The Piano Man (OT)

Just thought I'd share this.

If the old adage "99% of everything is crap" is true, it that means a whopping 1% of everything is not crap. Which would mean that you can find gems among all kinds of human endeavor, creation, or expression.

Occasionally I run across something lovely in an online comment. This is an example. I encountered this little story in the comment stack under a video comparing different pianos. It's by one Stephen Ryder, and was written about two years ago. I hope it's okay to quote it—it's a little long for "Fair Use," but I'll chance it. I've edited it as I would a TOP comment, i.e., a little, but not much.

Stephen Ryder: "I was born to a poor family that didn't own a piano but I somehow developed a love for the sound of piano music. In the early 1950s, when I was ten years old, my older sister somehow wound up with an upright piano. It was in her room and I was not allowed in there. But like any self-respecting ten-year-old boy I sneaked in when no one was home, and over the next four or five years I taught myself to play—by ear of course. My sister never did pick it up and never played it, so there were never any fakebooks or sheet music in the house.

"As a teenager, girls suddenly got interesting, and there was sports—and one day on a clandestine mission to the room I discovered the piano was gone. For the next twenty years, still poor, I never saw or touched a piano again. Too busy trying to put food in my mouth and keep some kind of a roof over my head.

"In my travels—usually looking for work—I would encounter a piano in a hotel lobby, or a school where I was working temporarily as a janitor. Or in a house I was cleaning. I would play any and every chance I got. I learned to read music. I became acquainted with Mozart and Franz Liszt—and the music filled a certain ache in an otherwise empty life. In my thirties, I played a Steinway Concert D at Steinway hall on 57th street in New York. It was magical. The piano actually helped me play—as if it knew I had never played so fine a piano before. In Sydney Australia once, I got to play an old Baldwin S10 with its sweet sentimental sensuality in the action. Played a proud old Bluthner in Berlin in the 'sixties.

"Now that I'm pushing 80 my vagabond days are over, and I survive on Veteran's benefits. I'll never have the opportunity to play a fine piano again. I hope you know you are blessed by God to be able to play these masterpieces—and I can see by the smile on your face when you got up from that Fazioli that you play with your heart, not your hands. Thank you for the sharing the joy with me."

(posted by)  Mike

Book o' the Week

Leica M: Advanced Photo School by Günter Osterloh, second edition. My favorite of all the Leica gear books. And they are legion. You will actually learn practical stuff from this one. Used, but this is the latest edition from 2011.

The book link above is a portal to any purchase at Amazon. You're very kind use our links, as they help support the site.

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Albert Smith: "This is where technology has really made a significant leap. Today, compact yet capable electric keyboards allow those with limited funds or restrictive space to have they ability to own and play this instrument. These use to be a significant piece of furniture which also required routine maintenance in the form of tuning to keep operating. How many potential Elton Johns never had the opportunity to play?"

Andrew: "Forgive my cynicism. A lovely sentimental (perhaps overwrought) story, with more than a couple of red flags. A poor family in the '50s with a child's bedroom large enough for a piano? Young Mr. Ryder learns to play the piano by ear over 4–5 years with no one in the family noticing? Then the piano is moved out of the house without him noticing? He doesn't touch a piano again until his mid-30s (presumably serving in the military during that time)? Following which, his vagabond travels take him to NYC, Sydney and Berlin? I don't typically read the comments (other than on TOP of course), but I've seen similar dewy-eyed tall tales posted below YouTube videos. A touching story, but I have my doubts." 

Mike replies: It could well be that it was written by a 15-year-old with imagination, but if it's fiction it works for me!

Comments

[Jnny]

I'm a heavy metal fan. 99.9% of heavy metal is crap.

[Sylvain G.]

Beautiful!

[Paul]

I love this. I could feel his longing and passion.

When I was a teenager, I'd sneak into the choral room and run my inexperienced fingers over the keys. By college, I was sneaking into the sound proofed rehearsal rooms. I never took lessons, and my 1 year of both trumpet and guitar as a boy, didn't leave me with any music reading skills to speak of.

But the lure of its expressive potential led me to simple, personal compositions that reflected my poetry at the time. Both were used to help me work through the melancholy that had lodged in my heart.

Ultimately, photography won out over piano. But to this day, I can't help myself when I see a piano sitting there; I have to touch the keys, to gently release my adolescent composition one more time. I wish I'd actually learned to play.

I'm not certain I'd ever have seen Steven Ryders comment on my own, so thank you sharing it.

[Terry Letton]

Thank you for passing this on. Although the only musical device I can play is the radio, I did work in the piano industry in my younger days. This reminded me of a very pleasant evening in Frankfort having dinner with Mr Fazioli.

[Sumanta Mukherjee]

You made my day Mike.

In the morning, I saw a poorly fed yet surviving cat on a footpath, licking milk out of leaking milk packets. Yellow and Blue buckets were stacked all around the cat holding those milk packets. A wonderful colour combination to see there.
In that dirty footpath, those bright coloured stacked trays were like authorities of rules with campaigning colours, and like a law breaker the cat was even more beautiful.

I think life is 99% gem and just 1% crap when we see the effort to live that we all put in. The intent I mean. Action, since has two sides of impacts, imparts the crap for one of the two.

Keep sharing Mike.

Sumanta
India

[scott kirkpatrick]

That sounds like an awesome core for a life. Can you provide the link to whatever Mr. Ryder was watching when he penned that meditation?

[It was a comparison between Steinway, Bosendorfer, and C. Bechstein pianos. I have no idea why I was watching it myself. That often happens on YouTube. I've gotten in the habit of "coming to" every so often and asking myself, "is there ANY reason you should be spending time with this?" The answer is often...that I turn it off and go do something, anything, constructive.

Oh, I remember now...I was watching a recital and the piano said "C. Bechstein" on the side of it, and I had never heard of that name. So I googled "C. Bechstein." And there I was. --Mike]

[Peter Croft]

At 75, how I wish I'd taken up Mum's offer of piano lessons, but boyish bravado told me piano lessons were for girls. I yearn to be able to play.

I notice now that in many things, I have muscle memory, where my fingers just know where to go and when. Unfortunately, it's mainly the PC keyboard and the TV remotes. I think my fingers could learn the piano keys, but it's a bit late. Too many other pressing projects.

My grandmother had a player piano by the way, made by Beale. I occasionally used to load up a roll or two, but that's not playing, just playing around.

By the way Mike, your "On-line Photographer" logo has disappeared from the header of your web page, in Firefox anyway. There's just a blank space where it ought to be.

[Not THAT Ross Cameron]

Many thanks for sharing that.
That 1% gives us hope in humanity.
If only another 1% could give us the same hope.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-20/tech-billionaires-are-planning-for-the-apocalypse/101546216
Reminds me of Ben Elton’s first book - Stark.
Context - ABC in Australia is similar to BBC in UK, although funded differently.
Sorry - I don’t want to start a comments flame war. I just read TOP and then read the above story. 1%ers…

[Tom Burke]

Interesting tale.

Is the ‘public piano’ a thing in the US? In the UK many large railway stations have an old upright piano in the concourse for anyone to play. Most performances are pedestrian or even shambolic, of course, but occasionally one strikes home. I’ve had a number of beautiful moments. (There are YouTube videos, of course.)