My First Piano
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Bechstein itself is to be loved, too. While their pianos are super premium just as those from Steinway, they also produce the Hoffmann-brand on their own, which is much more affordable. In contrast, Steinway more or less sells rebranded pianos from Asia as their lower brands.
For those not into pianos: Steinway and Bechstein are premium manufacturers from Germany, like BMW and Mercedes. (Fazioli would be the Rolls Royce then).
I personally find them to be over-priced (since they have a stage monopoly), and lacking the quality control that Bechstein or Fazioli have.
There's actually a book I read about the making of one particular Steinway concert grand, which is now retired after an illustrious career on stage at Carnegie Hall and other big places. I think this is it: https://www.amazon.com/88-Keys-Making-Steinway-Piano/dp/0517...
(reviews are a little mixed, so read those before you buy it.)
The best of their pianos go to the concert stages and recording studios.
The next best go to their top clients.
The next best get reserved for their artists.
The next best get put into stores for "normal" people to buy.
Steinway, owned by a finance firm on Wall Street, has various quality control issues. They'll ship a six-figure piano with saw dust in it, lousy regulation, etc. Technicians know how to clean these up and work with them, but they don't hold a candle to e.g. the quality control of Fazioli. Steinway is the household name, and is ubiquitous in professional settings, so they can get away with it.
More likely than not, for the average Steinway in a store, the technician will suggest getting it voiced and regulated, which will carry a $1000+ price tag and a couple days' worth of work. Maybe that doesn't matter if you're already spending $200k, though.
The construction, however, does have a lot to do with how repertoire sounds. Bosendorfers and their all-spruce construction causes more warmth and resonance, useful for traditionally played baroque music, but can lead to a blurriness in romantic (i.e., Chopin-era) music. Contrast with a Fazioli or Steinway which have a little bit of a tighter tone due to their hard rim cases.
I'll preface with by saying that I know very little about pianos but I love them for all their mechanics.
I've heard it said that if it were possible to get the action feel equal across all the keys, the manufacturer would. But your comment makes it sound less like a bug than a feature. Is it because people have just gotten used to it as an expectation, or because there is an inherent advantage?
(I'm assuming your statement about "heavy" keys was meant as a comparison between models and not a comparison of keys on the same piano).
But maybe that's just me.
That's not a problem at all, since that's exactly what you should be able (and only you) tell yourself!
Bosendorfer doesn't seem to be the piano of choice for many these days, save for a few pianists like Andras Schiff who really appreciate a very rich and warm tone for playing Bach, especially without pedal.
There's some truth that Fazioli is in a separate class, but not for the reason you might think. Fazioli isn't necessarily in its own class because of superlative quality (they do have amazing quality and amazing customer support!), but rather because so few are made per year, built in and exported from Italy, with extreme quality control, and they're incredibly expensive.
Personally I love some of the technical choices - on their larger grands, like the Imperial, there are extra keys on the low end. They're all black and not really meant to be played. Instead they provide extra resonance and a larger soundboard - though of course, if you want to hit that low G# in Ravel's Scarbo that doesn't actually exist on regular pianos, you can on a Bosendorfer.
As for your original question, I don't have an answer - car analogies don't hold very well for pianos.
Source - I have one. Very well made, my technician loves working on it as well.
Seems like he's really into the instrument itself regardless of the joys or sorrows associated with pianos for him over basically his whole life.
Then later getting to pick out the ideal instrument for himself is rewarding in an incomparable way.
>And so, 35 years after starting
>such a long and tumultuous journey, I can safely say it was well worth the wait.
I don't think anybody could have said it better.
It's not a piano for me but I learned on an instrument that was not so likable because it was not even as realistic as a student model, it was an early imitation stage model instead. An instrument that was gifted to me because it made practical and financial sense, and that's just one of the things that helped build an emotional connection with it.
Finally a technician came and examined it, and offered $2K, which he said was mostly charity. Eventually I was getting my floors refinished and the piano had to go, and her daughter took it.
The only pianos that definitely fetch a lot are Steinway grands, and maybe a few smaller brands like Bösendorfer. Full uprights? Maybe a little. Spinets? Forget it.
This is true for any brand of piano.
You can either install a humidity control system (known as "Dampp-Chaser systems") onto the piano itself, or invest in whole-home humidity control. The latter is always preferable when possible.
