but also one day I could practise there alone, to get used to the piano.
My excitement when I see a piano doesn't end just when I am supposed to play in it for a performance. When I see a piano, I have to get close to it. Even if it is forbidden to touch it! Or locked. Or found in different public spaces. There were a few ones I had the opportunity to meet recently.
At the railway station
So, the morning I was travelling to Madrid I saw an upright piano at the railway station in Alicante. It was covered, I suppose to protect it from the humid air and the pigeons (their excrement - as the birds could not really harm a piano).
What did I do? :D
I put my hand under that cover and found the keys. Some parts of the keyboard were missing, and it was out of tune. Poor scattered piano, but I anyway didn't have time to play. I had to pass the luggage check and board the train.
In the hotel
There was a black, shiny upright piano in the hotel where I stayed in Madrid, but it was forbidden to play on it. The singer I collaborate with asked before I arrived... I understand as everyone would like to "play" it and in the end, the poor piano would finish like the one I saw at the railway station. Destroyed. What they didn't know is that I would just caress it with my playing, but anyway, I didn't want to insist and ask again when I arrived. I just saw it and was wondering if would it be a Yamaha or Kawai piano.
In the Chapel
The event where my singer friend and I played was held in one chapel that is part of a music school complex. I went that afternoon to have a rehearsal, but I took this photo already at the event. It is my leg, with the scores waiting for my turn haha. The piano was not the best, they took it here from one classroom. However, I get used to it during the rehearsal so it sounded well in the end.
In one classroom
This was the funniest one I saw that day. After the rehearsal, that same afternoon I strolled around the music school and entered one classroom. The doors were open so it was an invitation for me to enter and explore. A piano, ok. But a poor one, in what condition... it was missing the bottom panel. Seems that it also had a speed limit.. tiempo máximo... 😂
Please, don't drive the piano too fast?!
Though that poster was saying something else. The maximum time you could spend there (I suppose playing, practising) is 40 minutes. It is not a long time for someone who had to prepare a more serious piece, but for a little student, it is - let's say- ok for one practice session. I left the classroom without playing the piano and went back to the chapel. Let's conclude that I was lucky I didn't get this one for the performance in the evening.
But that would be an interesting experience then, getting used to this old one and trying to get the best out of it ;)
The second piano looks so beautiful
I actually wish to have a piano
Hope you can get one. Make sure the room is big enough, a grand piano needs some space 😁
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Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. I'm still laughing at the Time Limit. 😂😂
Maybe that piano is a time travel machine and it works trying with a timer. So you can only go back for some time until you need to return.
Pianos are interesting for that. You can carry them so you need to go and try it out. Remind me of the movie The Greenbook. But your post has less violence in it.
In my case, it doesn't matter if I okay or not, I'm always checking out instruments. There's something in me that drives towards that behavior. Maybe all my luthier thingy comes from that drive to check instruments out.
Time limit, haha, I was also laughing at that message at the top of the piano.
But you are completely right - it could be a time-travel machine - 40 minutes, as it is said hahaha
Ha, ha, ha, ha. Take it for a spin next time. xD
This is wonderful. I have only come in contact with a piano in few occasions. In Nigeria here we are use to freestyles and Afro kind of music, and most musicians of this category prefer Keyboards due to its multiple voice. I play the keyboard myself and I sometimes wish I had learnt the piano. I enjoy classical music as a matter of fact, my earliest stage of music was with a classical choir.
Unlike the piano, you got nothing much to worry about in the keyboard. As far as the keys are working fine, we are good to go. You don’t have to study how it responds to fingers nor how good the pedals are. It has no inbuilt pedal, you can only attach you external sustain pedal to it when necessary. But then, the felling that comes along with playing the piano can never be the same with that of keyboard.
Enough about keyboard. Being a Saxophonist I have come to realize that you can’t just pick up any saxophone to play. Even if it’s a personal instrument, I have had opportunity to pick up some of my friends saxophone. But the truth is that it does not just feel like mine, it does not respond the mine does. And most times, I will always prefer to use mine. It’s a pity I don’t have any for now... Thank you so much once again @mipiano for shearing this with us
Thank you for your detailed comment. Much appreciated!!
Yes, that is the difference between a keyboard and an acoustic piano, as the acoustic ones, each one has a little different touch, the action of the keys, condition, sound etc. As you experienced it with the saxophone, so you feel also the difference if it is not your instrument. ;)
You are welcome @mipiano
I totally understand you: I played electric guitar, and that was mine (and mine alone!) and when I saw (sometimes even now) a guitar, the urge to pick it up and make a couple of chords to feel it in my hands and taste the vibrations it gives off, was so much!
Musical instruments, once you start playing them exert a fascination that almost kidnaps you!
We are kind of in love with our musical instruments haha, they ( and the fascination for them) indeed kidnap us 😂
Cool you play(ed) the electric guitar. Do you still have one and play?
