Musical Instruments - do you have a collection?

This could be a difficult one... But let's face it as a little personal challenge. I have been thinking for a while about the topic that can serve in February as inspiration or suggestion, or call it an official initiative in this little community, Hive Collectors.

The last two months were amazing, December brought us Christmas postcards and many Christmas decorations and January converted itself into a month of mugs. A huge THANK YOU goes to everyone who made their contributions. I will not tag users, but those who eventually will read this post will know that I am more than grateful for each collection that arrived!

Those who didn't see these topics on time or just didn't make their posts on time can still publish their mug collections, at any time, it is fine.

However, the new official topic for February will deal with music! In particular with:

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

At first glance, you can say it is easy for me, as I am a musician, but I don't have a huge collection of musical instruments right now. The truth is that I have had several pianos since my childhood. My first piano, a Vienesse grand piano could not be tuned anymore, it was that old so my family gathered money (those were some economically difficult times) and bought me a used, but newer upright piano. Thanks to that I could continue to practice but when I moved to another city the need for an additional piano came. That is how we bought my second upright piano. Both these pianos served me for many years, I finished my studies and later I gave them away to my nieces. Each niece has one piano now.

This is what an upright acoustic piano looks like. As I am many many kilometres away from those pianos I gave to my nieces, I am bringing a photo of one that I played last year and which is the most similar to the one my family bought me when I was around ten years old.

Right now I have a Yamaha digital piano at home as I live in a not-so-big apartment. This one also has a hard time finding its place, I am moving it around the room depending on where there is space for it. If you have followed me for some time, you can recognize this instrument, I usually record my piano videos with it.

I bought it from a neighbour who rarely played it. He had an idea to learn to play the piano, purchased it in The Netherlands, and brought it to Spain but nothing, he gave up and the piano was sad, it was not played. When he was moving from the building this piano was just a burden to him. He was happy to sell it to me, and I even paid him more than he asked for it as I knew what I was buying (he underestimated its value).

I have to tell you that this is a peculiar musical instrument. It is still shaking when I play it (as I didn't tighten some screws properly) and sometimes it organizes parties by itself. You see, a violin, a wooden flute and maracas gathered this morning.

Let's meet his friends.

The violin!

This violin is not a Stradivarius but still, it was four times more expensive than my digital Yamaha piano. And that is not all, you have to have a good fiddle bow, a set of strings, a shoulder rest and other accessories that its owner - my son, gladly spends money on.

The wooden flute!

It found its place in our home as one of my husband's uncles made it and gave it to my son as a birthday gift. He is a woodworker. Not many things my son plays on this flute, but the other day he was improvising a bit, and also, just for fun, he played the tune from the movie Titanic. We laughed a lot at that performance.

The guitar!

This was a cheap guitar that my son bought from someone who didn't learn a lot. It was mostly sleeping on its case. The same as it happens now with it, as no one plays it. Unfortunately. You know when you are a teenager and you think you can learn to play the guitar in a few days and play chords on the beach during evenings, around the fire and make yourself a star. Well, it happens just in tales. Not in real life. 😂

Maracas!

I got these maracas from my aunt and uncle, who visited Cuba many, many times. They used to travel there every year until the health problems which come with age made them stop travelling at all. My uncle is really old and there are also dementia issues... but when he talks about his nicest memories, he talks about Cuba. Last summer when I visited them I had to make him company in drinking Cubalibre (Rum and Coke).

You see, I don't have many musical instruments, but still they make a collection. I also have a stage piano, which looks like a keyboard that I can take with me if I have a gig in a venue without a piano. I store it in the storage room in its case, so here is a photo of me playing it a few months ago. Piano, in action!

This can be a hard topic for Hive users who don't have musical instruments at home... but everything is possible, if you are creative and find your way ;). There are also many musicians in Hive, so if you read this post and find it interesting and you can think about someone who would like to participate, please, let her/him know.

Thank you in advance and if you decide to participate - have fun!!! 🎶