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I grew up on a little island off the Norwegian west coast, and when my father moved there in 1917 from Oslo, he brought an old upright piano with him. It was a black Brödrene Hals, made in Christiania at the turn of the century, with bird-cage action and yellow keys. Both he and my mother played, as did several other members of visiting family, and there was always music in the house. My mother was determined that at least one of the children should learn how to play, and I was the one who finally mastered the Moonlight Sonata at the age of 12 and thought I knew everything there was to know about playing. There was no teacher in sight, and I resented every correction from my mother. She therefore let me continue on my own as soon as I knew how to read music (somewhat), and by 13 I left home to go to school. That's when I discovered other pianos and fully realized what a rather dismal piano I had trained on! The piano was later sold for a pittance to a summer-cousin of mine, and I still visit her and play it when in Norway. There is not much life left in the old instrument, but it still looks rather stately in black with candle sconces on each side of the music desk. In my childhood they were actually used since we had no electricity until 1963.

I grew up playing on my family's Kohler and Campbell (console?) vertical piano. I think the story is that it was one of the first things they bought after they were married in 1976. I played it quite a bit as I was growing up and in 2000 received a piano as a graduation gift from my grandmother. The piano was my great-grandmother's, and has been in the family since at least the 1920's. It is a 1910-11 Chickering Parlor Grand 6'4" in mahogany. Unfortunately it had to sit at my parents house for several years, but now sits in my own living room. A picture is attached.

Matt

Interesting thread. Here's my long-winded contribution:

The first piano we had in our house was a huge old upright in a dark wood with a lot of decorative carving. I don't remember the name. It was in the basement, and I think was left by the previous owners of the house because they didn't want to bother to move it. I'm sure it was totally hosed from living in that damp basement against an outside wall for however many years. We finally gave it away when my parents bought a Kimmel baby grand that mother saw in the window of an auction house in downtown Washington, DC. She asked a friend to go to the auction to bid on it, and we got it for $200. This was in the mid-1960s.

The Kimmel, prominently displayed in the dining room (we always ate in the kitchen) was not very good, either, and would never stay in tune, but I have pleasant memories of playing on it. One sister took it for a while after she bought a big house, and then I took it when I moved into an apartment in Baltimore. I bought a tuning hammer and kind of wrestled it somewhat into in tune before I played it (kind of like having a harpsichord). When I moved I sold it to my landlord for $300 -- he liked the way it looked.

For my first house, I bought a new Baldwin studio upright, which I still have. It's an okay piano, but just never inspired me to play it very much. When we moved to our current house, we put the piano in the living room, and then years went by when I didn't touch it.

About five years ago, we created a practice room out of half of our garage. A friend gave us an 1920s-era Howard baby grand (a long-lost distant relative of the old Kimmel, I think), and we put it in the new room. Having my own private space to practice made a world of difference, and I was back into the piano! So I started shopping for pianos, and now have an Estonia 190 in there instead. I tried to give the Howard away, but had no takers, so it left with the piano movers. I don't know what happened to it after that.

First piano was a Kimball spinet, purchased (? new) in the early 50's. Still in the family, though no one plays it much anymore. It was adorned with a Seth Thomas wooden metronome and a clock - how I remember the minute hand crawling thru the required hour of practice every day.

First piano was a Rosler upright. Czech piano, Iron Curtain times. It was pretty, but not really meant for the intense playing that my sister and I put it through. We both got through our Performer's ARCTs on that piano, by which time the hammers were hopelessly worn, the black keytops rather beat up, the tone glass shatteringly bright. I could play mf through ff. My parents got a Yamaha G3 shortly after that, sold off the Rosler, but we were done with most of our piano playing by then. It was always a bit of a shock going from that piano to the grand pianos at recitals and competitions.

When I got my first job, I rented a Kawai upright for 6 months, and ended up buying a Baldwin Hamilton studio 11 yrs ago with financing. It was probably the best I could afford at the time and where the action was light enough it didn't aggravate my tendinitis. Like Piano Again, it didn't inspire me, though it was OK. Sounded horribly loud in my 1902 condo with wood floors and hollow subflooring.

