A Grand Piano

With the world being the way it is at the moment, most of my sessions are through video conferencing calls, which is a great way to connect. Some days it’s nice to see the client on the other end of the call, rather than hearing a disembodied voice. It’s lovely to have that human connection in a time where we are encouraged to distance ourselves away from each other.

With more people online these days using video conference platforms, issues arise like screens freezing, little to no sound or just no connection at all. Patience is the key here and once the connection is established, the salutations are said and the placing of the camera is configured, the session begins.

The placing of the camera...let’s talk about that for a moment. It’s an interesting topic to say the least. It’s fascinating where people place the camera from their devices in relation to where they are, and I mean this in the comical way.

I’ve never enjoyed being in front of a camera (even to have my picture taken). I’ve always preferred to be behind the camera, I mean waaaay behind the camera and a couple of blocks over. If there was a camera in the vicinity, I was nowhere near that vicinity.

Like most people my age, growing up we had the dreaded annual school pictures, not to mention the family pictures taken at Sears or Woolworths. We’d all pile into the car, dressed in similar outfits to have our pictures taken by someone who thought saying “smile” was something I felt comfortable doing. Back then I had severe social anxiety and I always felt awkward like a baby giraffe trying to stand up for the first time.

I remember one photographer who thought it was a good idea to drape a black velvet smock over my chest and arms, to just show my head. That’s not creepy at all to have a floating, disembodied head shot. Luckily I didn’t show up in the picture when the film was developed, although my sister did. Jane - 1, Photographer - 0, but I digress.

As the client and I connect visibly, I’m always intrigued to see if my mental picture of how they look matches up with their actual physical self. Once they come on camera, it’s fun to see their background images from where they are taking the call.

Learning to use a video conference platform and learning to find where your camera points are two different areas. It’s always fun to see where (or if) the client will line up with the camera. Most of the time there is success and other times….well, let’s just say it’s a comical ice breaker.

I’ve given sessions to people’s foreheads, to walls, to ceiling fans, to side profiles, to the occasional eyeball, and last but not least, to a stick of deodorant. Some people don’t want to be seen and others laugh as the camera spins around the room to figure out where they are in relation to the camera itself.

A few years ago, I was given some sound advice for my back drop, which I have been grateful for. As I do a lot of video conferencing calls, I make my background pleasant to the eye and as a result, I have received several compliments throughout the years.

A number of weeks ago, I had a session with a lovely client who had a gorgeous ebony Grand Piano in her home, which was visible in the conference call and as it turned out, she played and taught piano to a number of students.

The piano is one of my favourite instruments to experience because no matter what tempo or genre of music, the pianist always seems to create hauntingly beautiful sounds that resonate deep within my being.

My Mom played the piano when I was a child, which then I was made to play the piano, but it didn’t go too well. I have the “piano hands” - slender hands with long fingers, but I didn’t have the interest in playing that instrument, and so down the road, I stopped.

Originally the piano was first named “clavicembalo col piano e forte” which means “a harpsichord that can play soft and loud sounds” and was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofoi. Mr. Cristofori was dissatisfied by the lack of control musicians had over the volume level of the harpsichord so he invented a mechanism that struck the chord with a hammer versus plucking the chord with one's fingers. Viola! The piano was born.

As the session took place, one of the first things I noticed about the grand piano was the rim and on the rim was a pair of beautiful white Angel Wings. I asked my client if she had a sticker of Angel Wings on her piano, which of course she said she hadn’t.

I mentioned the wings to her, which made her turn around to look at the grand piano. She said she couldn’t see them with her physical eyes, but when she viewed herself through the camera of her computer, she saw them. She proceeded to tell me that they must have appeared due to the lighting of the room, which then she waved her arms around to find the source from which it was coming from. As she did this, I watched the wings but the source was never found.

Throughout her session, I kept my eyes on those Angel Wings. When we spoke of certain topics that were of great sensitivity to her, those wings glowed brighter and when we spoke of gentler topics, they dimmed, it was as if they had a life of their own and were “breathing” in and out. There were times when my client turned around towards the Grand Piano to see them and she could, yet other times she could only see them through the lens camera.

As the session came to a close, those beautiful Angel Wings dimmed down until they completely faded away, only to leave behind their memory and the ebony Grand Piano where they had once graced. I have never in my life seen anything like that before. They were a perfectly formed set of white Angel Wings on an ebony background. It was truly a grand piano!

Whether they were formed from a blip in the lights on a curved instrument or a sign sent from her cherished loved one on the other side to let her know they were near, we will never truly know, but they were worth writing about.

We never know when or where Spirit will leave us signs of their presence, but they always do. It’s up to us to keep our eyes open and expect the unexpected.

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Thank you to Yamaha for your information on the Grand Piano.

Thank you to ZU Photography on Sunsplash for the picture.