If you don't do either of these, the piano—even the $250,000 ones—will fall apart over the course of a decade or two. Almost all used pianos held onto by people who don't play (e.g., the piano is furniture) almost always are busted.
This is true of any wood instrument, a guitar being one most familiar to folks. There are humidity control options for smaller instruments, too. All kinds of damage can result, such as sunken or collapsed tops (especially arch topped instruments that can be under a lot of string pressure, such as mandolins) or cracks as in a piano's soundboard.
My solution was to move to Seattle where our house generally stays at the perfect 35-45% humidity, and all the instruments are happy.
Even 5 brand new pianos, same size, same manufacturer, same production year will sound different to a pianist's ears. Some will be warmer, others brighter; some sensitive, some temperamental; some duller, others sparklier; etc. Many of these qualities can be adjusted a bit through a process called "voicing" and "regulation", but general wisdom among piano technicians is to not try to push a piano too far away from its "natural" timbre.
Rebuilding with a new soundboard would be a huge job. Depending on where OP lives and just how much work the rebuild entails, it could be closer to $40k.
Steinway typically is easiest to sell because it's a household name, but equally attracts "piano flippers" (like house flippers) who clean them up purely aesthetically and sell them for outrageous prices.
I've talked to lots and lots of players, and an extremely common statement is that the feel of the Steinway keys is the best. I kinda agree with that, while realizing that there's no convincing anybody on that one way or the other.
I don't think it's just that Steinway's got a name, although that's certainly a factor. They do have the marketing budget to be able to supply one to almost any orchestra or concert hall that needs one.
Finally, there's a whole book on Glenn Gould's Steinway, and I was there when the author came to talk about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow_ZGVGmfAw
Gould liked the feel so light that you could practically breathe on it and it'd play. There was only one tuner, Vern, who is blind, who was allowed to tune it. There's a hilarious moment near the end where I ask her a question about the feel of the pedals and she said "I don't know, let's call Vern." So we call him up live and talk to him.
Steinway is a hugely successful brand and the piano of choice for many. Steinway's best pianos are undoubtedly world-class. Those are the pianos you hear in recordings and concerts.
The "feel" of Steinway's keys are due to the Renner action. They bought Renner-the-company relatively recently, which about every other top tier manufacturer uses/used, including Bechstein, Fazioli, and so on. Previously, Steinway built their own actions, but Renner simply did a better job.
Gould owned a Chickering, and also recorded on Yamaha. He used Steinway at concerts in NYC as well. His famous Goldberg recording of the 80s was on a Yamaha.
Gould's concert career was rather short anyway, as he—quite famously—vastly preferred to record and manage post-production, than to perform. To my knowledge, he didn't elect to use Steinway so much in that setting.
You mean supplying a concert grand at the venue. Very, very few pianists can afford to do what Gould did, namely, bring it with him.
Other manufacturers have similar programs, but their inventory isn't as widespread or predictable.
Some pianists like Herbie Hancock or Angela Hewitt elect to fly their piano with them everywhere. (They both happen to have Fazioli pianos.)
On free pianos - usually there’s a reason they’re free… They’re often inherited, old, under-maintained and need a several thousand dollars of work to bring up to a decently usable standard (the felt degrades, so all the damper and hammer felts often need replacing, possibly even strings). But spending that much on a new Yamaha would probably get you something better sounding…
A digital piano is perfectly fine to learn on. They're pretty good quality these days. You can put headphones on and not disturb anybody. (Grand pianos are comparatively loud.) There's no question that you can reach an advanced level of playing on a good quality digital piano, like the better ones from Roland, Kawai, or Yamaha.
However, you lose a lot of really fine-grained control of sound. I'm talking about really fine stuff that classical pianists appreciate. For instance, pressing the pedal on a digital won't give you any feedback from the felt rubbing on the strings. Most classically trained teachers would recommend an acoustic over this fact alone.
An acoustic grand also has more opportunities to change and shape the color of the tone. A technician can make the piano warmer or brighter for example.
Some teachers claim an acoustic will lead to vastly better physical technique. I haven't seen this substantiated by any actual experiment though, so it might just be a tale among teachers.
With that said, an acoustic grand is not an investment. Maintaining it costs $100s per year. Keeping it in tip-top shape costs $1000 every 5 years or so, in top of the $100s paid for tuning. They require TLC to keep them in good condition.
