I played a concert grand!!
Yesssss!
There is one in the Campus Center conference hall, which unfortunately is either private property, is only meant for exclusive use of some people, or is a showpiece. But at last night's spring festival, they used that piano for a performance (I wasn't there then). Now I had a performance in the other hall too, but I lost all my picks and had to search for one. Fortunately, Iza found one in the conference hall. The conference hall was empty then, with 2 guys folding up the equipment.
After the show, I came to the conference hall to return the pick... and couldn't resist it. The piano was shiny-new, golden brown in colour. So I sat down and hit the keys. It had a very warm touch to it. The sound was loud, and I tried to play it slowly so as not to cause any disturbance. I hit some random notes, when one of the two guys exclaimed, "We have some music, eh!", in a German accent.
Well I decided to get on with it. I started playing, what else, the Moonlight Sonata, 1st mvt :-) After it I also played the first part of Für Elise. The sound was heavenly. It was not a Steinway (in all the excitement, I had forgotten to note the make of the piano), but it sounded sweet, with enough sustain and a darker, warm tone (the piano was probably not more than a 6'). The keys had a light touch, which was great because I could be much more expressive with regard to the volume of each note (anyone who has played the Moonlight sonata knows what I mean).
So there it was! My first real encounter with a concert grand! Though I had played one before for 2 minutes, when I was in Boston (and it was a Steinway), at that time I couldn't really play anything. Now I could.
As I was leaving, one of the guys said, "It was nice!"
"Yeah, the piano - it's real nice!", I said as I walked out of the hall.
:-)
There is one in the Campus Center conference hall, which unfortunately is either private property, is only meant for exclusive use of some people, or is a showpiece. But at last night's spring festival, they used that piano for a performance (I wasn't there then). Now I had a performance in the other hall too, but I lost all my picks and had to search for one. Fortunately, Iza found one in the conference hall. The conference hall was empty then, with 2 guys folding up the equipment.
After the show, I came to the conference hall to return the pick... and couldn't resist it. The piano was shiny-new, golden brown in colour. So I sat down and hit the keys. It had a very warm touch to it. The sound was loud, and I tried to play it slowly so as not to cause any disturbance. I hit some random notes, when one of the two guys exclaimed, "We have some music, eh!", in a German accent.
Well I decided to get on with it. I started playing, what else, the Moonlight Sonata, 1st mvt :-) After it I also played the first part of Für Elise. The sound was heavenly. It was not a Steinway (in all the excitement, I had forgotten to note the make of the piano), but it sounded sweet, with enough sustain and a darker, warm tone (the piano was probably not more than a 6'). The keys had a light touch, which was great because I could be much more expressive with regard to the volume of each note (anyone who has played the Moonlight sonata knows what I mean).
So there it was! My first real encounter with a concert grand! Though I had played one before for 2 minutes, when I was in Boston (and it was a Steinway), at that time I couldn't really play anything. Now I could.
As I was leaving, one of the guys said, "It was nice!"
"Yeah, the piano - it's real nice!", I said as I walked out of the hall.
:-)
