The piano in a house I was renting had a couple of keys that stuck down after being played. For a couple of months I pondered whether or not to do anything about it - I'm not very mechanical, so I doubted I could fix it, but I was reluctant to bring in a repairperson since it wasn't my piano and I wasn't playing much. So one day I got brave and opened up the top of the piano... and found a toy truck sitting on top of the hammers.

My Ukranian fiddling friend tells me that when his Ukranian fiddling grandmother played at wedding receptions, the custom was to push coins into the f-holes while she was playing.

Marion