McClure's Piano Shop

Have you ever found yourself wondering what to do with your piano and/or your piano skills?

This past Christmas of 2011, our home was the location for my wife's choir Christmas Party (John Wesley United Methodist Church of Hagerstown, MD).  It was a splendid event, enjoyed by all twenty two of us for over three hours.  What did we do?  Following a scrumptious pot-luck dinner, we gathered our chairs and made our way to the living room where my meticulously restored 5'10" George Bent grand piano was waiting.  During the vivacious sing-a-long, the choir organist/director and I took turns accompanying the choir as they chose and sang about a dozen of their favorite songs and carols of the season.  Having a great piano as well as the accompanying skills to match puts a piano at its premier home performance level and is really unmatched in its grandeur!

When we were done with the sing-a-long, the director and I shared time playing my harpsichord (which I built from a Zuckerman kit in 1987 with three other local partners).  This instrument totally amazed everyone in attendance and was certainly a delight to the ears.

 And if that wasn't enough, the director and I also shared time playing this 1875 Estey reed organ of mine that plays the sensuous melodies of all our favorite Christmas Carols most eloquently of all!  It was also on this instrument that I accompanied one of the choir members as she sang Schubert's Ave Maria.

So the bottom line is this:  if you have a piano or keyboard instrument in your home (and I mean a REAL one, not a toy facsimilie) you have the first ingredient for a very enhanced get-together with your friends and colleagues.  Add a good pianist or organist to the mix and you're all set for a very treasured occasion that no one will ever forget!

This photo shows one of the tables used for our guests.  The tree in the background is the "John and Ida Mae Memorial Christmas Tree" in memory of my dear parents.  When I was a youngster, they would set up our family Christmas tree on the very stand this tree is sitting on and it would be decorated in the same basic way with the larger lights and lots of tinsel.  It was my dear Mother who got me interested in the piano, my life long love, at the age of five in 1956!