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(LA Times) Interesting Once a status symbol, the piano is rarely found in today's households. Pianist   (latimes.com) divider line 207
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DistendedPendulusFrenulum 2009-05-17 09:49:29 AM  
I got me one a them thar pie-yannies. It's a 1910 Steinway Vertegrand.

.

 
ninetywt [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 09:50:26 AM  
I got a cabinet made out of a piano. Does that count?

 
jonasborg [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 09:59:19 AM  
People move a lot more these days. If I were going to stay somewhere until I die, it would be worth having the piano.

 
DarthBrooks [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 09:59:25 AM  
If only someone made "Piano Hero".

 
clancifer [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 10:01:52 AM  
We have an early 1950's Wurlitzer here. My daughter is taking lessons this year and likes to play every day.

 
DistendedPendulusFrenulum 2009-05-17 10:22:07 AM  
jonasborg:

People move a lot more these days. If I were going to stay somewhere until I die, it would be worth having the piano.

We move our damn piano everywhere we go. The movers always tell us it's one of the heaviest uprights they've ever seen.

.

 
notmtwain [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 11:09:43 AM  
DistendedPendulusFrenulum: I got me one a them thar pie-yannies. It's a 1910 Steinway Vertegrand.


High five. I also have a Steinway "Vertegrand", but mine is from 1909. They are built like brick shiathouses. The current K-52 (52" upright) weighs 600 pounds. I wouldn't be surprised if the old ones weighed more. (I know Steinway doesn't change designs often but they must have made at least a few changes in 100 years.) I bought it because of the growling bass. I just love its sound.

 
mryoop789 [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 11:27:50 AM  
2 pianos, 2 keyboards, 6 guitars, 2 flutes, and a partridge in a pear tree

 
Con_Authority [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 11:37:26 AM  
My parents threw away our old piano, it was made in 1876 (little metal plate inside). I think it was a Baldwin.

 
DistendedPendulusFrenulum 2009-05-17 11:49:48 AM  
notmtwain:

I bought it because of the growling bass. I just love its sound.

I was inspired to take the piano tuning class. Next, I will learn how to voice it. It needs regulating bad.

There is an 05 Vertegrand (Mr.s Mills) in a few Beatles recordings.

.

 
FuturePastNow [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 11:52:49 AM  
My grandma had a piano in her house. She never played it.

 
EvilEgg [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 11:54:17 AM  
Once upon a time people had no better entertainment than to sit around listening to someone play.

Now I have a stereo that can play me whatever I want whenever I want, by the greatest piano players in the world. That is if I cared to, which I don't.

 
austerity101 2009-05-17 11:55:52 AM  
It drives me nuts when people have pianos just for the hell of it. Rich people are particularly bad at this. If you're going to have a piano in your house, you might as well 1) learn to play it; or 2) hire someone to play it for you.

Pianos aren't furniture, people.

It would be pretty sweet, though, if we still had a culture that gathered around the piano and sang songs together.

In the meantime, the fewer of you sorry lots that play the piano, the more work I get, so, carry on.

 
yoyoyo 2009-05-17 11:56:26 AM  
I wish my roommate would get rid of hers. Nothing but a big dust collector that is never played (but its my mothers, who is a woman I despised!!).

 
Pestifer 2009-05-17 11:57:07 AM  
Who needs a piano when you have an accordion?

 
Norad [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 11:57:10 AM  
I love it when "The Price Is Right" offers up a big-ass piano as a prize. I'm always hoping the contestant would look at Drew & go "What the FARK, man? Where the fark am I gonna PUT that thing in my small-ass apartment? Jesus! Where's the nearest pawn shop?"

 
AR55 2009-05-17 11:58:52 AM  
My parents have a Steinway & Sons Boston Grand Upright 1895 ivory keys.

I can't play it, but I always liked the way it looked. Maybe I should learn, it is willed to me after all.

 
blood_and_thunder 2009-05-17 11:59:07 AM  
austerity101: It drives me nuts when people have pianos just for the hell of it. Rich people are particularly bad at this. If you're going to have a piano in your house, you might as well 1) learn to play it; or 2) hire someone to play it for you.

Pianos aren't furniture, people.

It would be pretty sweet, though, if we still had a culture that gathered around the piano and sang songs together.

In the meantime, the fewer of you sorry lots that play the piano, the more work I get, so, carry on.


umm...OK.

 
Donald_McRonald 2009-05-17 11:59:54 AM  
yoyoyo: I wish my roommate would get rid of hers. Nothing but a big dust collector that is never played (but its my mothers, who is a woman I despised!!).

Your mother is a piano?