Acoustic pianos also slowly break down. The crown of the soundboard flattens, the strings lose brilliance, the felts compress, the hammers wear out, etc.
But an acoustic will probably give you the greatest degree of connectedness to your music that a digital could not.
I actually agree with you for the most part, but I think the digital experience is (or at least can be) even closer than you realise.
I have a digital piano that does a very good impersonation of half-pedalling, and when you press down the pedal you can hear the whole soundboard gently vibrate. It was high-end when I bought it over ten years ago. Sound quality has improved a lot since then, touch and feel is at least as good.
But, in addition to the sound (like half-pedaling), I'm talking about the actual feel. A digital piano's pedal will always feel like a buttery spring. On an acoustic, you can feel the vibrations, the felts, the engagement of the dampers, etc. in your foot.
It's really minor, because a great pianist can do fine with these very good digitals, but you lose a sense of "one-ness" with the instrument.
Of course, if they do it’ll be at a ridiculous premium price point where you might as well save money by just getting a real piano instead. :)
I describe myself as playing "keyboard" and call my instrument a "keyboard", even though by your definitions it wouldn't be one -- I don't think that's how the word is usually used? I think most people, including most musicians, would consider a digital piano a kind of keyboard.
My point was that "keyboards" include a much broader class of electronic instruments than strictly what the set of "digital pianos" includes, like synthesizers, MIDI controllers, semi- or unweighted electric "pianos", etc. Unfortunately, to the beginner, they all look the same.
There are some fine semi-weighted keybeds out there, like on the Nord Electro.
We ought remember that replicating the characteristics of an acoustic piano with a digital instrument is difficult, and was basically impossible 30 years ago. Modern sampling keyboards have hundreds of MB of memory for samples (and can play back and mix them with no audible latency).
You'd strengthen your point by putting your entering conditions ("for classical piano") up front.
Keyboards of all sorts are used in all manner of places. Jazz especially loves the rounder tones offered by "e-pianos". There are even some famous synthesized classical pieces. So they're undoubtedly useful instruments, just seemingly avoided in most conventional approaches to learning to play piano.
If we set a budget to $1k, then sure, I agree that you'll have a hard time finding a decent acoustic. I'm not sure, though, why we should assume $1k is an average, and even if it is, why we ought to use that as a benchmark for characterizing acoustic pianos.
Buying a good quality grand piano is affordable to middle-class families. It's not unlike buying a car: you can get them new or used, financed or paid in cash. So somebody, who at least has middle-class financial means, who is serious about learning piano, absolutely has the opportunity to get an instrument they can connect with (in the specific sense I described).
It's not cheap, and to most families it certainly couldn't/wouldn't be a frivolous purchase. But that's just how it is with a decent acoustic instruments. Digital pianos are much more affordable and offer a lot of practical benefits, but they're still significantly different from an acoustic piano in every dimension.
I don't know if even having the space for it is affordable to middle-class families.
It's gonna be hard to tell some parents why they should dump over $1k on some fancy piano when they can spend way less than that on a digital piano.
But IMO fixing an action or motherboard on a 10+ year digital is much scarier than fixing a purely mechanical acoustic. A well looked after acoustic has a reasonably forgiving depreciation curve if it's a decent brand too whereas I picked up top-end digital for 45% discount even though it was less than a year old
You can’t justify acoustic economically unless you make your income from the piano. Aesthetically acoustic is the clear winner, but you’d better have your pocketbook well stocked.
Personally I prefer electronic because I’m not a trained pianist and I appreciate the versatility of something like a Korg Kronos over the undeniable physicality of a concert grand. And I splurged a bit on my audio setup so I can still get some good body resonance going when I don’t mind potentially annoying the neighbors.
At 2% inflation, a series of 5 purchases (one every 10 years) totals to 27815 GBP
On Yamaha today, that will get you a 6'1" C3X.
I don't have great knowledge of the market for second hand midrange Yamaha grands but if it's well looked after (which as discussed costs money) the value of the piano will not be zero.
A spot check on gumtree[0] suggests that a well maintained 30-year old 6'1" Yamaha C3 is worth 50% of today's C3X. I'd be more confident that a well looked after Steinway B would command a decent price - especially if you picked up a decent 5-10 year old to avoid the premium associated with newness then sold it a few decades later.
