Music to My Ears

After owning my beautiful grand piano for about 8 years, I finally had it tuned yesterday. It had been tuned only once before as part of the service from the piano store when we bought it. Since then we have moved it twice and each time they said that pianos should be tuned about three months after they have been moved but we didn't do that either. It wasn't that I didn't want to, I just didn't know who to call and then I would forget about it.

My parents found a good piano tuner and gave me his card. I even passed the info on to my neighbor and she used him before I did, but I finally had him come.

Needless to say, my piano was very flat, however, it was all flat together so you didn't notice too much when playing. The kids were very interested to see the piano taken apart. He even pulled out the keyboard and hammers. I didn't know they came out. I was also amazed to learn what the two left pedals do. I didn't really know and I have had piano students ask me all the time and I had to just say I didn't know. Now I can tell them. The far left pedal allows you to play softer. It shifts the entire keyboard slightly to the right so the hammers hit two strings instead of three. The middle pedal has some fancy name that I can't remember but what it does is so cool! After you play a chord if you press down the middle pedal the chord you are holding will be sustained but the rest of the keyboard will not be. Apparently, there are not too many songs written that require that pedal but I was thoroughly amazed to find out what it does. I had no idea. I could never figure out what that middle pedal did. I was fascinated by it! Anyway, my piano is all in tune now and beautiful! The best part of the tuning is that the piano tuner vacuumed out all the dust that had accumulated after 8+ years. It looks fantastic again!

I love my piano! I love music and being able to play. I was just like every other kid taking piano lessons--I hated practicing, but I am so grateful that my parents didn't let me choose to quit. I'm sure I would have if I had been given the choice. Playing the piano gives me immeasurable joy and I hope that I am able to help others find that joy as well as they struggle to learn to play the piano. It definitely is worth it!