This morning at 6:30 the whole world woke up with a grin

[venta]

When I was writing about my nice, lazy time between Christmas and New Year, I mentioned in passing that I'd done something very exciting on New Year's Eve.

Although I probably should have qualified that it was possibly only very exciting if you're me.

I spent a while chatting to a lady (who had huge crucifix earrings and a "JESUS" tattoo on her wrist), and then I gave her a lot of money. She told me to wait until I was contacted by a man named Silas.


Silas brought me this:



Wow. I don't think I've ever had such a giant parcel delivered.



Oh, look, it seems to have a flat pack in it.



Can you see what it is yet?

I got busy building. But then I got to the part which the instructions stipulate is a two-person job. And I considered it. And I decided that the scope for disaster if I took it on by myself was immense.

So I had a little read of the instruction manual while I waited for ChrisC to finish his phone call and come and help me.



What?

You thought I'd have a box that large delivered and not play in it?



Hours of harmless amusement.

Anyway. We carefully settled the top part onto the frame, and look what I've got!



A whole, actual digital piano of my very own.

Never mind the complexities of getting something as heavy and bulky as a proper piano up to a second-floor flat, and finding space for it to stand; I have neighbours in four directions. An acoustic piano was never a realistic option.

However, my new friend has a volume control and a headphone jack. I can (and indeed did, on Sunday) hammer away at nearly midnight without disturbing anyone. As digital pianos go, he's a relatively cheap one; not the bottom of the range, but the best compromise between what I could afford, what had an action good enough that I could enjoy playing it, and what would fit in our corridor.

When trying out pianos in Chappell of Bond Street[*] I did nearly fall in love with a glossy, ebony hybrid grand - the only problem being that it was far too large to fit in the space available, and massively out of my price range. Oh wait, that's two problems. However, the new arrival and I have been getting on very well thus far.

Of course... the minor downside is that I last had easy access to a piano in 1999 when I could book a practice room at university. So I basically haven't played in well over a decade. And... um. Let's just say it's not quite like riding a bike. I have been slowly and painfully fighting my way through The Golliwog's Cakewalk (which the free book of piano music[**] which arrived in the large box has carefully retitled Cakewalk). It's a real favourite of mine, and something which I used to be able to play easily. It's probably best for everyone that there are headphones.

However, on Sunday evening I had a ceremonial play-through of a Beethoven sonata[***] and went to bed happy :)




[*] Which, incidentally, is on Wardour Street.
[**] Which I largely ignored, because I assumed it would be simple re-arrangements of the usual selection of lollipops. It isn't; it's actually a remarkably decent selection of popular pieces, and fills in a lot of gaps of bits of sheet music I've mislaid (or, more probably, left in odd corners at my parents' house).
[***] In G major (No.20, Op.49 No.2), for the curious. Yes, yes, since you mention it, one of the very easy ones.

Comments

[lnr]

Fantastic! And it looks just right with those tiles.

[venta.livejournal.com]

We did have a long debate about whether to get it in black or white. The walls in the corridor aren't really white (they're that sort of off-white that looks white until you put a white thing near them) so it was a bit of a worry that a white piano would make everything look grubby! Doesn't seem too bad, though :)

(I wasn't intentionally wearing black and white while assembling it, it just turned out like that :)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Ooh, very cool! I don't think I even knew you played.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I think it's fair to say that I don't really :)

It's quite odd, actually, because my head can still play everything but my hands... just...won't... do the right things.

I'm actually wondering if it might be a slightly similar sensation to early stages of various neurological problems! (Not that I think I'm suffering from any.)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I'm like that with paint. If I haven't painted anything in a while I'm still confident that the paint will do what I want... I just turn out to be wrong!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Really? I didn't expect that to be the sort of skill that'd be affected. Does it feel wrong when you're actually painting, or does it just come out visually not how you wanted it?

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

It's to do with the way paint interacts with brushes and water. Basically, paint is horrible stuff that doesn't do what you want. If you try to tame its behaviour - for example by attempting to paint a straight line - it's hard work and the results are often dubious. Instead, you can get better results by anticipating what the paint will actually do and deploying these effects on purpose.

Look at something like Renoir's Bal du moulin de la Galette. Close up, the individual brushstrokes are larger (lower resolution) than some of the actual detail he's painting. Superficially this sounds impossible, but it isn't, because he matches the shapes of the strokes themselves to shapes he wants in the painting.

Trying to do this and getting it slightly wrong is disastrous, though. Which is what happens if you're out of practice at guessing exactly what the paint's going to do. (So yes, I suppose more the latter of your descriptions than the former.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Wow, I really have no idea about paint... though I am now curious to see that painting in the real so I can peer at it and see properly what you mean.

Which means I have to go to Paris, right?

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Yup. Unavoidable at this point.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Although you can zoom in to well below brushstroke level in the GAP scan of it: http://www.googleartproject.com/en-gb/collection/musee-dorsay-paris/artwork/dance-at-le-moulin-de-la-galette-auguste-renoir/536077/ which is not a bad substitute for now.

[lnr]

*nods* My sister did an art foundation degree, but hasn't done much art in ages - she's really getting into quilting at the moment, and says it's great to be doing something creative which isn't continually frustrating from being much worse at it than her brain expects her to be.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that sounds fun! :-D

[kauket.livejournal.com]

I am the most jealous. How have you found it compared to what you remember of real pianos. I really want to play the piano again - keyboards are not quite right - but I just can't manage hauling around a piano when I move every few years.

[venta.livejournal.com]

It's way more like a real piano than anything I've ever met in the keyboard department. They keys respond properly, though they're a bit clunky and noisy (really noticable if you've got the volume turned way down) - I guess it's quite like a slightly downmarket piano. Certainly not like the nice grands they had available to use in college :)

Then again, it is really quite a cheap digital piano. Some of the ones they had in the shop that were well up in the thousands were very, very like playing a good piano. But mine's definitely close enough to be fun to play if you're used to a piano. I guess a concert pianist would find it a bit limiting, but I'm very happy with it.

For moving and such, the things sold as 'stage pianos' (ie like a keyboard, with a stand, rather than a piece of furniture) might be reasonably easy to shift about. I don't know, and I didn't try any of them out.

Obviously you're welcome to come round and have a play with mine if you'd like :)

[kauket.livejournal.com]

Hur hur. Etc.

Actually I did want to see if you were thinking about Edinburgh this year?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Still in negotiation in our house at the moment. Do you do it every year? We were wondering whether it might be an every-few-years thing as otherwise you'll risk seeing all the same people you saw last year.

Plus, obviously, working out if it's affordable :(

[kauket.livejournal.com]

If you come down on the side of 'yes' let me know as we might be able to discuss assisting with cheapish accomodation. We're going for the last week precisely so that we can read the reviews and find the people who are well reviewed and maybe see some different stuff.

I've been every year for the last two years. Err so twice. And I am definitely going again this year - there's so much to see that I only overlap through specific choice and wanting to see someone new show each year

[venta.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you - though I'm afraid if we do go, it absolutely won't be the last week (I'll be at Whitby Folk Festival then), so we're really not much use :(

[kauket.livejournal.com]

I'll let you know when we confirm dates in case it works for you. It's nothing glam but it's very cheap, for Edinburgh at that time of year

[venta.livejournal.com]

That's brilliant, thanks. We like cheap :)

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Nice!

I particularly love the you in a box pics :-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

:)

One of the reasons ChrisC was on the phone when I wanted assistance was that we'd spent rather too long earlier playing with the packaging...

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Very cool.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

Yay! Looks good :)
I recently got my Clavinova moved from the pokey computer room to the lounge - now it's in sight and I get the urge to play it lots more!

I played on a hybrid baby grand once in a music shop when they first came out. They're definitely on my winning-the-lottery wishlist.

[exspelunca.livejournal.com]

... and we are left with the good,solid Kemble (as put into W Yorkshire schools, I'm told) and my excuse for not picking up again was that the piano wasn't a permanent resident. More than a decade not playing? More like three, apart from playing through alto parts to see if they sound remotely like what I'm trying to sing.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

You thought I'd have a box that large delivered and not play in it?

I can't remember if you were around for the Mo's Big Box game at The House With No Name? I'd had a load of hifi equipment delivered in a really rather large cardboard box. The game consisted of seeing how many people could fit into it (which turned out to be seven or so I think). Then stage 2 of the game, invented by housemate M, involved throwing out all the copious packing material (shredded paper) all over the living-room, in handfuls, while laughing hysterically.

(Took quite a while to clean up after that.)