Welcoming the New Addition

Adoption date: 12/1/2007
Size: 5'8"
Weight: Around 650 pounds
Age: 24 years
Color: Walnut
Name: Baldwin Model R

After playing an abysmal piano – a Steinway Model M made in 1923 – on Thursday, I concluded that I wanted much more than a name. I called up my long-time piano tuner Walter Kim, who had worked for Gordon Keller until the store recently closed. Mr. Kim is a soft-spoken Korean man who knows everything there is to know about pianos. He assured me he could find me the perfect piano at a price I could afford. Yesterday he delivered on that promise.

I just had a feeling like I was going to be meeting a new family member as I got ready to go look at the piano. At 3:30 we walked into Christine’s Pianos in Great Falls. Christine is a shy Korean woman who has been in the business for 23 years. She showed me several models, but Walter told me the very best one for me was the Baldwin, the one I saw as I walked in the front door. He had already negotiated a price $10,000 lower than that sticker price.

Someone recently told me that you know the right piano immediately when you play it. I might have said that last weekend of the Steinway Model A for $42,000 that I played at Rick Jones Pianos. But it was already sold and I knew $42,000 was simply out of the question.

As I played the first chords on the Baldwin, I knew it was the one. It was new enough that it didn’t need the major repairs that the fine old Steinways need. It perfectly matched the furniture in our living room, much better in fact than the spinet that I had gotten at age 10. It could put out a powerful sound. And it was in perfect condition.

So the search was over. When could they deliver it? How about the next day? That would be today.

I watched incredulously as the 3 big burly moving guys brought in my unassembled grand piano and put it back together before my eyes. Then they took away my old blond friend as a trade-in. I fondly said goodbye.

There’s considerably less floor space in our living room, but it has graciously accommodated what will probably be my last piano, as my friend Deborah reminded me.

I teasingly told her I picked a piano that would look good with her double bass. She’s coming over later this afternoon to meet the new arrival and to see what kind of music we can now make together.

Isn’t it a beauty?