I removed the front panel of my Beale piano! I thought it would be fun to see all those moving hammers. Some of my students don’t know what’s inside an old-fashioned piano, so I played a short version of Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’, the quintessential pub piano bar song, for my kids.
Here are a few posts about my old Beale, which was made in Australia, in 1951.
Hi Joanna, I am fascinated with Beale pianos and their history and loved reading about yours. I am contemplating getting one that was made in Australia. I am curious to know having seen that you have now purchased something else, were you happy with it?
Hi Christine, yes I loved it very much. I loved its history, and its sound. I loved treating the wood with linseed oil and I always enjoyed Gerard coming round to tune it. I have a digital piano too, and the Beale remained in tune very well. Mine was a Bijou Beale so it was a small piano. I can’t compare it with what I have now because they are completely different, just as comparing an old Beale and a new Yamaha or Kawai upright makes no sense. But for the time I had her, my Beale brought me much joy, and I made sure she went to a family where she would continue to be played and appreciated.
Joanna is British Australian. Her early career was in financial news in London. That ended in 2008. Joanna moved to Sabah, her parents’ birthplace, where she wrote a blog about musicians, which became a book. Joanna came to Australia in 2012 and started this blog — her second. These days, she writes mostly about music, her garden, and trips to Sabah. Oh, and Wookie the Havanese.
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