It has been around 30 years since a real piano last blessed my fingers on a daily basis and I had forgotten after all this time how important pianos are not just for the person playing them but also for the people listening. Even if one is not consciously listening, a good piano will create a vibration which resonates out with such force it is impossible to remain unaffected if you are positioned within earshot and since buying this instrument two weeks ago it has become evident to me it is actually a healing device, capable of so much more than just making music.
Six months ago we toyed with the idea of buying one and if memory serves I said something along the lines of "who needs a piano in an apocalypse?" and that was that. How foolish I was and how swift the Universe to correct this imbalance!
How did it happen?
Sabrina goes to a farmers market in a local village once a week where one month ago she heard a street pianist play Ludovico Einaudi's Nuvole Bianche. She was deeply moved by the music and came home with a wish for me to play the same piece on our electric keyboard.
No problem I said! I was familiar with the piece already.
I can't read music but that doesn't matter because in just 3 weeks I was able to learn it by watching this youtube video in which I can see the notes and hand positions.
The x.25 playback feature is super useful for the fast bits! If you don't already know it I STRONGLY suggest you have a listen with headphones on during a calm moment. This piece of music has the capacity to release that which needs to be released.
Sabrina was blown away by how fast I mastered this task and was quick to set me a second challenge, another lovely piece by Ludovico Einaudi, "Fly". You may recognise it from the film The Intouchables.
I recorded the following sound test with my zoom recorder suspended on string above the piano here, three days after setting out to learn the second piece. Was still very excited at this point!
Looking forward now to recording my free flowing creations on this piano which can often lead to wonderful melodies and ultimately to my next song, which have for the last 30 years been created using a guitar as the main instrument.
An example of my guitar music here:
So yes, back to my living room!
Esteban is currently learning the Star Wars theme tune :)
But beyond just being able to entertain people he is also learning the notes and practicing finger exercises.
I do have further thoughts to offer on piano lessons and the way we in which we learn most effectively but just to finish off the story I wanted first to say that Sabrina felt inspired to look online for real pianos after hearing me play Nuvole Bianche and just happened to find the perfect one in a nearby village. @thecogent was still around and willing to help us do the move in his van, so all the pieces of the puzzle fitted and there was no holding back the tide once I had played it at the owner's house.
Walnut wood, metal interior, made in Finland, not too old (early 90s), hardly any use and still in tune! Complete with adjustable red velvet stool. How could we say no?
Some people might say that €500 is a lot of money to spend on a musical instrument but I would say this is the best investment we have ever made.
Am deeply grateful to all involved in helping us move it. Especially @thecogent who we are blessed to have as part of the team these days.
Pianos are crazy heavy and require four men to get the job done safely.
As soon as it was done the piano gave me a reason to finally put my personal artworks into frames!
We really enjoyed reshaping our living room around it bearing in mind they cannot sit against exterior walls which get cold in the winter.
When the front cover is off, the sound is so ridiculously powerful even the littlest of people cannot resist having a go.
And this we love ;)
As for me I have come into my own on this red velvet stool, surrounded by my artworks of the past.
I remember how it was for me at school, learning scales and such. This was all well and good for a while, perhaps a year or so, but then I met a boy who could play Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu.
And I liked it! After this I stopped learned scales, lost interest in reading music and started learning complex pieces I could perform at will by memory.
The balance
Thirty years later I am back to my desire of learning complex pieces by memory but I do think there is a balance to be found here. One doesn't need to spend all their time learning to read music and practicing scales but one does need to have an idea of the basics. And it doesn't hurt to keep pushing forward to the point where you can actually read & write music! Hence our 'lessons' for Esteban.
We learn most effectively when we are not under pressure but free to have fun working on whatever we want to work on, while taking the lessons at our own pace. Of course it always helps to have a passionate dad next to you, urging you on to learn a little bit more each day, but in the end I leave it up to Esteban how much learning he wants to do when simply playing is so much more important. It's like flying a plane. The more time you have in the pilot seat the better you get.
I mentioned my school days in a previous post and described for you some of the reasons I didn't like it. But what they did have there were private piano practice rooms where no one could disturb you if you were playing. So I sat in these rooms for a crazy number of hours, basically hiding from the world, but getting that airtime I mentioned.
And only now, 30 years later, can I fully appreciate what I have at my fingertips as a consequence.
Live music is therapy
During the last two weeks three women have entered our home (called by the music through our open windows) and ended up sitting silently in reflection while I played one of the two mentioned pieces and all of them without exception were moved to tears, leaving Sabrina to offer them the tissues.
It was like they needed a release. Perhaps we all do? Certainly the last few years have been stressful no matter if you subscribe to the mainstream or not.
What I am most excited about is that I was able to help these women let go in a private way and just cry, which by the way is something we all need to do! It is unfortunate that so many men are unable to cry around other people. Intense energies must always be released or dis-ease can start to build up.
Even better that I was able to facilitate their release in just three minutes by tapping mallets onto suspended wires in a wooden box.
A lot cheaper than a therapist I think you will agree ;)
I would argue that pianos are the creation of a previous more advanced civilisation.
Each note is comprised of three strings to make it more powerful.
The middle foot pedal can be locked into a downward position which partially mutes the vibrational resonance with a long piece of cloth, seen here.
As soon as you take your finger off a key, these little pads stop the vibration completely.
I don't have any evidence for this being a healing tool of our great ancestors. It's just a feeling. Such beauty could not have been conceived in the last three centuries. More likely it was conceived thousands of years earlier by a more advanced spiritual civilisation who understood our vibrational essence and the importance of maintaining it with this device.
It is likely in my opinion that too many pianos survived the cataclysm (around 500 years ago) and they could not be erased from our collective consciousness unlike so much of our great past, and so here we are. Only a few of us know what to do with them however and even less know what to do without sheet music in front of them.
Personally I seek to create more than I seek to replicate, though in truth these two things are rather more entwined than most of us imagine as we are inseparable from our lifetime of influences.
So yes, I think that's all I want to say about that.
Pianos are healing devices used by the old world to aide our vibration and help us release unwanted energies.
Beyond that they produce a better sound quality than even the best speakers and during the expected power cuts this coming winter we will be the only house in our village booming out the music at full volume! Perhaps I will learn some Beethoven for the occasion?
Take your time with them, treat them with respect and reap the rewards, remembering always this gift is for sharing.
Sabrina & I are stronger than ever as a team these days and I am in no doubt that we owe it all to a piano. And that pesky apocalypse ;)
Love, Light & Music everyone 🎹
