By gum!
Mother had an upright piano. A self-taught, plinky-plonky pianist, she could bang out a tune to order, while dad and the four of us lads sang along, trying to outharmonise each other.
We discovered that if you took the piano's bottom panel away, you could access the strings directly and play it harplike.
Big brother was a cathedral chorister, and therefore our only real musician. Planning to give an impromptu performance of a new composition, first he had to prepare. A mouthful of Wrigleys accompanied him as he started string-plucking.
The composition's name?
Etude in A, chewed.
- Category: True Stories Told As Fiction
3 comments add one below
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Christopher about 7 years ago
Haha! That reminded me of a Marx Brothers movie (my favorites!) where a piano got demolished and Harpo grabbed the framework that held the strings together, turned it up sideways, and started playing it like a harp.
Another great drabble, Neville. They always seem to get me reminiscing about something.
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Neville Hunt about 7 years ago
Thanks, Christopher. Things like this are the stuff of memories. I think I'll send the Drablr link to my eldest brother and see if he remembers too. Things like that were such cheap ways of having fun. When I look at all the stuff, mostly plastic, that my kids give their little-uns, there's not a thought of 'if only I'd had that'. A big cardboard box with a rectangular hole in the bottom and we had a fantastic TV game.
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Neville Hunt about 7 years ago
Thanks, Drew. :-)
