There are 6 kids in my family. About half of us play the piano but we all love music. Our mom has always played the piano for us and herself. I recall many nights just listening to the familiar songs she’d fill our home. Now she and my little brother share their love for playing the piano. Learning the same songs, practicing, and collaborating. Pianos have always been a part of our home and family life. I can’t imagine being without it. My mom has two pianos. One is an upright she acquired and the main piano that is played. Her other piano is a beautiful, tall upright (I think?). It belonged to my grandparents and when my grandma no longer had room for it, my mother inherited it. The sad part is it needs a lot of work. My mom looked into it but it hasn’t been feasible financially so it remains the statement piece of her living room though I know it would make her so happy to be able to reminisce while playing it again as she did as a kid.
I grew up in a musical family and a musical extended family. We were always singing together, playing songs on the piano together, performing musical skits together, playing various additional instruments, and so on. The piano I am entering is the one I grew up learning on. It’s been in my family since 1966. There were eventually 7 of us kids and as money was always tight, I only had maybe 2 years of actual lessons as a younger child. As I got into my teens I continued trying to teach myself to play. It wasn’t easy as my sight-reading skills have always lacked. In my mid 20s I was in an accident that took away 2/3 of my middle finger on my right hand and damaged my pointer finger. Playing some chords is impossible now but I still do my best to learn and play. I now have 6 children of my own. At some point, all of them have shown an interest in playing piano. A couple of them are actively taking lessons. I would love for my childhood piano to be restored and allow my children, and someday grandchildren, the opportunity of playing the same piano I did. It’s a priceless treasure. As a young mother, and coming from musical posterity, my mother was desperate to buy a piano. She and my father found one for sale for not much money and in 1966 a piano joined my family. (I didn’t come along until 1972) My mother would play the piano for a children’s choir and she would also play the piano as we all stood around and sang. My father played the saxophone and my mother would play the piano as he played. Music was, and still is, a huge part of our family. This family piano came to reside with me about 6 years ago. My mother was moving out of state and couldn’t take the piano anymore, my oldest sister couldn’t transport it to Texas, and I couldn’t stand for the piano to not be in the family - so it came home with me. It has been a wonderful piano through the years and holds many precious memories. In the 58 years this has been our family piano it has gone from Portland Oregon to Salem Oregon, to a storage shed in Monmouth Oregon when my parents lost their home, to another storage shed in Salem Oregon as my parents had to live in a camper for a while, finally to a duplex in Salem Oregon, to Elk Ridge Utah after my father died and my mother moved, to Spanish Fork Utah, and now to Bluffdale Utah. There are some keys that play and some that don’t now. Sometimes the soft and sustain pedal work - sometimes they don’t. It has a tinny, almost saloon piano ring to it now. Some keys have to be pressed harder than others so you need to make sure your fingers are strong. I would love to get this treasure and family heirloom restored and be able to someday pass on this treasure to one of my own children.