 
Seth'n'Spectrum 2009-05-17 12:00:33 PM  
My next door neighbour and tutor when I was a kid had a farkin' harpsichord of some kind. Now that thing was awesome.

 
Wolfmanjames [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 12:02:44 PM  
ecx.images-amazon.com
Disapproves
/Grew up with a piano in the house.
//Has no musical talent.

 
Okie Cynic 2009-05-17 12:02:54 PM  
we had a beautiful upright, a baldwin, i think, that my mother and sister both played. i was put into lessons when i was six, but i just sat and cried because i wanted to be outside playing baseball.

started guitar lessons when i was 15, and still play. the electronic keyboard in the corner is useful, but doesn't get used.

it would be a terrible shame if the acoustic piano became extinct.

 
Cereal Fetish 2009-05-17 12:03:49 PM  
imgs.xkcd.com

 
grxymkjbn 2009-05-17 12:04:31 PM  
mryoop789: 2 pianos, 2 keyboards, 6 guitars, 2 flutes, and a partridge in a pear tree

1 piano, 4 keyboards, 1 flute, 1 digerido, 3 violins, 2 drumsets, 16 guitars (including 4 basses) , 2 clarinets, three PA systems, five guitar amps, 1 trumpet, 1 accordian, 1 zither, 1 dulcimer, 2 mandolins, two sets of bongos, 2 sets of claves, 1 set of castenets, 1 panflute, 1 hunting horn, 1 slidewhistle, 2 woodflutes, 1 tinwhistle, 4 hand drums of various sizes and design,

....AND a sax-a-boom!

 
keloyd 2009-05-17 12:06:14 PM  
Split the baby and get a Yamaha Clavinova.

Your home reflects your priorities and taste whether you make a conscious effort or not. My place may be a pig sty, but it is a pig sty with bookshelves and a centrally located piano, of sorts.

They look as furniture-like as you want to pay. They have keys that FEEL LIKE real piano keys. When I bought mine 10 years ago, retailing for $2500, a steal at $2000, they cost the same as good entry level Korean pianos. Now, they're $800-2000 depending a little on features and a lot on woodworking, roughly half what I paid, apples to apples.

These electronic pianos never go out of tune, allow you to move into a 3rd floor apartment, and can be lifted easily by 2 people. They are also big enough stand out in a room like the wall-O-hifi.

The goal is to find ways to say "I'm better than you" that are more subtle than truck nuts and Calvin and Hobbes relieving himself on the logo of the opposite of the logo on one's truck.

 
foxyg 2009-05-17 12:06:31 PM  
The author obviously has no Chinese friends.

 
Rufus_T_Firefly [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 12:07:08 PM  
1947 Chickering & Sons upright in tha house! (literally)

(+ too many other instruments to list)

 
mrplavick 2009-05-17 12:07:34 PM  
I got my kids a biatchin' Korg 88-key digital piano - feels and sounds like an acoustic. $800. Fits in a small space. No brainer.

 
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 12:07:55 PM  
I never got that particular XKCD...

 
Okie Cynic 2009-05-17 12:08:34 PM  
good grief, grxymkjbn, are all those getting regular play?

/understand instrument acquisitiveness
//think it's a shame so many high-quality instruments end up in collections, unplayed

 
KimJ 2009-05-17 12:10:04 PM  
I had to beg my parents to ship me my childhood piano from their house in Massachusetts to mine in Wisconsin. They kept saying, "Don't you want us to sell it and send you the money?" I couldn't get them to understand that the piano was a big part of me. Unlike most children, my parents didn't want me to take piano, I had to beg and plead.

 
spasemunki 2009-05-17 12:10:15 PM  
FTFA:That worries Ellen Collins, a piano teacher in Hancock Park, who said the piano has been replaced by a television as the center of the living room or den.

Is this woman a character in a Jane Austen novel?

 
Forsythe P. Jones [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 12:11:41 PM  
We have an old upright in one of the back rooms, but we call it "The Dustcatcher". It's long been out of tune, and it's covered in old toys and action figures.
It was her moms, and it's been sitting in the same spot for 50 years.

 
timefishblue 2009-05-17 12:11:54 PM  
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc: I never got that particular XKCD...

Penis. The joke is penis. (pianist)

 
Bucky Katt [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 12:12:02 PM  
Who needs a piano? I have a forte instead.

 
Rufus_T_Firefly [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 12:12:13 PM  
JonnyBGoode: Women are like pianos.

When they're not upright, they're grand...


Of course, you have to be upright to make it grand.

 
spasemunki 2009-05-17 12:12:22 PM  
keloyd: a centrally located piano...

Just spring for Forced Central Piano. It's much easier just having a vent in each room.

