What was your first piano love? An old relic from a church basement? A family heirloom? An organ? A keyboard? A beautiful baby grand?
I learned to play on my Grandma’s piano. She gifted it to me when I was 5 years old. She herself was given the piano at the age of 10… which made the piano 75 years old when I started taking lessons.
I’ll never forget the day that that piano was delivered to my home. My uncles and my Dad were the “piano movers”. It was so heavy it smashed right through the steps up to our deck. All very exciting when you are 5.
I loved that piano.
There is something about playing that piano that feels like “home”. Although it’s no longer in my own house, I have played that same piano for 26 years. There is something so organically familiar about the yellowed keys under my fingers; the huge ringing sound from behind the cabinet my Grandad buffed and polished himself… the slight stick and knock of the pedals. It’s probably not the best piano in the world, but I can make it sing.
They say there is no love like the first. This is true… I haven’t found another piano that I feel so connected to.
I happened upon a new piano app this morning. iGrand Piano for iPad. I’m quick to admit I am a tech junkie. And I love apple products to a degree that is probably not at all healthy. I was immediately intrigued. This app allows you to hook any keyboard up to your iPad, select the piano sound you would like from a gallery of 8 world-class pianos and away you go! The sound sampling is completely amazing. Check out a demo in this video below.
Can A Computer Replicate The True Piano Experience?
As cool as this app is (and yes I will be buying it!) and as much as they tout it’s ability to be “the most playable, expressive and beautiful sounding grand, baby grand, upright and specialty piano instruments available on a mobile device” I’m still a skeptic. Can a computer program truly hold a candle to the experience of playing a real instrument? And if not, what is it about playing a piano that creates the superior experience? The sound? The touch? The smell of furniture polish?
We’d love to know about the piano you hold dear to your heart. Share in the comment section below and tell us why your piano could never be replaced by technology… or if you think apps like iGrand are the way of the future.
Anna Fagan says
As I sit here reading this, my piano tech is tuning the piano the was/is my first love — a Chickering baby grand that my Dad bought me when I was in High School. It has come with me through many moves; from my apartment when I was in college (such a luxury to have this as a practice instrument!), to my home studio today, where it is still being played and loved by fingers and souls of many sizes.
Of course, it’s 2012 … so my beloved Chickering shares the room with two Clavinovas, a Yamaha YPG-525, and a smaller Yamaha keyboard that sits next to my desktop computer. Oh — and the iPad, of course!
If my house caught fire, the Chickering is what I’d be trying to get outside first (after my family, of course!)
Jan says
I was at a songwriting workshop and the speaker reminded us that everything has a story. She encouraged us to ask objects, “what is your story?” to get ideas. She mentioned that scientists are studying how all matter has memory. I immediately thought of my first piano. It sounds much like the one you described, Andrea, and I wondered if it “remembered” my grandmother, my mother, and me… It is now in my second cousin’s home. When I moved out of state, I couldn’t take it with me. It broke my heart to leave it, but comforts me to know it is still in the family!
Jan says
About technology, I suppose that the kids who are growing up with electronic keyboards may upgrade one day. Maybe they will buy an acoustic piano. But, when they are adults, will they search in vintage shops for the exact keyboard they first had, that would surely be outdated? Perhaps we develop a lasting relationship with whatever our “first love” was, no matter what form it takes.
Cynthia Munn says
My first piano was from an old saloon! 🙂 It was a HUGE upright piano with a padded top and bottom with little brass buttons on it in the design of a top hat a glass of champaigne and a cane! Some of the keys didn’t work…and I don’t think the pedals worked at all. My dad brought it home from the airforce base I think… my brother got to take lessons… we couldn’t afford for me to take lessons too so I taught myself until my brother quit and I was allowed to start lessons…I loved that piano…
Vivian Doublestein says
For our wedding, my dad gave us a Steinway that had come from my college. He is a piano technician and he was going to repair it for us and refinish it. It sat on its side in his shop for 30 years. Then my wonderful husband offered to help him with it. Long story short, I got a “new” grand piano for our 33rd wedding anniversary.