So for me, I don't agree that the economics of buying a grand piano are as clear cut as your post makes out but I agree that periodic upgrading of a DP is definitely viable and gives you more flexibility.
I used to be really fascinated by antique pianos (Bechstein and Steinway) and I was really impressed how gradual their value decline was, but also how nice they can sound. A well looked after 1900s Bechstein sounds so beautiful.
[0] https://www.gumtree.com/p/pianos/yamaha-c3-conservatory-gran...
Given that it is allegedly from a conservatory I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt that the piano will be well used but also well maintained.
I’m pretty comfortable in my belief here. Certainly the immediate winner is the DP, and you may not stick with it long enough, or even live long enough, to win the long term bet you are making here.
Back to my original point — I’m not saying the acoustic isn’t worth it, simply that you should not analyze it from a purely economic point of view, because it is a losing argument from that perspective.
I also can accept your reasoning and definitely agree re. time value of money (and the value of optionality) but I was surprised actually see the numbers play out the way they did.
As for me, the much bigger problem is finding a place big enough to house a bloody grand piano!
I wonder if there would be a market for that level of emulation.
For example in the car sim scene the higher end braking pedals measure not just the movement but also with how much force it is pressed (force needed for brake pedal is nonlinear with pedal movement), so you have more control over it (easier to control force of pressing compared to absolute movement of the pedal)
> An acoustic grand also has more opportunities to change and shape the color of the tone. A technician can make the piano warmer or brighter for example.
Yeah nah. Digital pianos often have more than one sound to choose from, let alone more advanced synths. If we're talking sheer variety of sound digital has no limits, even if your particular device does there is always option of connecting it to PC (althought no doubt archaic MIDI gonna lose some of the detail there)
Sound: a hammer hitting real strings vs a speaker replicating the sound. If a speaker gets dust in it or becomes damaged in some way, the sound is greatly diminished. Also, pianos are made of wood which vibrates. The strings at the higher end which aren't dampened vibrate. If I sneeze loud enough, the piano in my room sometimes hums with vibration. It's a living thing.
Yes, pianos need to be tuned and electronic pianos don't... but if you or your child is actually taking lessons and practising, you want a piano. Your technique, I think, will be much better if you learn on a piano with real hammer action vs an electronic piano.
I think the trick to buying a piano is taking your time and only buying the one that sounds right to you. Some people like a more warm, mellow tone. Other people like more brightness and brilliance. The "family" piano we have was purchased 20 years ago and it's a standard upright piano. It's absolutely rock solid, still sounds beautiful.
This is a really good point.
I think it was the right call for my kid. She became an amazing player and still loves playing today.
Digital does not make something worse.
Think about your average person, they won't be able to fork out much more than $800 in some instrument be it acoustic or not. That money won't get them anything remotely playable (acoustically) but it will get them a digital device that will inspire their practice.
I never understand why so many pianists seem to forget that acoustic pianos are not cheap, especially compared to other instruments like the guitar or for people that are just starting and might quit in a couple of years because their practice in an acoustic piano has made the neighbors complain to the police 8 times for noise related matters
The main playing difference between a digital piano and a real piano is the key action. Depending on how much you want to spend you can get realistic key feel and action on a digital piano.
Merriam Music (a Canadian music shop) recently made a couple of interesting videos talking about Kawai's different key actions on their various models of digital piano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oRWQ6OVqq0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6f6-sx4b-c
The Kawai ES110 (soon to be replaced by the ES120), for example, is a solid entry level digital piano at a good price. As you progress with playing you might find you want more out of the key action than the Responsive Hammer Compact action on the ES110 offers, in which case getting a model with the Responsive Hammer III action is a good upgrade.
I like digital pianos because they can be cheaper than the real thing, they don't require tuning, they are smaller, lighter, more portable with audio out, MIDI, and bluetooth connections for integration with software. I like that I can play it silently (or at least quietly) with headphones whenever I want.
For the same price as a bad piano, you can get a really good digital one that’ll sound and feel great, and won’t need any maintenance. You’ll be able to use headphones, which you’ll definitely want to do if somebody is learning, and it’ll be much easier to record if you ever want to do that.
