30 Thankful Days in Photos: Day 17

Yesterday the piano tuner came. He came when we first moved to Germany. He came to our old house we lived in for 2 months (at the time we didn't know we'd be moving). When he tuned our piano, a couple of the old hammers broke inside. He was going to have to come back with the parts to fix it. He was also going to fix my broken music stand and the the top of the piano that wouldn't stay on. I've wanted to play many times, but I just can't play a piano where two of the keys don't work. It was too frustrating. My poor piano!
(You can see which two keys are broken if you look closely at the picture. Also, don't mind me playing in my work-out clothes!).
Since then, we moved to the house we are in now. After a few scheduling problems, he was finally able to come back yesterday.
I'm so excited! He tuned my piano again (it needed it after moving--again). He fixed all the things he said he was going to fix and it looks really good. Now I just need to do a little restoration work to the wood. I'm doubly excited because it's growing closer to my favorite piano-playing season: Christmas. I love to play the piano, and I especially love to play Christmas music!
Yesterday I played Christmas music only. This morning I played Christmas music for about 40 minutes. Then moved on to classical. My favorite composer is Chopin. It is said that he composed music for his students to learn technique. While I play his pieces, I like to imagine I'm working on a specific technique. For instance, when playing Revolutionary Etude, | I think this genius work of art was composed to train the left hand in fast scales. I'm not a music major, nor have I looked up the history of each piece, but I find Chopin's style, techniques and melodies to be far superior to any other piano composer.
Chopin's Berceuse (click on this link, then on the play button to the right) is genius to me too. I am amazed at how the left hand barely changes its melody throughout the six pages of music, but the piece as a whole is such a fresh, soothing lullaby.
I could go on and on about Chopin, but this is not a dissertation. I am just so thankful today for my piano! I'm thankful for my musical talent that seems to have been ingrained in me from birth. And, I'm thankful for Chopin, who somehow wrote music over 100 years ago that speaks directly to me.