May the Fourth, Fifth, and Diminished Seventh Be With You.

We've had a new edition to the family.  He's 6'4, black, was born in the 1960's, and sits in the living room all day.  No it's not Michael Jordan.*  No, it's not a life-sized cutout of Michael Jordan.  No.  Please. Stop thinking about Michael Jordan.  His name is Obiwan Knabe.  Knabe is pronounced Kin-ah-bee.  Get it?  Obiwan Kin-ah-bee?  Like the Jedi?  It's funny, right?

Now for the back story.

A while ago we decided that we needed another piano for the kids to practice on.  Buffy uses our electronic Yamaha Piano to teach her voice students, and we imagined that as the kids begin to learn piano that they may need to practice while she's teaching.  So we needed something for the kids to use. We thought, let's go see if we can find a little, used upright piano for them to practice on.

Incidentally, the Yamaha is a nice instrument for teaching voice, because you can record songs onto its hard drive and coach singers without having to simultaneously play. Its keys are weighted and it has the sound and feel of a piano.  You can also plug it in to recording devices, and it has a lot of voices (i.e., other instruments) that can be used to simulate, um, other instruments. It never has to be tuned.  We love it very much, but it's not a real piano, and it is not available while Buffy teaches.

So, about a month ago we started shopping for an used upright piano that we could get cheaply.  We saw all kinds of uprights, but none of them spoke to us (because pianos don't speak).

In our search, we went to Daynes Music in SLC (about 70th South on State Street), because we know a guy there.  The guy we know wasn't there the first time we went, so we looked around without him.  Nothing jumped out at us (pianos don't jump).  When our guy heard that we had been in, he called Lady Buffington and told her about this lovely Knabe piano that had just been acquired from USU's music department.

USU had just become an all Steinway school so they got rid of all of their non-Stienway pianos.  This Knabe was from the 60's--back when Knabe was the official piano of the Metropolitan opera.  It had been in the office of one of the piano faculty for all 40 of its years.  It had also been well maintained.  We went back to Daynes, and we fell in love.

So, we bought a piano.  A big one.  He's 6' 4", which is the height of Michael Jordan* (of course, Obiwan never pushed off on Bryan Russell).  He also has three legs, again comparable to Michael Jordan (that's why Jordan could jump so high, an invisible third leg).  His, Obiwan's, tone is clear, deep, and lovely.  His action is smooth and responsive--at least to my club-like playing hands.  What imperfections he does have only add character.

Welcome to the family, Obiwan Knabe.

* Michael Jordan's listed playing height was 6'6"; however, several sources listed him in the 6'4" range, which is good enough for this 'blog.