No, I didn't have to play this jewel of a piano.
But it's not beyond imagination (sadly) that a client would say, "Oh, it will be fine---just do what you can with it. No one will know."
(When they say that, and I've heard it often over the years, I always want to say, "YOU, Mr. Client, may not notice anything amiss because YOU are a moron. But don't underestimate your guests.)
This mangled piano was in a fancy wedding venue in the mountains of North Carolina, not far from Cashiers. It's a fancy place.
I'm hoping that this piano is just there for atmosphere.
But, looking at it, you have to wonder what this piano has seen. Was it beat up this way in a middle-class living room? Not likely.
In a holy-roller church, where it was played by enthusiastic piano-pounders? In a raunchy mountain beer joint where the band set up behind chicken wire? By Jerry Lee Lewis wannabes?
Who knows? It's fun to imagine, but it was more fun to see it and know I didn't have to sit down and fight to make music come out of that box!
Showing posts with label church piano. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church piano. Show all posts
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Friday, May 13, 2011
Seen a Lot, Done a Lot
I sometimes feel about like this piano looks--a bit beat-up and somewhaworse for wear. But I wonder if that's really a bad thing.
This big old Mason-Hamlin is in the Youth building at my church in Atlanta, and it's interesting to speculate on its life. Who knows how many times it has uplifted, encouraged, or just been central to a great evening of singing around the piano?
Probably people have fallen in love around this piano. Maybe it's soothed some bad times, and maybe it has inspired. I know that it has been a practice piano for talented kids with no piano at home. It has been well used, and it looks the part.
It would be nice if it were shiny and perfectly kept up. But it's better to be needed, loved, and a real part of a real community. At least that's what I think.
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