One of my first music memories is taking lessons on the piano. I wanted to learn SO BAD, and the music teacher in elementary school, Mrs Rumpke, kindly taught me at school for a while, but then the lessons moved to her home (not so great, gas was expensive, my father's time was limited, and he did not like to drive 'all the way to germantown' to pick me up.... but he did).
What he would NOT do, is buy a piano.... the house was too small (it IS), pianos were too expensive, and they made NOISE..... so I got a tiny toy piano only two octaves long. As you can imagine, that did not work as time went on, and the paper piano I tried to practice on did not work either.....
So, she dropped me from lessons. I can't blame her, how could she teach when I could not practice? It did break my heart, though.....
And I grew up. I bought guitars and learned how to play them. I bought a keyboard and used it mostly to teach myself rhythm. I do remember the notes on the piano and I do remember all my major scales and I love the sound of a piano..... but I never had the opportunity to own one.
A year or two ago, I saw a piano advertised on Freecycle (check it out if you don't know about it!!!). At the same time, my buddies also saw the same piano and we independently 'put in for it'.... but I got it first, and tried to find someone to bring it to my house.....
My friends and I figured out that we had all 'put in' for the same piano, but they had wanted to get it for REV, the coffeehouse we have Song Circle in!!! The REV was getting redone, and we had to move the piano right away, so they moved it to my house for me to hold while the REV was getting made over.....
Time went on and on, and it became pretty obvious that that piano was not going to make it to REV, and finally we decided I could keep it. However, it was in a tiny room and no one ever went in there to play it.....
This weekend, I had the piano moved to my living room, and tomorrow she will get fine tuned. As I sat and looked at her today, I realized that I had at LONG LAST gotten something I have dreamed about almost my whole life..... a PIANO!!!! And, inadvertently, I had decorated the top with a picture of my grandparents, the grandparents that inspired my song 'Dancing Tonight'. My grandfather is the only relative I have that was musical, and everyone tells me he was VERY talented..... and I remember fondly the piano in his home that was unused and out of tune, but still loved....
I feel like I have completed a circle.
Just wanted to share that.....
And here she is, at HOME!
