Watch Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037 For Free

That was an excellent one.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I can't play piano, but in the 1960s-70s I grew up with a 1913 Steinway on which my mother practiced for several hours every day. When my parents first got married they were close to broke, lived in a tiny apartment, and almost never ate out, but they bought that Steinway so that she could have a great tool for her profession. She played the hell out of it for half a century, then traded it in for a new one which sounds even better.I'm sure that a lot of people have nostalgic stories like this. Sure, nostalgia is nice, but these pianos truly are wonderful, and this documentary shows why.I think that as Americans we really shine when we MAKE big beautiful things, whether airplanes, rockets, or pianos. It's even better that in this case many of the workers are immigrants who came looking for jobs. The interviews make clear that they stay at Steinway because they truly love what they do. My mom's an immigrant, too, and it's wonderful that she's playing an instrument made in Astoria, New York.Watch this video and you'll come away smiling. Afterward, if you have the opportunity to buy a piano, cough up the bucks for a new Steinway--you'll get an absolutely superb instrument, and you've seen some of the good folks who make it, right here in the good ole US of A.

NOTE BY NOTE is a documentary that is not a documentary: it is a love story the begins with the initial choice of wood form Sitka, Alaska, through the multiple aspects of creating the case, the soundboard, stringing and creating the hammers and pads, and finally the tuning of the piano before placing it before the public wither for sale or for storage in the Steinway Headquarters in New York for pianists to select for performances in the New York area. Each step of the process introduces the craftsman responsible for particular aspects of the building of this near sacred musical instrument: it takes a year to handcraft a Steinway piano. Each step of the process of creating the piano, here the selected piano is numbered L1037, is explained and demonstrated but that is where this film is so very unlike other films that attempt to achieve the same 'this is how it is done' process: this is a story of a 'lover' passed from person to person until the wooden and metal and pad-filled 'box' is presented to the hands of a variety of musicians for the acid test. Throughout the film we are in conversation with such pianists as Hélène Grimaud, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Lang Lang, Harry Connick, Jr. and Hank Jones. But the real radiance of this film directed by Ben Niles is the series of tender tributes each of the workers adds when attempting to describe how working to build a Steinway is as rewarding an occupation as possible. This little film is a quiet love story and very awe inspiring. Grady Harp

I saw this last night on Netflix streaming video. Anyone who is a musician, or who just loves piano music, would enjoy this. Or even just craftsmen who want to see this fascinating process.This was filmed in the Steinway factory in New York. I was a bit surprised at how Steinway has remained almost completely a manual process, building each and fitting each by hand, with craftsmen using chisels and other tools putting the finishing touches on parts that need to fit properly. I believe they said they make 2000 pianos a year, while other more automated piano factories make 200 pianos a day!Piano L1037 is the one followed for the almost year it takes to make it. Why so long? Well they start with raw wood, form the multi-layered sides with a mold, manual labor, glue, and clamps. So it has to sit for periods to cure, including 8 weeks in the warehouse after the sides are fully formed. Then at other points, including after stringing, the piano has to sit for periods to allow all the stretching and tons of forces inside the piano to settle in.The film also includes interviews with a number of pianists, including Harry Connick Jr, and in the end one of them is playing beautiful music on L1037 after it is complete and is transported to the Steinway facility where all the finished pianos are displayed.

This is one of those rare films that is too short, you hope it won't end! A year in the making of a Concert Grand Steinway piano comes alive not only because of the details of the gathering of the wood, the process of building it and the beautiful tone of the finished product but because of the people who build it over that year of its birth. They show such love and enthusiasm for what they are doing and such care, respect and love for each other that it made me want to move to NYC to work at the Steinway factory. Fat chance though, the workers seem to stay there for years when they get a job there and it looks like you have to have an "in" to get the job in the first place! Friends, families, co-workers - they all count here with the gorgeous pianos bursting with tone the icing on the cake. The employees seem to know how lucky they are working in piano heaven! It's an 11 on a scale (no pun intended) of 10.I'll be buying the DVD immediately upon its release!