Felix Wong playing Yanni's "In the Morning Light" on the piano.

In the Morning Light (Yanni Cover)

The COVID-19 concerts continue! This one is In the Morning Light, which is a song that Yanni wrote approximately three decades ago and, much later, said he used to help his daughter fall asleep at night.

As with last week’s virtual recital, I tried to perform this song in one take in order to practice playing under the pressure of one-and-done. However, I ran into some difficulty: I practiced on a modern keyboard, and when I tried playing it on the 1924 Chicago Cable Company baby grand, the third-octave E key kept getting stuck. So I had to take apart the piano to try to fix it… but in doing so, also broke a few hammers. Whoops.

Well, it was nothing a little hot glue couldn’t fix:

Felix Wong fixing the keyboard of a 1924 Chicago Cable Company baby grand piano.
Felix Wong fixing the keyboard of a 1924 Chicago Cable Company baby grand piano.

I also had to retune a couple of badly out-of-tune notes. So the video below ended up being a third or fourth take.

YouTube

Still, as you can see, it did not end up being flawless. I started out well, but much like in the marathons I’ve run, started to get a little sloppy at the end. Clearly, I should have practiced, practiced, practiced some more.

Maybe one day I will try to record a more mistake-free version. In the meantime, I’m going to work on anther song for the next virtual concert.

Felix Wong playing Yanni's "In the Morning Light" on the piano.
Felix Wong playing Yanni's "In the Morning Light" on the piano.