I SHOULD'VE PLAYED THE HARMONICA

OK. So I do love the piano. I love everything about it. The way it sounds. The way it's built. The people who work on them and build them. The way it looks (save for those awful baroque art case things), sleek and low-key and still modern. The fact that one still has to come up with something interesting using those same twelve tones (when it's in tune) - what a fucking challenge! The fact that it's basically a big drum. Indeed, I marvel at that peculiar premiere piano that represents a magnificent high point in music and civilization when Bartolomeo Cristofori built his first one in Italy. I wonder if he had any idea of what influence it would have in the future.

The thing that sucks about it is that you can't exactly travel with it. I mean, you can't bring your own personal piano to a gig so you are basically at the mercy of whatever is at the venue. This can be somewhat uninspiring for us piano players. Often, we don't get to play the instrument we fell in love with. Rather, an altered version of it that sounds and feels either like a toy or plain old trash. Staying motivated and aggressive to hunt for gigs becomes more and more difficult. After awhile I suppose I'll probably give up entirely. Not yet.

So where are the good pianos? Well it doesn't seem like there are too many around. Concert halls, Jazz clubs, museums and a few other places I suppose. Some private performance spaces, too. 

One memory of my father is hearing his voice saying "You should've played the harmonica."