Saturday, September 17, 2011

Musical things!

The past two days have been exceptionally musical! Yesterday I was messing around with a miniature harmonica I picked up at the antique store in Barriere. I looked up some videos on youtube and learned a few blues riffs. This morning on my way to work, I stopped in at Lee's Music and picked up a Hohner Marine Band Harmonica, it's a lovely harp with a wood reed. I've been messing around with it all day. Mackenzie and I walked from Riverside Park to the store and I played it the whole way with Mackenzie jamming some made-up blues lyrics. At one point a couple of elderly ladies clapped and insisted I play some more, I laughed and explained I had only been playing for one day and that was all I knew. I know about 5 riffs now and can throw together a credible blues song.
When I got home there was another musical surprise! My husband had bought a piano for me for our anniversary! It's beautiful! I did some research on it, it is a Lenox by Lauter and was made in Newark, NJ. The piano is about 100 years old. Unfortunately, the company no longer exists so it's going to take a little work to get an exact age even with the serial number. It has been refinished on the outside-but they did a nice job. The harp inside is beautiful with hand painted enamel flowers and hand pressed foil. On the inside paneling for the bottom, harp cover (or whatever you call it) and the top, you can still see the maker initials and chalked serial # (the serial is metal stamped on the harp). From the research I have done I would make a guess of slightly Pre-WWI (that's the great thing about sequential serial numbers). It has a beautiful sound and only two of the hammers need to be slightly adjusted. It's been recently refelted. It's fantastic!
I am not much of a piano player, I can read music for it somewhat, but it's a labourious process. I am hoping withe constant access to a piano I can improve my playing.
Include my recent return to guitar playing and I may have a slight decrease in my knitting...however I take lots of time for knitting in the store so I feel no guilt!

2 comments:

2 Good Claymates said...

Happy anniversary! What a lovely gift your hubby gave you -- I'm sure you will enjoy it for a long time.

I always feel there is plenty of room for music in one's life! I find I work much better when I have some music playing in the background to hum or sing along with.

LoriAngela said...

Awesome. A piano is a beautiful gift! I just got a bass guitar! Maybe we can do some beginner jamming. I can show you some jazz piano.