Although my dad has been a piano technician for over 50 years, this piano was the first one he had ever replaced a sound board on. Hence the 30 year wait!
It is my favorite and will always be special because of all of the emotional connections for me.
Tiffany says
For me, I felt at home in the small church my Mom worked at. There are pictures of me watching my mom play, sitting in a baby car seat and playing “piano” on the car seat edge. We always came early to church because my mom would practice the songs before the service, and I would sit and listen. eventually I was signed up for lessons and was able to spend more time at the piano.. As I grew older I would go there after school to practice while my mom worked in the church kitchen. I loved sitting at the piano and hearing the sound fill the empty sanctuary. Then the sunlight would sometimes shine through the stained glass windows onto my face… As I learned to improvise, the piano became my journal in that room. I expressed the emotions I couldn’t put to words. The piano was a simple glossy black upright. I can still remember the soft smell of wood, warm sunshine and the feel of the well used keys under my fingers.
Lori Weiss says
My first Piano Love was a handsome boy – the younger brother of my piano teacher! He was there visiting at her house when I came for my lesson (at the time he was 21, I was 17)…35 years later, he’s still my husband!
Rebecca Brown says
To really tell the story of my first “piano love”, I guess I have to share my piano story. My very first piano was an old upright that my mom bought for $20. She took the thing apart and refinished every single piece, and had everything repaired and tuned. I remember that as my “first” piano, but I do not remember “loving” that piano in particular. As a child, I was thrilled to be playing on ANY piano! It was good that I never had an emotional connection to it, because my mom sold it without a second thought when I went to live with my dad…..instead of offering to let me take it with me. My dad bought a cheap piano for me….and sold it as soon as I left for college. When I graduated from college, I used an electric piano (which was far from adequate back then) until I could afford to buy an acoustic. Again, the piano purchase was simply whatever we could afford: A used Kimball for $1000….that had to be tuned every 3 months. I played and taught on that for 11 years…..until my piano tuner (who kept advising me to get something better) came across a great deal on a 1-year-old Yamaha studio piano. The seller was moving, had to sell immediately, and was willing to take payments. So, I jumped on the deal. One glimpse of that rich bass and I was in love!! I couldn’t believe I had spent 35 years of my life playing on anything less! I would love to have a baby grand someday. But, even if I do, I will never part with my current studio piano!
Leigh says
My maternal Grandmother was a concert pianist, and a member of a piano quartet – yes, four pianos on stage, and four lovely ladies in flowing, lacy gowns. In 1959, when she bought her 6 foot Steinway grand (purchased for $2700, I actually have the receipt!), she gave us her Sohmer console piano, and that’s when I began playing. When she died later that same year, my grandfather wouldn’t let anyone touch her piano. It sat for years, never fully broken in, but about the time I was in college, maybe 12 years later, he decided he wanted us to have it. (Gee, thanks, Grandpa, now that I don’t LIVE here anymore….) Mom let me have the Sohmer when I got married, and I played it and loved it, despite the very loose action and not that great a sound. And that thing NEVER went out of tune! It moved from Northern Michigan to SE Michigan to Tennessee and back to Michigan over the course of 10 years, and STILL didn’t go out of tune. But by now it was showing the effects of its hard life, including being peed on repeatedly by our cat (OMG), so I completely refinished it several years ago, including replacing the legs, some of the veneer, the entire big panel around the pedals, and I even was able to order a new “Sohmer Co- New York” decal. I taught on it for a while, but then bought a Baldwin Hamilton (love it as a teaching instrument). And what ever became of the Steinway? It’s now in my living room. It’s a beautiful, wonderful instrument. I absolutely love playing it. I love it for its quality and its ties to my grandmother. But I will never give up my Sohmer, my first love!