Just got back from playing a piano for a student that they’re thinking of buying. It’s probably about 90 years old and needs some repairs in the form of new hammers and a bit of work on some of the damping mechanism, but it’s nothing too bad. The case is very beautiful walnut and has clearly been looked after, but nevertheless this piano is really suffering from not being played.

In my line of work I come across many instruments that haven’t been played for often decades at a time. Without wanting to sound too kooky about things when I sat down to play, after a while it was as though the instrument came back to life again. This piano started to sound different after playing for about half an hour and even to the untrained ears in the room, it was noticeable. It was almost screaming, ‘take me home and play me, please.’

I was so lucky a few months back when I was bought an early birthday present by Clare – a lovely green harp. When the harp arrived it was very clear by buzzes and rattles that it just hadn’t been played much. After several weeks though of consistent tuning and playing, Jude is starting to sing to me. I hope that should my student decide to take this piano home that it too feels it’s in a place where it can find its voice again.

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