Both the sound and feel of mid-range digital pianos these days tends to be excellent, very close to the real thing. Look for “weighted keys”, that’s the key feature. You miss some of the richness of the sound and some of the feel of the vibrations but that’s about it.
Having said all that, if I could afford and justify a good-quality real piano, I’d get a real one. But only good quality.
I, on the other hand, play almost exclusively on the digital piano, because the real one is so loud and I have an adult's fear of irritating others with repetitive practice and being judged for playing poorly. Playing in private with headphones has allowed me to learn songs I never would have mastered if I'd had to practice them in the living room where everyone could listen.
Nothing feels like a real piano, but I saved and bought a Nord Grand digital piano, which has real hammers (not just a facsimile) and feels about as close as technology can get you today. https://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-grand
This is a big factor for me too. I play electric guitar not piano - I always had the problem of guitar amplifiers not really sounding any good until you turn them up real loud. And their volume knobs tend not to allow you to easily set it to quiet anyway.
I've recently started plugging my guitar into my "normal" but high watt power amp into some very nice big speakers, with an old 90s reverb unit in between... since normal amps don't have the usual preamp stage i have a lot of control over volume and it's so much easier to play at low volume but without sacrificing the sound.
I don't feel bad about playing the same thing over and over now when i'm practising, it's just for my living room. My next idea is to try out a modeling amplifier effect unit where you can even use headphones but still get good sounding distortion (probably better than I could afford).
Something else to try: enclose the speaker cabinet in an insulated wooden box with a mic (SM57 will do), and add insulated connections connections for the mic out and the amp head in. Keeping the head outside of the box is a good idea because of heat.
It's the only real way to crank a guitar amp without disturbing neighbors and cohabitants.
Oh yeah, it doesn't sound normal for a guitar, it's too clean, but it sounds a lot better than an uncranked guitar amp.
Making a sound isolation box is an interesting idea, but I think I lack the time and skill to pull it off, also i'm in a flat and doubt the bass will stay within such a box - although I'm curious as to how well this works since you could end up with some pretty bad standing waves if the box is the wrong dimension.
I'm going to try a modelling amp next since they can simulate both the amps and speakers, they are pretty good these days apparently, pricey, but no more than a half decent amp. Seems like the right solution for someone living in a shoebox.
I also think that there's a noticeable difference in feel and timbre in the real thing, even a bad piano. I think it affects the way you play. Given the choice almost everyone uses a real piano to record. But gigging musicians will usually prefer a digital piano, because they can move it and trust it sounds and feels the same in different venues. Most acoustic pianos supplied by venues are poorly maintained and can have other issues like amplification (you have to mic a piano, which means you need a sound engineer at the gig, which may or may not be possible).
I bought my Weinbach (a full sized upright made by Petrof) for $6,000 in about 1993. I finally sold it for $1,200 in 2020 or so. It took a long time to sell.
A lot of houses, especially outside the US, don't have room for a grand piano, but they still want a good instrument. So you don't necessarily have to give it away.
My digital piano actually gets played more these days, but that's just because I like to play in just intonation or non-equal temperaments, and the digital piano is easier to change. My regular piano is currently tuned to just intonation relative to the key of D, which doesn't work for a lot of songs.
While you or your kids are getting better at playing your electronic piano, you should also take whatever opportunities you can to try acoustic pianos. That will give you an idea of the range of tones, touch, and quality of acoustics, and you will find out what it’s like to play on a piano that is not perfectly in tune. You will then be in a position to start deciding whether you want to invest in an acoustic piano or not.
I myself learned how to play as a child on several mediocre acoustic pianos, maintained my skills for a couple of decades on so-so electronic pianos, and for the last twenty years have been playing an acoustic grand piano (Boston, designed by Steinway and made by Kawai) that I bought new. It cost about as much as a new car and I spend more than five hundred dollars a year to keep it tuned and in good shape, but it’s worth it to me.
As I was the only pianist in the family, it followed me everywhere I moved, from France to now south east Asia. After 40 years, it is still working perfectly, even if it had endured a lot.
I also have digital keyboards, make music with great VSTs, etc...
But nothing compares to a real piano in terms of inspiration and emotion. Each piano you play with will have a soul and character that will resonate with you (or not).
I love digital things, but nothing replaces the poetry of a piano. And damn, these instruments are marvels of craftmanship.
