july 29 in twenty-eight

Lots of interesting things are in the mix right now.

One, I stopped by the friend of my mother's to inquire about the piano she is giving away. It's in fine shape; needs a key replaced (which could cost me anywhere from $50 to a few hundred depending on the source. If it were a rarely-played note I wouldn't mind, but it's the E below middle C), of course it needs tuned, but it's just what I needed. It's an upright so it will fit nicely on the empty side of the living room. Naturally I have dreams of someday owning a beautiful grand piano, but until I have $50,000 I can't find a better use for, this is it.

I also inquired into piano lessons. Roomie has been telling me since I've known him that he wants to take lessons. I played for most of my childhood and want to get back into it, just for fun. I don't know how roomie will like doing it, but I figure he should give it a try and see how it goes. I will most likely be taking a lesson a month. Maybe two. For him, I'd think he would need weekly lessons, but with his busy schedule, biweekly is more likely.

And THEN, I also went online and bought a used Roland digital piano. I've had several synthesizers growing up, but if a keyboard doesn't have weighted and touch sensitive keys, it's useless for practicing. I prefer digital pianos to acoustic pianos, just because I don't like to be overheard until a piece I'm practicing on is ready. Of course, nothing really feels like a piano except, naturally, a piano, but some keyboards can come pretty close. And Rolands, in my opinion, are some of the best.

So! That's that. I'm really excited to get back into it. With my exams wrapping up I finally feel that I have some extra time to dedicate to hobbies. I'd also like to try to learn how to sight read. When I was taking lessons when I was younger, I learned under the Suzuki method. It focuses more on memorization and less on sight reading. Memorization works really well for me, but I've felt like since I've stopped taking lessons, it's harder for me to just sit down and play since I haven't had the time to learn whole new pieces. I can still play some of the pieces I knew when I was very young though, which is nice.