New Thing

To celebrate Nathan finishing the GRE (and also because we've wanted one for a really long time), we finally decided to purchase an electric piano. Why electric? We'll likely end up moving several more times before we settle down for good, and I'd really rather not mess with moving an actual piano. We'll probably end up getting a "real" one eventually, but for now this meets our needs quite nicely. (Plus I don't have to worry about changes in temperature from being next to the door making it go out of tune this way.)

We have to sit on a kitchen chair with a book on it to make it the right height. 

We basically rearranged half our living room to make it fit right, but it was well worth it and we're both happy with both the new set up as well as the piano itself. Changes we made: a bookshelf used to reside where the piano now does. We moved that bookshelf to another spot where a smaller bookshelf had been, and moved the smaller bookshelf to the wall next to the piano (where the picture is being taken from, essentially). Maybe I'll get a better picture when Nathan isn't using his phone for talking to people. :P 

My initial impressions: I can still tell a difference between it and a regular piano, but this particular model is much closer to a real piano than any other keyboard I've touched. It has about 500 different sounds and a bajillion options. I fiddled around with them a bit tonight and I'm pretty sure I'll never figure it all out completely, but it seems to be extremely versatile far beyond what we'll use anyway. The keys feel almost right (they are weighted) - not exactly what I'm used to but within an acceptable range that you'd expect from different kinds of pianos anyway. I like that you can plug in headphones; I love listening to Nathan play, but it's nice to have the option if we need it (like if he wanted to play in the middle of the night, or when I was exercising to Dance Central). I do have a bit of trouble getting dynamics right, but that's never been my forte (get it... forte? dynamics?) anyway. The sound as a whole is very piano-like... well, it is when you have it on the piano setting at least. XD

Now all we need is a proper bench and we'll be set! Until then, my college organic chemistry book on our extra kitchen chair will have to fill in. Hooray for music!