The Family Piano

My grandparents purchased a brand new baby grand piano a couple years ago. My grandma had played some for years, while my grandpa only plunked around. Now in their 70′s, they’ve decided it’s a great time to expand their knowledge and began taking serious lessons a few years back. Their new piano was a gift to themselves. Who says you can’t learn to play unless you’re young? They haven’t heard my grandparents playing Big Band or Gospel.

We were blessed to have space and inherited their old piano. This sweet thing has been in the family for nearly five decades and now adorns my dining room. If you press down on several of the keys you can see the names of my grandparents and aunts and uncle lightly scrawled in pencil by a rambunctious 5 year old in the 60′s.

On occasion, Zeb will sit down on the piano seat his great-great-grandmother embroidered and play around with the keys. He has such an ear for music and rhythm and despite the piano being slightly out of tune, I love to hear him plunk away on it. We found a few “Teach Yourself Piano” books, which he loves to use to play Christmas carols in June or teach himself chords. But mostly he loves to create his own songs. Tuesday, he had sat down for no more than 10 minutes and put together a few notes that I’ve been humming every since. Perhaps someday (maybe even in his 70′s) he’ll decide to expand his piano skill as well. Until then I’m enjoying things like this that prove to my mom that her grandson is, in fact, a genius: