The musicians upstairs

[kenjari]

For the last couple of years, my upstairs neighbor has been a man I dubbed "guitar guy. He was, of course a guitarist. He played mostly jazz and classical, and he was very good. I could hear him through the ceiling. He spent hours playing and practicing, sometimes until 11 or so at night. And he'd start pretty early on weekends. But I didn't mind, because he was so good (I'm sure all that time spent with the guitar was why he was so good). In fact, it was sometimes quite nice to drift off to sleep listening to jazz guitar playing softly above my head. And there were a couple evenings during which he was working on more up-tempo stuff, and he was really on fire. I never met him, or even knew his name, but sometimes I felt like I did know him, because I was privy to so much of his music-making.
Guitar guy moved out last month. And I missed him. The unseen upstairs was too quiet.
It has now become clear, however, that guitar guy has been replaced by another musician. I've started to call her piano chick. I know she's a woman, because I heard her yell "damn" while practicing today. Yup, there's another piano above my head. Piano chick is, like guitar guy, very good. And like guitar guy, it's because she spends a lot of time with her instrument. I think she practiced for about six hours today. I don't mind, though. Although I am tempted to go up there and see what kind of piano she has, and what pieces she's working on.

Comments

[farwing.livejournal.com]

That's kind of amusing. I am now picturing an entire apartment building filled with musicians, all of them very good.

[epilimnion.livejournal.com]

You should definitely go up and introduce yourself. You have nothing to lose, and you are likely to meet someone with common interests.

[antoniusrex.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the exact same thing. Totally neat!

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

There is evidence that me and my upstairs neighbor are not the only musicians in the building. I have a times heard an accordion from somewhere above. And over the summer there appeared to be a violinist subletting one of the apartments, too.
For a while there, when it was me, guitar guy, and the accordion player, I kept thinking that if only we could get a clarinetist, string player, or singer, we could have a nice little eastern European sounding band.

[dcjaywalk.livejournal.com]

Go introduce yourself! If you're lucky enough to have another pianist (you're a pianist yourself, I take it?) living directly above you, you definitely should.