I'm really enjoying my new grand piano (2 weeks old now!). My work life has nothing to do with music at all, and it is lovely to return home to the Schimmel. Now that I have a grand piano, I can appreciate what an advantage it is for aspiring pianists to have one.

The first piano I practiced on was given to my mother by her piano teacher in her will for being her best student. It has a really light touch, and you can't get much thunder out of it, but it was ok. I've seen worse.

Like the piano that belongs to my dad, that i never practiced on, that is a clunky old thing. His dad scrimped and saved to buy it for him when he was a kid and I think he can't get rid of it because of the sentimentality attached. The fact that his dad made that sacrifice even though he was really poor and couldn't really afford it makes it worth a lot more to him than anyone else would ever pay.

So in my parents house there are three pianos. The upright my mum got as a gift from her piano teacher, the upright my dad got as a gift from his father, and then a baby grand they bought when I was 14 and they realised I really needed an upgrade.

In my house now, I only have a roland hpi-7 digital piano. It's a soulless thing, but neccessary as I live in a townhouse with a housemate. But I have a plethora of grands to chose from to play at the con :*)

I started piano lessons (my choice, not my parents) when I was 8 years old back in 1953. So my parents scrambled to find a piano for me. What came into the house was an ancient quasi-square grand Chickering uncannily similar to the beast described by Laughing Cavalier above. I would guess it was from the late 1800s. It wasn't much of a piano. The keyboard was short in compass, ending on lowest C rather than A in the bass and the highest A rather than C. The sound was uninspiring as well.

The old tuner dreaded working on the Chickering's action. It was fragile to say the least. When he'd make one repair, two other parts would break in the process. It almost gave him a nervous breakdown, and he quickly retired. There came a hiatus while trying to find a new tuner. So in that interval I'd tune the piano myself using a roller skate key (which fit the tuning pins perfectly) attached to a screw driver. I had excellent pitch even then. I guess it saved money anyway. Learning on that instrument was pretty unfulfilling. Fortunely, two years later my parents replaced it with a used Ivers & Pond baby grand which served me well for the next eight years of study.

Once I graduated from university and went to work, I bought a used Steinway 5'7" Model M. Now I play a 6'3" Baldwin L bought new.

I have always disliked period instruments, including fortepianos. It's probably because I'm reminded of having practiced on that ancient Chickering!

First piano, hummm....an old Aeolian player which cost Dad $25 and he moved out of the seller's house himself! Wisely getting some help to put it into our home, it was my practice piano from age 7-14. Player mechanism only worked partially and provided lots of laughs for us kids, but our tuner was afraid to tune it up to A440, so I spent the first 7 years playing on a low pitched piano (parents...NB....don't try this with a talanted youngest who is destined to have absolute pitch )

My folks then decided I needed something better and while declining Grandma's offer of a new Steinway grand(c.$4000 in 1970) :b: , got me an old Kurtzmann 5'7 grand at an auction. It was OK and at least could be tuned to A440! It's still at their house (anyone want a free Kurtzmann?!)

I guess this is now why I own two Steinway B's.

Great thread!

My story seems almost too easy compared to many of these: when my older sister reached 6? 8? my parents decided it was time for piano lessons, which meant it was time to buy a piano. So, with Grandma the organist in tow, to Steinway Hall we went, where they selected a light mahogany 1098 which the salesman claimed had been a favorite of Mr. Steinway himself (hmmm...). $3000 seemed like so much money in those days that M and D each paid half, and felt they were really stretching even so.

Years later, Grandma moved in with us and brought her own 1098 from the late 30s, giving us the distinction of being the only house on the block with TWO pianos.

So in a sense I was spoiled, but I've also always had a soft spot for uprights, and never understood why some people seem to think only grands are real pianos.

Our family piano when I was growing up was a Baldwin Acrosonic that dates back to the early 1950s or even before. My mother could play very well and was an accompanist in her university days, but strangely she rarely played later in life, which I always thought was a great pity. My sister still owns the Baldwin and it has travelled all over the world with her.

My first piano was my Dads Knabe Baby Grand. I was very lucky to learn on it and it remains a treasure chest of memories. A little guy 3-4 years old I would "compose" things on construction paper they were nothing good of course more like drawings but my dad would "play" them for me and embellish them so I would be happy.

