Melody 61

 

Hello. My name is Melody 61. My friends just call me Melody. I am a portable electric piano, also known as an electronic keyboard. To be more precise, I am a synthesizer. Unlike my acoustic cousins, the upright and grand pianos, and my distant cousins, the organs, I do not produce musical tones by striking strings inside my body with little upswinging hammers, or by blowing air through pipes. I have black and white keys just like they do, although not quite as many. They have eighty-eight. I have only sixty-one. If you press my keys with your fingers, my nervous system generates electric signals which are then converted to the sounds you hear.

            Some people confuse electronic keyboards, aka synthesizers, with digital pianos. We’re similar, but not the same. Digitals primarily produce piano sounds and maybe those of other acoustic string instruments such as guitars and violins. Some have a striking resemblance to small acoustic pianos. You know, pieces of living room furniture like your parents or grandparents might have had. Others look like me, a black light weight portable keyboard instrument, only with fewer buttons and minus a lit up little odometer-like screen.

            I am proud to say that I am full of “bells and whistles,” added features like those above that make me suitable for the casual learner and appealing to older kids who thrive on variety and stimulation. My repertoire totals three hundred individual tones including the ping of a piano, heem of an organ, twang of a guitar, and doomp of a drum, all in various varieties. To make better use of these tones, my keyboard can be split in two, in essence turning me into a two-girl band. For instance, my right side can be your piano while my left side is your bass guitar. If you need a metronome, I am that too. I can play a tick-tock two, tick-tock-tock three, or tick-tock-tock-tock four beats per measure, or a continuous steady tick-tick-tick-tick with no regard to time signature. I do not mean to brag, but I think that my cousins and I are fabulous figures of physics with respect to the ways in which we produce such stimulating musical sounds.

 I was born in a factory in China although my biological family is from Rhode Island. They go by the name Alesis, but their real name is inMusicBrands, LLC. About a year ago I was adopted by Reyna and Steve, a lovely couple in New York. Both wanted to learn piano, so they adopted Alfred and me as a Christmas gift to each other. My new stepbrother Alfred is a do-it -yourself instructional piano book. His full name is Alfred’s Teach Yourself to Play Piano.

            Reyna and Steve give Alfred and me lots of loving care. They keep me plugged in so that I never have to use my battery. Steve was about to get a special dust cover for me when Reyna stepped in and placed a delicate lady’s shawl over my shoulders. That was so sweet of her. They also gave Alfred his own music stand so that he is always opened to the last page played.

            Alfred teaches a little bit of music theory and provides plenty of practice tunes and drills called finger aerobics. At first, Reyna didn’t care to read the explanations about music symbols, intervals, time signatures, and so on, so she let Steve do the reading and explaining while she stuck to the playing. On the other hand, Reyna practices more. That’s why she’s ahead of Steve in Alfred and more proficient with me. Today for instance, she played “The Marines’ Hymn.” Steve is still working on “Alouette.” I’m not worried about him though. He’ll get there. Recently, he joined a UFT retirees beginner’s piano group on Zoom that is sure to help.

            Steve wishes he had tried piano or guitar during his elementary school teaching days. It would have come in handy for assemblies. On the other hand, there was seldom enough time for fun stuff like music. In his school, it was always reading and math. Don’t get me wrong. He loved those core subjects too but was particularly fond of teaching the content areas. You know, history, geography, earth science and things like that. And he loved physical education, aka Gym, just as much as the kids. Nevertheless, Steve understood that the needs of the students came first.

            Growing up, Reyna was surrounded by brothers who sang and played guitar. She once tried guitar but found some chords too much of a stretch. When her brother Julio in Kansas City, a decent self-taught guitarist and karaoke style singer, adopted a keyboard like me a few years ago, Reyna felt motivated to try her hands at playing piano not only for its own sake, but also to impress her brother. Julio will be impressed once he hears her play. Of that I am sure.

            I think Reyna and Steve know how I feel about them, and I know how they feel about me. On a few occasions Steve has said welcoming me into their home when they did was perfect timing. A few weeks after they started teaching themselves to play me, the pandemic struck New York. Soon there was a shutdown and they were remaining at home more than usual, and there I was in the right place at the right time. Knowing that I’ve brought great joy to two nice people, makes me feel like a hit song. Together, we are becoming one happy musical family.

 

Steve T

Feb. 2021.