Piano 19: Greeley Square - Pedestrian Area on 33rd Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway
I made my way to the brown and barely decorated piano. There was a crowd standing and sitting, listening to the man playing. And wow, he really could play. Everything from Bach to Joplin to the Charlie Brown theme song to "Stairway to Heaven" and back to classical pieces.
He has been playing since the age of 4, and his fingers could fly. A girl standing next to me looked eager to play the piano, so I asked her if she was waiting. She said maybe, and I understood. I half jokingly and half seriously said, "Me too, he's so good that I don't want to be the one to follow him!" And she agreed! Luckily there was a buffer. The man who made the most requests asked for a business card so that he could take lessons. I asked the man at the piano if the other girl and I could play and he graciously got up. The repeat requester, who was there before me, squeezed in an original song written for the witch in Hansel and Gretel. It was a very clever song with witty lyrics! After he got up, I played "Arithmetic." Yes, I play it a lot, but it was too breezy to use sheet music. After I finished, the girl who was waiting with me clapped, and then I got up to let her play, but she didn't want to play any more! It's a shame because I would have stayed to listen...
#20 Herald Square: Broadway and 34th Street
So I walked up a block to Herald Square where two women were sitting at the piano. They were there for quite a bit, but everyone was sitting in chairs and not completely paying attention... Or, at least they were not clapping after she played an extremely fast version of "Maple Leaf Rag" or "My Heart Will Go On." After they wrapped up, I took to the piano. From listening to the previous player, I was worried about the pedal. Sure enough, it wasn't working properly when I started to play "Nightminds." That bothered me, so my concentration broke a little. Also, another D key was stuck! The same key as the Riverbank State park piano. Thus, the ending of that song got lost, which is a shame because it's my favorite part of the song to play. No clapping followed, but that was all right with me. I felt as if I were playing for myself at that piano -- I just happened to be surrounded by strangers. I closed my Missy Higgins piano book and began to play "Arithmetic" from memory. Despite the lack of the pedal, it was still fun to play. I opened my eyes more while playing the song and looked around at the people sitting in Herald Square and even glanced up at the billboards & surrounding buildings and soaked it all in. Towards the end of the song, a little girl came up to my left and listened. She lingered at the piano when I finished the song, so I asked her if she knew how to play the piano. She shook her head. I asked her if she'd like to learn to play and she gave a big nod. So I stood up from the chair (no bench at this piano), and invited her to sit down. I tried to think of a song I could teach her, and the first song that popped into my head was "Mary Had A Little Lamb." Now, that song holds significance for me...
When my mom initially asked if I wanted to learn to play the piano, I refused. She didn't pressure me after that, but it wasn't long until I went into my brother's room and played the keyboard in there for the first time. I plunked out the keys to "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and absolutely loved discovering that on my own. And then I told my mom I wanted to take piano lessons. I think I was 6 years old...
Back to my lesson at Piano 15. It actually took me a few tries to remember how to play the song again, haha! I was playing in the wrong key and clearly, my 6-year-old self was a lot smarter than my 26-year-old self. I was making it too complicated with a sharp and knew that couldn't be correct. Finally, I got it right, and then I instructed the little girl to place her right hand on the piano and showed her where to begin -- on the E key. I then asked her to follow along with my fingers, and she was very good at producing a solid sound out of those keys with such tiny fingers! I should also mention that we sang along together, too. She made a fine duet partner. :) After that, I suggested that we sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." I played the melody in my right hand, and we sang together. She loved it so much that we sang it twice. I tried to think of other songs to sing. I asked her if she knew "Three Blind Mice," but she shook her head no. So then I asked her if we could sing our "ABC's" and she was very enthusiastic! Again, we did it twice, and I messed up the second time (not the actual alphabet portion!), but we finished strong. I thanked her for singing and playing with me, took a picture of the piano, and then walked away to return my materials to the library.
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| My "student" and duet partner is the girl in blue. |
Manhattan: 18 pianos
Queens: 2 pianos
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