 
JonnyBGoode 2009-05-17 12:12:29 PM  
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc: I never got that particular XKCD...

Seriously?

The old joke about the guy that wishes for a 12-inch pianist?

 
UfarkHead 2009-05-17 12:13:08 PM  
I think it is time to change their business plan in order to adapt to modern consumers.

tbn2.google.com

 
H_is_for_Heretic 2009-05-17 12:13:20 PM  
Growing up, we had 2 pianos, one grand. No one in the family could play a note.

 
FlukeBoy [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 12:15:42 PM  
I see what you did there, subby.
I lol'ed.

 
voodoochild 2009-05-17 12:15:53 PM  
my casio was always easier to move.

 
Lamune_Baba 2009-05-17 12:16:04 PM  
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc: I never got that particular XKCD...

***

A man walks into a bar with a paper bag. He sits down and places the bag on the counter. The bartender walks up and says, "Hey, what's in the bag?"

So, the man reaches into the bag and pulls out a little man, all of about maybe 12 inches tall, and he sets him on the counter.

He reaches back into the bag and pulls out a small piano. Then he reaches into the bag pulls out a tiny piano bench.

The little man sits down at the piano and starts playing a beautiful piece by Mozart.

"Where on earth did you get that?", the bartender asks.

The man responds by reaching into the paper bag and pulling out what looks like a little genie lamp. He hands it to the bartender and says, "Here, rub it."

So the bartender rubs the lamp, and suddenly there's a puff of smoke and a genie magically appears and says, "I will grant you one wish, just one."

The bartender gets really excited, and without hesitating, he says, "I wish I had a million bucks !"

A few moments later, a duck walks into the bar, and then another duck, and then another. Pretty soon, the entire bar is filled with ducks and they keep coming!

The bartender turns to the man and says, "Y'know, I think your genie's a little hard of hearing."

To which the man answers "Do you really think I asked for a 12-inch pianist?"

 
Sobriety Online 2009-05-17 12:16:12 PM  
yoyoyo: I wish my roommate would get rid of hers. Nothing but a big dust collector that is never played (but its my mothers, who is a woman I despised!!).

your roomate is your sister/brother?

 
Snarfle 2009-05-17 12:18:05 PM  
If one were to save up for a good piano to learn how to play on, what would all you piano aficionados recommend? Purchase isn't going to happen for a few years, but I might as well start researching it now, eh? I plan on buying a regular old keyboard/synth in the near future, and picking up the basics on that. But I still want an honest to god, hammers and strings, have a hot chick lay on top of it and sing, too heavy to move, piano.

Stupid re-found love of music is going to make me a beggar. But a happy one at least.

 
Nothing Sweeter Than Redneck Tears 2009-05-17 12:19:33 PM  
JonnyBGoode: Women are like pianos.

When they're not upright, they're grand...


blogs.theage.com.au

 
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 12:20:21 PM  
Lamune_Baba: Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc: I never got that particular XKCD...

***

A man walks into a bar with a paper bag. He sits down and places the bag on the counter. The bartender walks up and says, "Hey, what's in the bag?"

So, the man reaches into the bag and pulls out a little man, all of about maybe 12 inches tall, and he sets him on the counter.

He reaches back into the bag and pulls out a small piano. Then he reaches into the bag pulls out a tiny piano bench.

The little man sits down at the piano and starts playing a beautiful piece by Mozart.

"Where on earth did you get that?", the bartender asks.

The man responds by reaching into the paper bag and pulling out what looks like a little genie lamp. He hands it to the bartender and says, "Here, rub it."

So the bartender rubs the lamp, and suddenly there's a puff of smoke and a genie magically appears and says, "I will grant you one wish, just one."

The bartender gets really excited, and without hesitating, he says, "I wish I had a million bucks !"

A few moments later, a duck walks into the bar, and then another duck, and then another. Pretty soon, the entire bar is filled with ducks and they keep coming!

The bartender turns to the man and says, "Y'know, I think your genie's a little hard of hearing."

To which the man answers "Do you really think I asked for a 12-inch pianist?"




-Aha... I had NEVER heard that joke, thanks, that explains it.

 
btr3924 2009-05-17 12:23:00 PM  
JonnyBGoode: Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc: I never got that particular XKCD...

Seriously?

The old joke about the guy that wishes for a 12-inch pianist?


Aha! I always thought he asked for a 'small pianist' or a 'tiny pianist' Wow. I feel stupid now, and I've heard that joke before. Never really could add things up good.

 
barefoot in the head [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 12:24:36 PM  
Upright grands ftw.

 
bobsuncle [TotalFark] 2009-05-17 12:24:45 PM  
I enjoy having friends over so they can watch me tinkle on the key board

 
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