Should
I or Shouldn’t I
I do
that a lot. I will go shopping and put something in the cart and drive it all
around the store, sometimes two or three times around the store and talk myself
out of buying it. I do this so often
that even I recognize it now when it starts.
It is not just shopping. Some
people may call it reasoning, making decisions or just weighing things
out. Well, I have done it again. Let’s hope I have not bit off more than I can
chew.
I am a musician, my ear is good, I have the
ability to tune guitars, banjo, violins, etc… with or without a machine
tuner. I can tune an instrument so that
it is in tune with itself if not 440. So
with that in mind, I do use a man made tuner just because I don’t like things
to be out of tune and when playing with others.. Well you know. If you don’t know, stop reading this now.
Some
people have a family heirloom that is passed down to members of the family, usually
a broach, a framed picture or something that you can keep with no big major
issues on storage… ahem. Not my
family. Sure there are some little
things but I got a rather large one. A
Cable Nelson Birdseye Maple Cabinet Grand, Chicago upright piano. Many members of my family on my mother’s side
remember seeing this piano at my Great Grandfathers house, they grew up with
it. My Aunt Jeanette learned on it and
played it when she lived at home, many people thought of it as hers. It was left in the house long after she grew
up and moved on. It however was not my
Great Grandfathers unless you go on squatters rights. This piano was given to my Grandmother
Bernice by the Cable Nelson people in Chicago as a gift. She told me this years ago, and when it was
time to move things from Great Grandpa’s house my mother and I requested the
piano. It has real ivory and ebony on
the keys; it is a big heavy beautiful piece of art in itself. It is weathered it is so out of tune it is ridiculous. I had it tuned once twenty years ago but as
you all know it needs more care than that.
It was difficult to tune for the guy who did it because of age and it lived
by a lake at one time… a piano tuner’s nightmare. But hey it is my heirloom. So I didn’t throw it out, didn’t leave it
behind, where I keep my house, the piano goes there. Moved it three times now and a few different
places in the house. Now it has been on
my mind to repurpose it… have seen some wonderful things that they do with old pianos. Make a headboard out of it, a piano bar to
hold wine and libations. Lots of beautiful ideas that I could soooo live
with. However, that thought has been in
the shopping cart of my mind for a few years now. YEARS.
I finally figured out what I am going to do.
I am going to bring it back to life. I am going to try. I bought a piano tuning hammer and I have the
mute’s and things that come in the kit. I have many tools at my disposal to do
this task and I have the time and place to do it. It may take weeks to months to get it even
close to where it should be. It has come
this far with me, it is the least I can do to try and give it more time to be
all it can be instead of gutted. (It
hurts to think of it like that).
Something classy about an old musical instrument that still plays beautifully. I’m gonna give it a shot anyway and play
doctor. What have I got to lose… nothing
at this point and talk about a learning curve.
Thanks to YouTube how to vids I have a starting point and hopefully a
happy ending. If I get really good at
it, maybe I can help some other old abandoned pianos before they go to the bone
yard of forgotten sounds. I will give an
update after my piano tuning hammer gets here.
Tune it
or die.
