A musical mystery tour

Yesterday I thought a lot about pianos. It was the monthly gathering of my musical group “Works in Progess”, where we all play for each other. And our book club was discussing “Grand Obsession” by Perry Knize.

I credit the piano group with making performing FUN for me. For most of my life I had been terrified of playing for others for fear of making mistakes and/or making a fool of myself. But then I found this group of amateurs who get together once a month just to listen to each other and give encouragement. We range in age from 9 to 75+. There is a wide range of experience and skill level. Without a doubt the best player is the 10-year-old girl who plays everything from memory and seldom hits a wrong note. In addition to piano, we get to hear cello and double bass most times.



We each take a turn, with no set order, until everyone who wants to has played. Then we eat decadent food and (adults) drink wine. It is really very civilized and non-threatening.



This was the perfect segue to our book club discussion. Grand Obsession is a non-fiction book that chronicles the author’s rediscovery of music in her forties, her search for the perfect piano, and her extreme measures to make the piano she purchased sound like it did in the NYC showroom.

When I first started the book, I quickly surmised that the only people who would like it were those of us who were musicians, about a third of the group. But I was so wrong. What made the discussion even more interesting was the varied backgrounds of the readers.

I could certainly identify with the author’s experience as she joined a performance group much like ours and began to understand how much better you play if you relax and just trust your fingers to do what they know how to do.

The book was as much about music appreciation as about finding the perfect piano. Here’s a quote (from the book) from David Burton, who often writes on a website called Piano World:

When one sits down at one’s piano and begins to play, there is no idealism to be reached for, the experience is THERE, right now, instantaneous and totally REAL. When one is able to realize with clarity the breathtaking achievements of some great master, to the point where one is almost not conscious of playing as being played by transcendent forces, or even transcendent beings, one is not trying for some ideal, one has achieved a state of being that exists in few other human experiences.

Last night’s discussion touched a lot on vibration. We learned in the book that a room full of pianos will somehow find a common vibration, much as a group of female friends find they have similar menstrual cycles. We talked about how people get good vibes from those of a like mind.

The author is clearly obsessed in her search for perfection, a sound that most people are incapable of identifying. We follow her around the country, to New York, even to Germany and Austria, where her Grotrian piano was made.

We all breathe a sigh of relief when her piano “Marlene” is finally restored to her original beautiful sound. But we also realize just how much we have learned about pianos and music in the course of her odyssey.