Monday, March 10, 2008

The Piano Diaries










The first weekend of Mulan performances is over and I'm exhausted by my piano drama. As you will recall, after the last show, it was reported to me that my trusty steed, the Yamaha piano at the theater would be going away. The Village Theater personnel ripped it from my loins and put it up for auction to be replaced by a digital piano.




At the beginning of rehearsals for Mulan, I arrived one day to see "my" piano gone and in its place, practically a toy piano. It doesn't quite have a full keyboard, it's smaller than me and has a plug-in pedal. I swear I could knock it over heaven forbid I play with too much gusto. I feel very exposed.





I'm a teamplayer. I'm flexible. I've really tried hard to make a go of this dumb thing. Fast forward to tech week. Pam is kind enough to appease me by bringing her clavinova (a much better digital piano with REAL pedals). I hear it took many of her offspring to load it into her car, she had to drive very slowly down the streets of Danville listening to incessant honking for her to speed up and then wait all day for my husband to get there to help move it into the theater. But Pam is good to me and does it anyway.


I sit down to play it, and the pedal is broken. The sustaining pedal doesn't clear so everything is mushy. I feel terrible and fearful to tell Pam that all her efforts have been in vain. Now I have two digital pianos in front of each other and I have to play the dippy one. And you know how superstitious I am about how my piano area must remain as it is from the beginning of tech week throughout the performances.
What a mess! I won't even mention what a difficult time I've had hearing the dumb digital piano. I have to wear earphones because the piano is hooked into the monitors on stage which turn off my piano speakers. In case you didn't know, you use your ears more than you think when you play the piano.

5 comments:

Cheryl said...

Ah, man! I so feel for you. I would give anything to trade my digital piano (even with it's ability to TURN OFF) for a real one. I'm still counting the days...

Nortorious said...

My heart goes out to you. Pam needs to supply the appropriate instrument and get it fixed. I can't believe the Clav has held on this long. Half the keys stick.

Laurel C. said...

Those digital pianos are grody, aren't they? That's all our tiny church in Korea had, and that one didn't have a middle C! I hope yours at least has THAT!

Karen said...

Why would you take away a REAL piano? I'mpretty sure you could get them on global warming....

Paige said...

Pianos are cheap. In fact, they give them away. Let's sneak a new one in there. I'll even lift it into the van again.