I am now 33 years old and the "compositions" are still in the bench

The piano also has a wound, a scar, a small chunk missing from dead center top of fall board. It is where my front tooth landed in about 1985 after complete and total frustration over some piece and my unstable adolescent temperment. Now filled in with black the indent remains, still there just to haunt me.

Second piano was a 1919 Steinway Model B that I played at a fraternity house in Madison WI, the house was formerly a sorority and the piano was part of the deal. Not many players over the years and it became an eyesore with old drinks etc. placed in all the wrong places. It deserved a better life and was sold in 1996 to Farley's House of Pianos for a fire sale sum of $10k.



Great thread its fun to think back and imagine whats to come!

My first was a Chickering upright circa turn of the century that belonged to my Mom. She was very fond of it because her father (my grandfather who died before I was even born) bought it for her from the Cable Piano Company in Atlanta Georgia in probably the 1930s. Here it is...





What I want to mention is that if you look in the second picture, the little pattern of chips and dirt on the ivory keys were like an indelible visual benchmark in my mind. The chip pattern for a particular key was synonymous with F below middle C for example. Every single note had it's own chip pattern that (and I didn't realize this until later when I revisited the piano in my folks basement) I recognized INSTANTLY and associated with each note of the scale.

Just wondering if anybody else knew notes by their chip and dirt pattern.

We could put new keytops on for you, but you may never be able to play it again!

Very nice pics, thanks for sharing.

My first and only piano through high school days was a behemoth Upright probably 1900 to 1920 manufactured by Woodbury piano company. It was a candidate to be turned into a "mirror" piano, but I left for college and that never took place.

Lovely story .

Did your tooth survive the incident?

Wurlitzer spinet from the late 40's in Maple. My parents still have it. It actually was/is a pretty decent piano.

My first piano: 1984 Yamaha M1 console in satin black. Paid $3300 in NYC at the time. A solid little piano, always. I just replaced it recently. I felt sentimental pangs of emotion when it finally left my home and was rolled out the door. It now belongs to a young MD who resides near Delancy St in NYC. I think the last thing I played on it was Gershwins "I'll take Manhattan". It seemed appropriate.

My first piano was an Aeolian grand (1958). My Dad refinished it, but my first piano teacher nixed it in short order, to be replaced by a Baldwin A (1962) which remains in the family today. The Baldwin was supplemented by a Betsy Ross spinet. This was followed by a Ball and Sons grand bought in grad school (1980), then the Knabe 9'(1989), and lots of other concert grands since.

First, and only, piano was bought used when we (my brother, sister and yours truly) started to play the piano.

I remember the beautiful shops when we went around piano shopping; they had a peculiar odor that I now understand to be wax and that I liked very much.

When I first re-entered a piano shop this year, immediately the odor reappeared and instantly remembered me of those years..... a deja vu and plunge into the past of rare intensity.... it was also beautiful to see that there are things which time does not change even in this polyester-infected era....

I remember my hopes for a very beautiful black grand with a wonderful sound, but my parent's finance where somewhat stretched, so my father bought a brown upright pretty fine sounding from what I had been able to hear, though not my dream piano by any means.

On the fallboard was a script, "LEHMANN". I like the thing, whichever piano I might end up having in the future, that Lehmann is and will always be "my first piano" and these things always have a magic of their own.

I may be too late to add my story here, but I'll try.

I was 6 when my family moved to a small midwest town where I took lessons from the pastor's wife at my church. The piano was a small Baldwin console from the 1950's that had a woderful tone and touch but had all the character marks of an institutional piano. After college, my father took me to a local piano store to give me a piano for a graduation gift. He had enough money set aside to get a good used piano or an entry level new one. As we looked through the inventory, I found the very piano I took lessons on when I was just 6 years old! I knew the piano the minute i laid eyes on it and even found a piece of tape on the back that had the church name on it!

Dad tried to talk me into other newer pianos, but that old church piano was the one I wanted. I still have it to this day, and amazingly enough, it still sounds and plays wonderfully!