07.14
In Misplaced Thoughts ,Music | Tags: Arts, Keyboard, Music, Piano, Preference, Timbre, Tones
Do I like the piano?
As an instrument? A concept? A sound? An icon?
Depends.
I’m currently employed on the media team of a large church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Part of my responsibilities here includes running the sound for weddings. Weddings, as anyone who has thought about getting married knows, often include pianos.
So, after a summer full of weddings, I should have a pretty good relationship with the piano, right?
Wrong.
My affection fluctuates. Some weekends, I love the piano. The wide range of notes, intricate overtones, and complex chord structures are a joy, instilling an excitement for music that perhaps had faded in recent days. At other times, the piano can drive me insane. The notes don’t quite blend with other instruments; the overtones ring too loudly; and the chords confuse my vocalists, giving them difficulty finding their own notes.
Today, though, I think I like the piano. I’m at a wedding. A fresh rendition of a play I have seen many times before. This time, the pianist gets her money’s worth out of each key, and the vocalist she’s accompanying keeps nailing his notes. Right now, the piano is all right.
But that could change.
2 Responses.
Fun read, Devin.
The sound of the piano–sometimes clunky, other times delightful–is so much a part of my life that I forget to wonder whether I like it or not. Having gone to my family’s decent set of keys just now, I remember that I do. (When I play my friend’s Steinway, I fall in love.) Do you play at all?
Just enough to hit chords to sing along with. My senior year of high school, I resolved to learn my way around my family’s upright. That didn’t last very long…