And people saying having to bring a technician to tune your piano twice a year is a chore, for me it's the opposite. I love seeing my technician optimizing the sound and the action to my playing style, discussing with him about his experience in Hamburg at Steinway, etc...
The other comments are pretty solid, ultimately a DP is great for dipping your toes in and a 1k digital is probably better than a 1k acoustic.
That said as I heard someone say there is something magical about the physical and sonic experience of playing an acoustic and feeling the sound reverberate through you and hear all that resonance.
Until you get to the top end of digital pianos (like your Kawai CA99 / Novus 5S) which have a soundboard or you're a very clued up audiophile, you'll never get close to replicating that physical experience and for some people it's that magic that makes them fall in love with the instrument.
I ended up going digital as I like playing at all hours of the day and can practise in ways that will drive people crazy (I recently spent ~100 minutes working on a single bar of Chopin nonstop without break after having too much guarana in an acai paired with a coffee). My other half also pointed out that given how much I love playing, will practising/playing with a mute pedal on be enjoyable enough if I'm always holding back.
If you have the budget you can also look at silent pianos, I considered one but the one in my local Yamaha showroom was poorly regulated which gave me cold feet but a decent silent should carry you pretty far.
My uncle had a Bechstein concert grand. When he passed away the family expected it would fetch a nice sum but were told that it was cracked and worth just enough to pay for disposal fee. Sad!
Tuning these days is MUCH easier with PitchLab Pro on your phone. But you have to go through the Amazon App Store to get it.
I tune the 8's on my harpsichord several times a week. It doesn't take that long.
Mechanicals on clavichords, virginals, spinets and harpsichords are simple to look after. Strings and plectra break, damper felts get out of position, stuff mysteriously gets between keys, jacks hang up – all straightforward to fix, especially compared to replacing a broken screen on a phone or tablet.
Agree that humidity control is key for any wooden instrument. My instrument is covered when not playing with a humidifier that maintains 54%.
It is a rather niche brand but the pianos are absolutely top tier and the Master Class easily rivals the Steinway K52 or Bosendorfer Grand Upright, or perhaps is even better (to my ears).
Then their brand/etc. was sold to Chinese ownership, and the quality tanked.
At least as of 2022, almost all Chinese manufactured pianos are inferior (in a conventional sense) to others, especially European pianos. This is usually due to the fact they're mass produced, use cheap materials, etc. However, they are a lot less expensive.
I used to noodle around on the piano, and still have an old Clavinova. But I've been concerned, seeing all the free pianos on Facebook Marketplace. I thought piano playing was on the decline, maybe terminally so.
I play enough music that I suspect there is some kind of underlying pathology.
Like, I am usually in 3-4 bands, have performed on 10+ instruments on stage this year. I spent 3 hours today playing clarinet waiting for google billing support, and another hour or so on trumpet this morning. And in a bit, I will be getting on the pedal steel for an evening scale pickin session.
I just started the clarinet again and it has been really weird. It was my instrument all through high school. My parents were super proud that they had been able to score a super inexpensive Bundy, which was 30 years old when I got it, and which had never really been maintained. In retrospect, I realize low B key didn't seat well, so it always squeaked going over the break. I've repadded a clarinet, and that very much feels like an easy fix to me-- I have no explanations about why it remained a problem for my middle and high-school years.
There are reasons why that purchase of a cheap horn for your child might be a nice thing, if you lacked money or experience. But my parents were professional school administrators who met in music school. My dad was a high school band director for a while and my mother studied flute in the university.
Having had my own children, that action has curious what analogous damage I've done to them via similar mechanisms.
That's not a big harm (certainly not abuse, as was the case in the OP's story), but until about a month ago when I bought myself a clarinet I hadn't realized how much resentment I was carrying from that time.
Playing that horn was deeply frustrating, and with all the things I know about music at this point I cannot imagine trying to get children to learn on badly functioning instruments-- there are just so many other impediments to their learning that it takes a difficult task and might make it impossible.
However, it's been quite soothing to realize that I am an adult who can take care of myself, and to simply fill needs as they come up. So I bought myself a reasonable student horn (a Buffet e12, and I did get a good deal on it, I think) and I've been playing tunes from the real books.
The amount of catharsis I've gotten from simply filling something that was once an unrecognized long-term need driven by frustration has been a bit worrisome, but it's probably healthy in some sense.
I bet it was the mother…