Hunt for a Baby Grand Piano #

One of Mary’s Red Hat friends knew that we were in the market for a Baby Grand Piano and she knew about this lady that was moving into assisted living and was selling many of her possessions. One thing that she had was a neglected Baby Grand Piano. It was a Schafer and Sons piano and at one time they were made in California. The woman was a widow and she and her late husband had a dream of learning to play it but never did. The piano was just used as a show piece and used to display pictures and ornaments. The piano had not been tuned or cared for a very long time but it had a good feel so we made an offer that she agreed to and we moved it to our place in June of 2019 which would be a year after we bought the house.

We got it turned shortly after arrival and I just loved the tone of this piano. It had a great sound especially in the lower register. It was like a cross between a Baldwin and a Steinway. I really enjoyed playing this piano but because of the raised ceiling and the hardwood floors, the sound really carried and even though I was quite aways away from the TV room, it did affect the ability of anyone watching TV when I played. Playing was mostly reserved for when Mary was away and I could really crank on it.

That year Mary hosted the Red Hat Christmas Party for her group and I played Christmas Carols on the piano. It was great fun and I got a lot of compliments. I missed my opportunity to leave a tip jar out there.

I loved having the Baby Grand Piano in our home and I played it quite often and some of the song ideas that were floating around in my head became regular pieces that I would play and continue to tweak. From a writing perspective I didn’t want to sit there and pick out the notes that I was playing and didn’t want to drag out my old Yamaha DX7 as it was heavy and bulky so I started looking for just a keyboard that could output midi that I could capture on my laptop.