My name is Greg Beam. My Great Great Grandmother played piano for her church in the 1890s and did so for most of her life (I have her piano that she received on her 16th birthday, a George Steck & Co upright in dire need of restoration). My maternal Grandmother played the french horn her whole life and sang with Sweet Adelines for as long as I can remember. My Grandfather played piano and sang and gave lessons to his community for all of his adult life (he played a wonderful Mason & Hamlin Model A Parlor Grand that I have inherited) Neither of my parents played but they were both naturally able to sing and hold a tune and it seems that every aunt and uncle played an instrument and could all sing. I am very grateful to come from such a musical family.
I started taking piano lessons when I was 5 years old. I fell in love with it the first time I heard and saw my piano teacher play. I took lessons until my great grandmother passed away when I was around 10 years old. I later found out that she had paid for my lessons the whole time. I didn't know it as a kid but we were often financially struggling, I was one of seven children, my father was a construction worker and my mother stayed at home with us kids while attending night school (she would eventually go on to get a Masters Degree in Fine Arts). After my lessons were cancelled I continued to study piano as best as I could on my own and was fortunate enough to play percussion in the school band which surprisingly helped my piano playing quite a bit. In that time I also received an acoustic guitar from my Grandmother which I spent every waking moment learning to play. I would go on to become a competent enough guitar player, pianist and singer songwriter to compose and sell a few songs as well as play gigs for all of my 20s and much of my 30s. I am currently 38 and since 2020 I have struggled to reassert myself into the scene, but I have never stopped playing and writing. I have a beautiful wife who teaches grade school and we have 6 children together, 3 boy and 3 girls. So far my oldest have very little interest in music (it's never too late) but my younger kids are extremely interested and have requested that I fix up their Great Great Great Grandmothers piano for them. I intend to have it at least tuned and made fully playable, if possible. " When I was 10 years old I remember going to my Grandfathers for thanksgiving and playing on the old upright piano he had in the garage. He would listen and seemd to enjoy it but never really said much about it. I had been taking lessons since I was five years old and had a small repertoire of pieces I could play off the top of my head and I loved when there was a piano to play. Fast forward almost 30 years and Grandpa has passed away and left his piano to my Uncle who in turn decided that I should have it, being one of the few members of the family that still plays music regularly. I started asking questions about it and found out that it was a George Steck & Co that had been commissioned for my Great Great Grandmother when she turned 16. The story is that it was built in New York and then shipped around the Cape Horn eventually landing in San Francisco. Supposedly it was one of the earliest pianos to make to California, but I don't know if that's true or not. From there it was taken by wagon to the small town of Pino Grande in El Dorado County CA. Pino Grande is now a ghost town, if it can even be called that as there are hardly even any foundations left from the few buildings that were there. At some point during my Great Grandmother's life they moved to a small town called Georgetown, also in El Dorado County CA. That is where the piano lived the majority of it's life in the posession of my Grandfather who held onto to it until his passing. I am going to hold onto it for as long as I can because it is absolutely incredible to me that my grandkids will possibly be able to play on an instrument that was built for their Great Great Great Great Grandmother!!! Just knowing that my grandma probably tinkered around on it when she was little and that her mother likely did the same is just really special to me. Seeing my kids tinker around on it is surreal. Either way, whether I am able to have it restored or not, I feel very grateful to have it. Very grateful and very lucky. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, it has been a pleasure to get this story "onto paper" so to speak. Thank you, Greg Beam
