Another broken piano story

About a week ago, on the day after my normal Tuesday lesson, I was working on some Bach two-part inventions, and it wasn't going well. I could feel myself getting depressed, then frustrated. I decided to switch to some Oscar Peterson etudes, as they were less strenuous and could keep my attention better. For whatever reason, however, I was unable to play them either. Even with the easier pieces, it was like I had never seen them before. To quell my growing frustration but to keep sitting at and practicing the piano, I decided to just work scales and arpeggios, but even such simple exercises proved to be unmanageable. Nothing was going right. I kept taking deep breaths and starting over, but for whatever reason, I couldn't play more than a few notes before my fingers turned to cabbage and wilted haphazardly all over the keyboard.  I thought maybe a break would help, and to expel some energy, without thinking much about it, I just stood up as quickly as I could. Normally, my piano bench would slide backward on my chair mat, but this time, one leg caught in front of the mat, forcing the front of my thighs to hit my piano. Before I even knew exactly what was happening, my piano was toppling over right before my eyes. It crashed down on top of the light and music stand, right into the floor.

Not good.

The inside of a Yamaha P-70 digital piano

I recomposed myself and stood my piano back up. Everything looked okay and the keys still played. There wasn't even any noticeable damage to the light (a floor standing model), or the music stand (poly-carbonate attached to the piano). I looked at the back of the piano and noticed that the sustain pedal was still plugged in but seemed to be hanging loose. I pulled it out of the jack and watched the jack slip down into the piano. The two MIDI connectors right next to it were still connected, but they were loosely hanging too, and I could tell I wasn't going to be able to plug the pedal jack back in. I figured I would have to stabilize the jack from inside the piano, meaning I’d have to open it up, meaning I’d have to separate the outside parts of the piano from the inside parts of the piano, so, I pulled the MIDI plugs. The card and connectors dropped completely out of sight.

Not good.

The next morning, I set about disassembling the piano. Usually, on an electronic device like this, there are a set number of screws that hold the frame to the insides, with the remainder of the screws holding things to the frame. Not on a Yamaha digital piano, though. Every screw is holding the frame against the piano guts. I removed them all and was finally able to open the piano. I immediately spotted the jack board, still connected but floating free. Underneath it, some plastic bits that obviously held it in place were broken. I’d have to come up with a way to stabilize it. I wanted to see if connecting the sustain pedal made it actually work again, but when I moved the jack board, I noticed a corner of it had chipped off. I fished around and found the corner and it had little bits of metal and circuitry on it. It was obvious that the two MIDI connectors and sustain pedal jack, all located so close to each other, had jammed into the jack board when the floor forced them up inside the piano. It was that force that caused the board to shear and crack, separating it from the piano and frame and damaging the circuitry.

Definitely not good.

The results of my piano falling over: a shattered DJack board and a broken mounting post (far left)

So, obviously, that board would have to be replaced. I attempted to remove it and only succeeded in chipping bits of the connector with my needle nose pliers. I pulled on the connector cord itself and extracted it, finally, though I’m still not sure if I extracted it from the connector, the connector solder, or the board itself. (We’ll find out when we connect the replacement part.) Upon further examination, there were lots of little broken pieces, so I took them all out and placed them in a bag for safekeeping. I won’t go into details of ordering the part from Yamaha. Suffice to say, they’re used to dealing with dealers and not random guys who are unafraid of opening their seven year old digital piano because they lived through a square grand piano conversion. I managed to get the part ordered and on the way – with free shipping no less – even with the surly, impatient, “sigh, my life sucks” SOB phone operator.

Not bad.

The replacement part, fresh out of the bubble wrap 

The lingering question is: Can I really fix my piano just by replacing a $77 jack board or will I have to fork over $1K for a decent replacement piano prior to obtaining my grand? We’ll soon find out.

Would you buy a beer for the picture on the label?

Until two days ago, my answer would have been no. But as an aspiring jazz pianist, I was tempted when I saw this in my local grocery store aisle. 

