still there
Oct. 15th, 2011 04:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kip_w.
Around 1:00 today, a moving van showed up, along with a smaller vehicle. I shook hands with Chad and Vincent, who had come in the latter, and then Art, who drove the van. I'd talked to Art on the phone a couple of times. I showed them the vestibule and inside steps, and we commented on the rain. Then they set up the ramps and loaded 658 pounds of piano, swaddled in pads, onto one of those little four-wheeled dollies and wheeled it to the porch. The steps were a challenge. I helped a little. All went smoothly. I tipped them, and Chad and Vincent departed while Art put the pedals on and then we took care of the paperwork.
According to its serial number, the Baldwin Model R was made in 1975. It's 4'10" or so wide, 5'8" long, and 3'3" high. In a couple of weeks we'll get it tuned. We'll also get the upright we bought along with the house tuned (and one key fixed) so we can sell it on Craigslist. Until it sells, I have two pianos. Three, if you count the electronic one. But I digress.
I made so bold as to play a couple of short pieces. I left it open so it can acclimate for the next couple of weeks. Padding notwithstanding, it was somewhat humid to the touch. I reluctantly went back to my routine, had some lunch, tried to call Dad and thank him, but got no answer at any of the usual numbers. I watched some TV and made the rounds of internet stuff and email.
I looked a few minutes ago. It's still there.
Now, if you will excuse me, I'm off to play the grahnd piahno!
.
Around 1:00 today, a moving van showed up, along with a smaller vehicle. I shook hands with Chad and Vincent, who had come in the latter, and then Art, who drove the van. I'd talked to Art on the phone a couple of times. I showed them the vestibule and inside steps, and we commented on the rain. Then they set up the ramps and loaded 658 pounds of piano, swaddled in pads, onto one of those little four-wheeled dollies and wheeled it to the porch. The steps were a challenge. I helped a little. All went smoothly. I tipped them, and Chad and Vincent departed while Art put the pedals on and then we took care of the paperwork.
According to its serial number, the Baldwin Model R was made in 1975. It's 4'10" or so wide, 5'8" long, and 3'3" high. In a couple of weeks we'll get it tuned. We'll also get the upright we bought along with the house tuned (and one key fixed) so we can sell it on Craigslist. Until it sells, I have two pianos. Three, if you count the electronic one. But I digress.
I made so bold as to play a couple of short pieces. I left it open so it can acclimate for the next couple of weeks. Padding notwithstanding, it was somewhat humid to the touch. I reluctantly went back to my routine, had some lunch, tried to call Dad and thank him, but got no answer at any of the usual numbers. I watched some TV and made the rounds of internet stuff and email.
I looked a few minutes ago. It's still there.
Now, if you will excuse me, I'm off to play the grahnd piahno!
.
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-15 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-10-16 02:07 pm (UTC)Wait, the first thing I reached for was my party piece: one of the few things I have completely memorized. Bumble-Boogie, in the Lou Busch arrangement.
Pastoral Scene my friend
Date: 2011-10-21 02:47 pm (UTC)Not to go all STUART SMALLY on you but you should record and post your playing!
Re: Pastoral Scene my friend
Date: 2011-10-21 03:04 pm (UTC)My electronic piano is actually two instruments. An 88-key Yamaha PF80, with full-size, weighted, touch-sensitive keys. It's nearing 30 years old now, and its native sounds are only vaguely piano-like. In the lower compartment of the end table it lives on, though, is a much newer Yamaha CBX-K1XG, which has three octaves of small, touch-sensitive keys — the keys are irrelevant, though, as I usually am using it for a sound box. MIDI goes out of the top keyboard, sound comes out the earphone jack of the bottom one and goes into the input jack (aha!) of the top one, and then comes out of the speakers sounding about 80% like a piano instead of about 35%.
I've occasionally moved this assemblage around for performance, though the volume isn't quite enough for, say, a large hall. On the other hand, running a cord from that earphone jack to one of my computers results in recordings that sound, well, about as good as it does in person, and since I can use Sound Forge to edit, I can produce a track good enough for some purposes. For instance, I recorded the piano part of "The Girl Friend of the Whirling Dervish" for an audition, back when we lived in Massachusetts. (For the record, it's the first time I auditioned with that song and didn't get a part.)
Recording a grand piano will doubtless require something more than what I have now. Something like a microphone or two. Getting a good recorded piano sound is one of the hardest challenges, so it's not likely happening soon.
Today, I think I'm reinstalling the system on this MacBook Pro. Tired of crashes, I'm briefly between jobs (Apple. Jobs. Almost room for a tired jest in there.), and I've backed everything up onto external drives, just in case.