Absolutely, I still have the guitar!
I don't play as assiduously as I did a few years, ago....
Occasionally I pick it up and play some AC/DC or Iron Maiden pieces... Not quite in line with Mozart or Tchaikovsky and Swan Lake! (Ahahahaha)
What a beautiful instrument the piano is. My mother always tells me that her dream as a child was to learn to play it... it didn't happen, but she loves it.
It is a pity that they deteriorate like this, it is a great beauty to see them, and why not, the one who knows, to play them.
Their sounds are very moving.
Beautiful the second picture and although it lacks parts as antiquity I liked the last one.
Beautiful publication @mipiano , thank you very much!❤️
Yes, the last one was interesting and beautiful, like from another time. Came from the past :D
I know many people had that dream, to learn to play the piano but it stayed as a dream. My dream came true, I guess I was lucky we had that old piano at home so I started to play 😇
I have to look for pianos here, I have to find them! And I'm going to bring them to you!
i tried to play piano before but my finger is too short hahaha
!PIZZA
Hahahaha
But it doesn't really matter, having short or long fingers :D
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@kungfukid(4/10) tipped @mipiano
I am very fond of playing the piano myself and will learn about more things in the near future. All these pianos looks so beautiful but third i like the most.
Enjoy the learning process and arm yourself with patience ;)
Thanks.
Cual tú prefieres, el piano vertical o el de cola?
El órgano si suena bello a mi me encanta el sonido que produce ese instrumento.
Aquí en el convento de San Francisco hacen conciertos de ese tipo de música religiosa donde tocan el órgano de vez en cuando.
De cola, por supuesto. Aunque viviendo en un piso es imposible tener uno hahaha
Como niña tenía un piano de cola, pero viejo, de mi mamá y mi tía. Tocaban como niñas el piano. Un día lo mostraré por aquí, aunque tengo solo dos fotos malas y el piano está lleno de otras cosas jajajja, es cuando ya se utilizaba como mueble 😅 (pobrecito). Había de todo encima de ese pobre piano, plantas, un árbol de navidad, el gato que se subía, un montón de cosas 😂
Got to love different pianos, in or out of tune!
Me too 😍 🎹
But better if in tune :D
I can fully understand what you mean in this post. Last week I went to an organ concert and met the organist (is that the word or organ player?) after the performance. She told me she almost canceled the concert as the organ was faulty, a few registers were not working.
Imagine how many times you have problems with the pinano you have to play and imagine the organs, which most of the times are a few hundred years old. Organs are far more rare and repairing them is not only super expensive but also needs a specialist, which are also rare. I felt sorry for the lady as it's not easy to play a faulty musical instrument. Most of the audience can't hear what's wrong, but she knows things are not right.
Next week I'm going to attend another organ concert 😍
Oh, I am familiar with the troubles of the organists. Last summer an organ player had a concert in the church of my native town and in the middle he refused to play anymore. One pedal got stuck so it was impossible to get the other things right. Indeed, not too many people are around that can fix an organ...
I am lucky I play just the piano :D
(Sorry for the delayed response, we are traveling 🚗) ☺️
Poetic image that of putting your hand under what covered it and touching its keys... that says a lot about your sensibility, it says a lot about you. You didn't have time to play it, and it was better this way. There are pianos that only need a light caress (lo digo porque si está roto y desafinado, no va a sonar bien).
I'm sure he were happy. I don't think he often has the joy of feeling hands like yours. He will remember you.
Overall, I like this tour of the pianos that mipiano finds. Too bad they didn't let you caress the one at the Hotel.... I think you should have shown them a video hahaha... as proof that you would do it nice and well.
:)
Maybe if I go again to that railway station to catch a bird that flies on the rails, I ask the piano whether it remembers me 😇🎶
Me quedo con los últimos tres que están en orden descendente en tu post, @mipiano. Además, párrafo aparte, debo decir que te vez fascinante en la foto de portada. Me gusta la postura. Qué buena historia y qué felicidad habrás sentido. Un saludo, vieja amiga, tiempo sin comentarte.
El último es chulo, a mí también me gusta. Aunque ya es bastante antiguo... ;)
Es lo lindo de lo antigüo. Parece ser más preciado y hermoso. Y mucho más, cuando le añades el contexto de la música. Es inevitablemente hermoso y hechizante.
People playing piano at the railway station, it amazes me every time. I think it´s awesome but I always wonder why they are not in a hurry. If I am at the railway station I am always moving on....guess piano players are just way more relaxed and take the time to enjoy a good piano.
Yeah, it's cool but if we are in a train station we are supposed to travel and not play the piano, right? 😂
Though I also like seeing the pianos and people playing them :)
So I am not the only one.... that's great
But I also enjoy the scene I just wonder where they find the time although I saw an interview once with a guy playing at Amsterdam central every day as he had no piano at home