At $3 a bottle, I managed to talk myself out of it, but then I researched the beer on the brewery’s website, and wouldn't you know it, one of my new favorite jazz pianists, Geoffrey Keezer, is flogging it on the brewer's website. Now, I don't owe Geoffrey anything, but, hey, if it's good enough for him, I don't know, maybe it will make me a better pianist. So, yesterday, I made a special trip just to pick up the beer (and some cold, cough, and flu medicine for me and Mrs. S).

So the answer to the question in the title turns out to be: Hell, why not?

The kind of cool touches that I like

So, a few (?) years back, the actress Molly Ringwald releases a jazz vocal CD. No really, here it is:

Molly's pretty hot with her hair swept back like that. The black gloves are nice, too.

It didn't win any prizes, but it got noticed by just enough people who understand these things that it made its way into my consciousness. I bought it with a bunch of Christmas CD's and finally got around to listening to it the other day. It's pretty damn good. Ms. Ringwald's voice is terrific, and I'm guessing she must have studied with someone, because her singing is precise, elegant, and pleasant.

What I like about the CD is, in the one defining movie of her career, The Breakfast Club, the feature song is Don't You (Forget About Me), and she does a jazz version of it, quite slow. It's worth the price of admission.

Compilation that includes the original song

Now all I have to do is see if I can find Ms. Ringwald performing and have her sign my shoulder so I can have it tattooed into my skin. (Not! Brooke Shields, maybe. Not Molly Ringwald, though, I might could be persuaded.)

Two methodologies to create memories of Paul McCartney in concert

Win two different lotteries and fly 6,000 miles, or, spend a lot of money, go to the concert on your birthday, and parley your name and nationality into a one of a kind tattoo.

Although Paul McCartney has only released one “top to bottom” jazz album, many Beatles hits have become jazz standards. One of the ensembles I played in even featured a very “French café” sounding version of Michele. Which has nothing to do with why I went to see him at the Tokyo Dome two weeks ago.

The view in the dome, thirty minutes to show time, approximately one quarter mile from the stage.

A happy confluence of events: Mrs. S and I scheduled a trip to Japan around the time that Paul was going to be in Japan. This was not as easy as it sounds, because the air tickets were freebies that were won in a drawing at a Japanese cultural event, and needless to say, airlines don’t mind giving away free tickets, but they are loathe to actually allow you use them, never mind pick a particular date. Nonetheless, she managed.

Same view, two minutes to show time.

Then, her sister entered the lottery to be allowed to purchase tickets to one of the Paul McCartney concerts at the Tokyo Dome, and was selected to be a purchaser. She picked up four tickets in the best section she could, which although we were quite far from the stage, we at least had a clear and unobstructed view.

Somewhere in there is a former Beatle, Wings leader, and knight of the realm.

The concert was great. 71-year old guy sang 39 songs for two hours and forty five minutes non-stop. Not bad at all. I've got another concert memory, and I saw a genuine legend of rock and pop music perform live. No complaints there. It’s almost makes me Paul-crazy.

Speaking of which, let me share a story.

One of Mrs. S’s friends is a big Paul McCartney fan. She paid a couple thousand bucks to be in the front row all three nights Paul played in Tokyo. Anyway, she knows another girl who became a big fan of Paul’s. When she was 24, that girl traveled to Montreal and since she had purchased a VIP package, she attended the sound check. At the sound check, she held up a big sign saying, “I traveled all the way from Japan and today is my birthday!” or some such, and sure enough, Paul called her up on stage. As soon as she got on stage, she bared her left shoulder and asked him to autograph it for her. Paul was a bit embarrassed, but signed anyway. After he signed, he asked her what her name was. She told him: “Yoko.” Paul said, “Ah, I've heard that name before.”

The next day, the girl went to a tattoo shop and had the signature tattooed in place. So wherever you are, Yoko-san, send me a picture of your tattoo. My readers and I want to see it! 

