Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Piano curse?

There is something really wrong with people who do that. Sorry to hear about this! Such a shame...

About the smashed piano - When I was 7, my adopted brother arrived in my father's truck. My father went to a big city to pick the kid up. What I remember being told was that he was malnourished. His legs were very thin and weak. I was told every word out of his mouth was a swear word. He was 4 years old. I soon learned that he would pull out all his eyelashes if he was unhappy about something. He told my mother that she could hit him or break his arm but he would not do anyting he didn't want to do. When I was a teenage, I got a transistor radio. A some point he smashed the transistor radio to pieces. I am not sure why. In his teens he carved his name into his arm as a tattoo. He always said he would marry rich women and both his wives were rich. When he was married to his first wife he punched a concrete wall and broke his arm. Later he became addicted to some drug and eventually he committed suicide at about 50. I left home to go to college when he was 16 so I don't really know about his life. But I tell you this to give you an idea of what kind of people would break or destroy a piano. I was adopted as a baby as opposed to 4 years old - and I had an awesome life.

About the piano - Lang Lang could play your digital piano or any piano and it would sound awesome. Why? - because a master has the facility to do what is necessary to make it happen. I have a secondhand acoustic grand yamaha and am humbled by its presence. Sure it sounds good, but when I use the same phrasing the cheap digital sounds good, too. I am just a beginner and am happy to practice or play on any piano - especially after midnight. I remember not so long ago when digtal pianos didn't exit and the steinways and all acoustic
pianos were silent after 8:00 p.m. if you live in or close to others who could hear the piano.

I only wished the price of the piano is what makes the quality of my playing sound better. A wrong note on any piano sounds the same.

I'm wondering now if that decision not to repair the piano is irrevocable. Of course it depends on what the damage is, but 8-foot Bechsteins are not so easy to come by, and I can't help wondering whether it could be repaired. A situation like this might even be a good occasion for fundraising to cover the costs. Nobody wants the vandals to win.

Yes, but would he still make his ridiculous gyrations?

The offender should be sentenced to a minimum of 12 months of community work.

How about 20 to life on the rock pile?

(If I weren't opposed to capitol punishment on principle - - -)

But that's not capital punishment... Capital punishment would be dropping the thing on the offender's head (capital in two senses in that case).

My preferred punishment would be to require restitution. Once repaired, put the piano in a soundproof room, then force the offender to watch in silence from the outside as Lang Lang plays. He would have to watch endless gymnastics and gyrations, without getting the benefit of actually hearing anything.

The only thing I can think of that's actually worse than watching Lang Lang play would be to just watch him.

If they're not going to repair it, maybe you could offer to take it off their hands. I have no idea what it'd cost you to eventually get it repaired, but probably less than buying a new one.

Ah no! Lang Lang is brilliant- I love watching him play on the you tube videos and BBC concerts.

A real punishment would be Barry Manilow!

I was thinking this, but I don't have space for a concert grand.

The bigger problem is how on earth I would get out of there. Without knocking a wall out.

They remove the legs, turn the piano on edge and use a dolly.

Was the building built around the Bösendorfer?

If they got it in, you can get it out.

You never know what may happen. When I was young, my dad was in the army and we moved constantly. I always wanted piano lessons and a piano, but never could have either. (I loved the piano from my earliest days partly because my grandpa was a piano tuner/rebuilder and pianos fascinated me when I was visiting my grandparents. There were always multiple pianos everywhere in various levels of rebuilding, actions everywhere, etc. It was magic!)

When I got older and married, I picked up old uprights from time to time, never paying much more than $100, and sometimes getting them for free. Usually I ended up letting them go to someone else for about the same or a little more after I cleaned them up. I couldn't repair or tune them, but I often refinished the cabinets. It was the limit of my skills. Most weren't very playable.

Eventually I got lucky. I was teaching school and the music department needed to place a few of their institutional spinets in classrooms since there wasn't a storage room for them. I volunteered my room for one of them. It was not very good and rarely in tune (a sad commentary on the support for music programs in schools, I'm afraid) but I played on that piano before school, after school, and during my lunch breaks. I began to pick up a little bit of skill from all the playing and I felt very lucky.

A few years later, one of my daughters returned from six years in college as a music major and settled in back home. She wanted to open a music studio to teach piano, voice, and clarinet, while teaching vocal music in a local high school. I offered her space in my shop (I had opened a comic book store in the large main room at the front of my house many years earlier and I gave her half of the shop space so she could make a piano purchase and start the studio.) She amazed me by buying a new Steinway L grand piano. (She was only able to do this because our credit union gave her a 10 year piano loan.) I felt like the OP because I could play the Steinway every day when there were no lessons going on. By this time I had retired from teaching so I could play for hours in the daytime while my daughter was teaching school.

Eventually all good things come to an end, however. She got her own place and took her Steinway with her. Although she offered its use whenever I wanted to make the half-hour drive to her new home, it wasn't as easy as having a piano in my house so my playing trailed off a lot. I began thinking about finding my own piano, but had a small budget. I knew a Steinway would be out of the question unless it was older. I have chronicled some of my search right here as it was about this time that I discovered Piano World.

I looked at uprights but after playing a nice, new Steinway grand, it was hard to get excited. Piano curse. I tried some inexpensive grands. Same problem. Then I went to some stores out of state while visiting one of my other daughters. I loved the large C. Bechstein, and the even larger Schimmel that I played there, as well as liking many smaller, but still too-expensive pianos. Piano curse all over again. These pianos blew away the Steinway L (7' and larger pianos from top tiers will do that to 5'11" pianos.)

I eventually found a brand-new 7'6" Albert Weber for sale in a town near home and it was offered at a very good price. I was almost set to buy it when personal situations changed drastically. My wife and I suffered a loss and eventually decided to relocate near two daughters in another state. When we found a house and started moving our things, I realized I would have only a small bedroom to hold the piano so I decided against the large Albert Weber. Back to looking.

Finally, after yearning for my own decent piano for almost 60 years, I found my dream piano. Rich Galassini at Cunningham Pianos in Philadelphia called me to tell me about some of his inventory. It took some persuading, but eventually I got talked into driving to Philadelphia. (I am very nervous driving in big cities and avoid them at all costs.) Originally I was interested in a wonderful Mason-Hamlin AA (about 6'4") but then Rich showed me a fine Mason-Hamlin BB in polished ebony. It even had a damp-chaser system already installed. The piano was used and Rich offered it at a very good price so my piano curse was ended by purchasing this wonderful, almost-new semi-concert grand.

The best news was that it fits in the bedroom and sounds very good there. (I do play it with the lid down or half-stick and I am not a dynamic, loud player anyway. Otherwise it might overwhelm the room a bit. Some day it may get moved into the large, open downstairs where it will be played with the lid full up, but it is great where it is right now.

So my suggestion again is that you never know. You might end up with the piano of your dreams eventually. Don't give up. I know my grandpa would be happy knowing I got his love of pianos and now have one of my own.