It is always a pinnacle day when our friend the piano tuner comes. Yesterday was such an occasion. Everything started as normal....bling,bling,bling,silence,adjust. After about 10 minutes I noticed that it got very quiet,so I tip-toed downstairs to see what was going on. There on the floor was the interior of my piano and Waclaw (the piano tuner) was on the floor peering inside the hollow cavity which use to house my piano innerds.
"Anything wrong?" I asked tenatively.
"Wellllll,two keys our rattling and the damper pedal mechanism has swollen and is making an uneven action."
So after an hour of hunting down the problems and trying to figure out a solution, it was time to go and get little boy "O" from school. Do I dare leave my dear friend open to the world like this with her guts on my music room floor? ......Yep......there wasn't a choice.
20 minutes later....................................
Little boy "O" runs into the music room to give the grandest greeting to his friend Waclaw. "Wow!!!!! What's this? Is this the inside of the piano? "
"Yes......Guts, .....piano guts." I stated sadly.
Getting on the floor, laying on his stomach he started pressing the piano keys down to see the hammers come up. "This is so cool".
Shouting with extreme excitement. "Mom!!!! The piano is a small machine!!! You never told me that! Look there are levers, and hammers, and keys. The keys release the levers, which bring the hammer up to make the sound. If we used this technology we could make all sorts of instruments with different sounds."
I immediately felt better. I thought my piano was ruined and lying helplessly on the floor. When all I needed was to see it for what it is.....a beautiful and perfect small machine.
Our lovely piano is now tuned and put back together again. I will never play this lovely instrument without thinking of it in this new way. As long as the music coming out of it doesn't sound like a small machine.....that wouldn't be good! :)
Have a wonderfully musical day and may you see everything differently.
