Bye Bye

I’m dispensing with my old electric piano (but don’t worry, it’s going to a good home).

My dad bought it around 1987/8. I was working on Take The High Road for Scottish Television at the time. By chance I met him in Sauchiehall Street, just after he had done the unthinkable - he had traded in his wonderful old Minipiano, which his parents had given him as a wedding present in 1939. And bought the Yamaha! Nothing against the Yamaha - it is still going strong after 36 years. But the Minipiano was a thing of beauty. Polished mahogany, the same as a normal upright piano, except that it didn’t have the high bit at the back. And It weighed a ton! I think it might have been made in Sweden.

It was the piano I learned to play on and was around all my growing up life. My dad used to play, and we would all gather round and sing.

Why did he get rid of it? My mother had never liked it and wanted it out of the house. My dad was just succumbing to dementia at the time and acquiesced. I was furious. Because in time I would have inherited it, and treasured it as the family heirloom it was. I certainly wouldn’t have been getting rid of it now.

In the end it was the Yamaha that I inherited, and it has served me well over the years. But I have no emotional attachment to it, and its place has been taken by something technically superior.

All the same, it does feel like I am letting go of the last bit of my dad (except that I still have his ashes in my study). I’ll miss it. But actually, it’s not bye bye, only au revoir. It’s going to my old home in Puymule, where I know it will be well looked after and played often.