‘Nother Night in Nashville

A week ago Friday, Mrs. S and I made the trip to Nashville for a break from the home renovations (kind of) to see Chris Botti. We changed it up this time and ended up behind the stage, which takes a lot of walking to get to. You definitely get a different perspective up there behind the stage.

I wish I could just eat my dinner instead of photographing every plate that comes to the table. (@Etch Restaurant)

It was great to hear Chris, Billy Kilson, and a great band with a great pianist (more in a minute) and while I do enjoy the tunes, which he’s been playing in more or less this exact format for more or less ten years now, 300 days a year (according to him), I did feel things were getting just a little on the stale side. Then he changed it up.

What I could see from my seat.

He brought out Sy Smith, who I certainly didn't expect to see but who I was excited to see. She’s a tremendous singer. Just tremendous. The show was enjoyable, make no mistake about it, but I’m hoping Chris puts together a different set soon and brings back Mark Whitfield on guitar. That would be awesome.

A blurry shot of me with bassist Richie Goods

After the show we hung around and got pictures with Chris and some of his band members, plus a bunch of autographs on a bunch of CD’s and DVD’s. I got to talk with Geoffrey Keezer for a little bit. Now, I’d never heard of this guy until that night, but I’ll tell you right now: I’m going to keep my eyes open for this guy. He’s amazing. During his solo on Flamenco Sketches, I managed to catch a little bit of Waltz for Debby, and then, Fascinating Rhythm. Of course, I asked him how he managed to work those two songs, one in a different time signature, into his solo, and he gave a typical genius pianist’s answer: “I don’t know. And, you’ll probably never hear me do that ever again.” Yep, amazing.

Me and Mr. Keezer. Goodness, this guy's a fantastic pianist.

The next day was back to the renovation, picking up some IKEA furniture at an IKEA agent outside of Nashville. We even made time to stop at the Steinway Gallery and see a bunch of pianos I’m not going to buy. (The Yamaha C3 they had was excellent. I’d’ve bought it if it was 25% cheaper than the price quoted me. Sigh.)

The shot before this one included Mrs. S. I made Chris smile when she got confused and I said, "Beat it!"

Back home, it was back to the renovations, listening and thinking about jazz, and getting slowly closer to my own piano. That’s it.

First room renovation finished: Composer’s Study

About one month ago, the installation of our hardwood floors was completed. Although the room where the grand piano will go (the Dining Room turned Music Room) was not one of those having flooring installed, it was one of those that was commandeered for storing junk while the floors were installed in the other rooms. It was during this time, with the digital piano on the new wool rug in the Music Room, that I discovered the rug was shedding, severely. So severely in fact, that Mrs. S and I made a decision that we did not want to put the grand piano on that rug. This more or less forced us to paint my study to match that rug (the same color scheme as the Music Room), and that was finally completed three weekends ago.

The view through the doorway from the hallway, into the room and out the window.

After painting, the space looked great but there was one glaring deficiency: my “desk”. We decided there was no sense in putting an old bashed up IKEA table in that room. A proper desk was needed for a proper work space. The table went to the curb. (It was gone in twenty minutes.)

The view from the left corner back toward the work space, drink at the ready.

Unfortunately, the desk that I liked (and that Mrs. S had picked out) which had been on sale was back to its regular price of about double its sale price. I was bemoaning my hesitance over Sunday breakfast and the Sudoku puzzle, when Mrs. S noticed the same desk was back on sale … for $20 less than before. We ordered one online (taking advantage of an additional $10 online coupon) and I went and picked it up that morning. After finishing up the painting, I also painted the backs of the bookcases with the last of the paint (saving another can for touch up and future projects) and installed those. I moved the rug in and started building my desk. Two days later, the desk and hutch were finished and I moved my piano into the room. My Composer’s Study, which is also my practice room (for now), was finished - or so we thought - and I was ready to brag about it on this blog. 

The composer's work space. Drink at the right, piano at the left and hooked to the computer, conveniently located right in the middle.

