I’ve been blogging a lot about my new piano and how I first created an illusionary piano to solidify it’s existence in my own mind – and how it turned into a real piano that is now changing my life and my work.

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Illusions becoming reality is one story – but even when dreams come true, there’s still work involved – and we had to get this 800-pound dream from Charlotte, NC to a second story music room with a narrow curving stairway in Arlington, MA.

This post is about how that happened – which you may need to know if you’re ever gifted a grand piano and have to move it across state lines.  It took 3 moving companies: the “Local Guy” in Charlotte, NC (Carolina Piano Movers), the mysterious interstate moving company (Keyboard Carriage.) and my local guys Gentle Giant (Allston Piano Movers).

Here’s the story in pictures & video of how it happened.

The Pickup

It leaves Betsey & Dick’s house in Charlotte thanks to Ryan and his crew at Carolina Piano Movers.

piano-at-Betsey-Sesslers-1

 

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The Mysterious Interstate Journey

Ryan takes the piano to his storeroom until Keyboard Carriage – the interstate movers – are ready. Then they rendezvous, and Ryan puts it on Keyboard Carriage’s big truck that drops pianos off all along the East Coast – including to ‘Gentle Giant’ in the Boston area.

Here’s a photo from my web research of the Keyboard Carriage truck.  So why is there a motorcycle in the the back of the truck?  Well, it turns out that Keyboard Carriage specializes in moving pianos … and motorcycles.  New evidence of my belief that there’s a genetic connection between harps and bicycles.

keyboard-carriage-motorcycle

New evidence of my belief in the genetic connection between harps and bicycles. Share on X

The Receiving End

Gentle Giant’s crane and  big truck arrive:

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The crane maneuvers up the driveway and Rooty plumbs it and stabilizes it with wood:

01a-crane

The piano emerges!

03-Piano coming out of truck

Time for a strategy session.  Patrick, the crew chief (on the right) is cogitating on the best angle to fly the piano in the back porch.

04b-Discussing Piano Strategy

My favorite part … they fly my piano in.  I made a little video for this part:

The piano appears over the horizon of the house with Nathan and Patrick ready to catch it and Chad running lines of communication with Rooty, the crane operator.

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A view through the screen door of the piano coming onto the back porch:

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The piano rides a dolly through the house to its new home.

removing the dolly

Another strategy session …

it's in!

Patrick points out to me the dowels that help stabilize the piano legs

How you know where to put the legs

Leg #1 goes on — notice the massive hammer

On

The piano is upright!  Nathan and Patrick crawl underneath like car mechanics to add the lyre – the pedals and the mechanism that connects the pedals to the hammers.

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It’s a REAL piano!

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I take my place on the bench:

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I am ousted by the heir apparent. But not for long:

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I bring down the manuscripts I’m editing together for “The Golden Cage” musical, put them on the piano, and get to work.  This is the moment I’ve been waiting for:

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And … folks … we have achieved lift-off

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Thank you so much to Betsey & Dick Sessler, to Gloria Hodes with “Music & Masque”, to John, Joe, Patrick, Nathan, Chad, Rooty and Anna at Gentle Giant (Allston Piano Movers), Ryan & Teeya at Carolina Piano Movers and Rick at Keyboard Carriage.  Also to the kind folks, Julie and Dan, at Modern Piano, the one company that does do interstate piano moves from door to door (they spent a lot of time talking to me, but the timing worked out better for us to use the 3-part transport)

Every one of these piano-moving companies spent time with me on the phone, responded when they said they would, arrived on time, were communicative, kind, careful – and that made such a difference.

And Betsey & Dick — come on up any time to hear the rest of the piano concert I started at your house in April!

piano-flying-back-porch

 

 

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