Shortly after hearing our piano's music, I had the blessed opportunity to visit two very lovely schools in Singapore -North Light School and Methodist Girls School in Blackmore Drive. Thank you North Light School and MGS for the rich hospitality and the opportunity to learn, ask and see so many things first hand. We ( 3 school principals and 2 VP's from Malaysian schools) were fed and feted like VIPs and given many materials so we could upgrade our schools.
In MGS, I saw a piano in the canteen. When I queried the VP, Mr Tan informed me the piano was for the students to play during recess so they could de-stress. Then, in their hall I saw a grand piano and up on the gallery I saw another keyboard. For your information, MGS has their own orchestra and also a lovely handbells choir and a guitar ensemble, all played skillfully by the girls in MGS. I saw several other pianos and keyboards in other rooms. I stopped counting pianos and keyboards when I entered the music room which was filled with probably like 30 ++ keyboards.
I came back from Singapore with an awareness we were far behind our neigbours in the field of education and especially in music, we were far far behind. That visit left a deep longing in my heart to try to put some music in the school. So I began thinking..... and thinking aloud. So I voiced out the piano issue to Mr Lee Geok Ai, the Chairman of our Board of Governors and he told me he would look into it and gave me some contacts.
Last week, I was delighted when Jeremy Yap, our kind electrician fixing up the lab allowed me to borrow his electrician to repair our organ keyboard in the SAL room. It is now restored. Step 1 towards music n the school! La la la..!
Back to our piano story. The piano master Mr Lim who was a friend of Rachel, who was a friend of Jesse Law, ( one of our student's parents ) who is related to Mr Lee Geok Ai, came to the school today with his suitcase of equipment. Talk about connections!! Mr Lim at first told me the possible bad news - he probably would not be able to tune the piano to the standard required given its age. I found out our piano is 61 years old. and the make is Robertsons. Awesome! We have heritage in our school!
Mr Lim also mentioned about neccasary carpentry work. Some wheels were missing and we had propped all sort of things to prevent the piano from "goyang". The side panels were also loose and partially separated from each other. The wooden panel above the pedals was totally stuck. Of course there were many missing keys. And so many sticky keys! Girls - please read the following excerpt so we will no longer have sticky keys!
What Mr Lim didn't anticipate was we actually had a carpenter on call in school today of all days. The carpenter and his aide happened to be in school as of yesterday, repairing all the chairs that had come apart or were threatening to come apart, again courtesy of Mr Lee. So I asked the carpenter and his aide to come in and to take a look and see if he could do what Mr Lim asked. As the piano master proceeded to dismantle the piano to show the problem to the carpenter, he had a brain wave! He told him, "I will open up the whole piano and you repair all the wooden stuff before we put it back together again. "Mr Lim actually thought the carpenter was our resident carpenter and not our visiting carpenter! Talk about good timing - only God can arrange it so well!
So the three strong men proceeded to turn the entire piano upside down so that the carpenter could take off the spoilt wheels and replace with a flat base so the piano would no longer shake and totter from side to side. I phoned our workers to come in with cloths and the vacuum cleaner. Whole sections of keys were dismantled and placed on our stage. At this time, the afternoon students came into the hall for their assembly and many of them viewed the entire operation from a safe distance. The piano master chuckled and informed he would only charge me for the repairs but not for the show.( the live demo of how to restore a piano).
My only regret today is that I did not take any photos of the whole exciting procedure! Sorry lah! Why? Simply because I was running between chairing two important meetings in school, liasing the carpenter and aide and piano master and workers and teachers and prefects as well as an unexpected visit from a official from PPWS and also painter and aide for the IT lab as other happenings. So you have to be satisfied with the pics from the internet.
Fast forward 4 hours later. When I next went into the hall after the two meetings, I saw the piano upright, stable and the side panels all nailed together. Miracle! Carpenter and aide and piano master were still looking and testing the piano. Yes, there are some missing black keys which Mr Lim will order from the factory for us but the piano has now been cleaned and good news, it has been tuned properly. It sounds good! It looks so good compared to how it had looked since I first lay eyes on it!
Tomorrow, the carpenter will fix the wooden section for the padlock and key. He will also nail the panel for the music book. Our next need will be to get a good piano chair. Later we will shellac it - black - Mr Lim recommends.
The cost of this beautiful major interesting operation in full view of students who saw the innards of an old piano - you will never believe it!!! Only RM 400/- for 4 hours solid labour and Mr. Lim parting words were " Rachel says .. cannot charge so high for school piano." Thank you, Rachel, thank you Jesse and thank you contact of contacts Mr Lee.
Music has come to SMK Convent Sentul! Haha! And La ..la ..la ... la......!
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