Along the way and before that entry, we had an issue with the media storage we bought. After staining it a light green to match Mrs. S's study, she decided she didn't like it. Since we had leftover paint, I painted it the same color as my room. We painted the trim two different colors, finally settling on white. That piece was installed in the Composer's Study, which was a more logical location for it anyway. We had to have extra shelves made, but once we did, and once we painted and installed them, and then piled a ton of CD's on them, the first room in the renovation was complete. (That is, if you don’t count the master bedroom, which had actual flooring installed but which did not get any other modifications, other than minor cosmetic and decorating details.)

We have a few CD's in our collection.

I can’t tell you how relieved we are to have one room finished. We continue to throw out books and junk to leave us a little space on the bookshelves to be creative and decorative. We are being pretty relentless about getting rid of marginal stuff. The effect on the house and our living space is noticeable. All the better to prepare for the ultimate goal of installing a grand piano.

And so we inch closer and closer, as we further come to grips with our changing (changed?) values and future desires.

Change of plans, again

Just like my attempted square grand piano renovation, our house renovation that is being undertaken in the interest of providing us a conducive space for placing a baby grand piano and using it to make music is fraught with too many steps in the opposite direction. With the square grand refurb, most of the time the problem lie with the piano itself and not with the restorer (me). With the house renovation, most of the “setbacks” are due to myself and Mrs. S, mostly because as we are pushing ahead with the projects, we are also coming to grips with our aging sensibilities and changes in taste. Of course, sometimes, the house (or the things in it) is the culprit, just as with the piano.

Roosevelt contemplates becoming a "curio", during phase two of "how would this look over there?" furniture move.

The latest problem, the rug we selected for the music room, is a case in point. It’s a nice rug. It wasn't cheap. It’s 100% wool, “hand-tufted” (whatever that means), and is a perfect color scheme for a music room. So much so, we painted the music room (our converted dining room) to match it. Imagine my dismay then when I realized that the rug is shedding uncontrollably, enough so that when I sit down at my digital piano placed at one end of the room, I can notice little tiny black wool hairs accumulating on the keys. That’s fine as far as my six year old, couple-a-hundred digital piano goes. It’s not viable for when I get my grand. We did, however, paint the room to compliment the rug.

The Music Room, essentially finished ... until we decided it wasn't.

What to do?

Well, we've decided to move the rug to my study. That means painting yet another room that we had not planned on painting. It also means we have to find another rug to match the music room paint color (because we sure as hell aren't painting that room again). Fortunately, the rug that was originally our “dining room” rug more or less fits that color scheme, so we can actually get away with putting it back in place. The grand piano will make permanent impressions in it once it is put down, and we were trying to avoid that, but then I thought, Why? What’s the point of having stuff if you can’t enjoy it? And besides, ten or twenty years from now, are we going to even care? (Again, coming to grips with aging sensibilities here.)

The Composer's Study, pre-paint job and furniture re-install.

That means, however, we have to find a nice living room rug. No small task that, as it is no small room. In the meantime, chores continue to get knocked out, but new ones keep piling on. Knocked out: Painting the music room. Added on: Painting the study. Knocked out, painting the study. Added on: painting the small study. Knocked out, painting the small study closet. Added on: moving the book cases. Knocked out: moving the book cases. Added on: moving the CD rack. Knocked out: moving the CD rack. Added on: installing bookcases in the study closet, including removing the closet doors and fascia. Knocked out, removing doors and fascia. Added on: installing bookcases in that closet.

You get the idea.

And, we are tossing so much stuff, our recycling and garbage guys are probably plotting something for us by now. If they saw the quantity of stuff we have lined up for donation, they wouldn't complain about the garbage (especially since most of the donation stuff is books, i.e. heavy).

When my square grand piano renovation went too far south on me, I gave up and turned it into a more than serviceable decorative bar, which I still consider as a success.  

I declare this as the booziest piano in the world.

With all the changes of plans in this current project, although I know I’ll still be left with a house and (probably) a grand piano, just like the square grand project, I don’t know what’s in store for me along the way. We’ll just have to keep pressing on and see where it gets me.