Play Me, I'm Yours... Day 13

I set out today with the goal of playing 6 or 7 pianos, and while I fell short of my goal, it was beyond my control... Nevertheless, it was a great day for piano playing.

Still feeling tired and not fully awake, I purchased an iced coffee from Dunkin' Donuts. If I go for the iced coffee, you know I need it. (And also, I really didn't feel like having a hot tea this morning.)

Just as I did for Day 12, I planned out my route -- lots of traveling and a little backtracking, but it all made sense to me.

Pianos 28 and 29: TriBeCa Park - red piano and brown piano
I took the A train to Canal Street and walked to TriBeCa Park. Had never been there before. When I saw SoHo Pharmacy, I got excited because it was my landmark point of reference from pictures posted on the Street Pianos website. I spotted the pianos from across the street because one was a taller upright. Nobody was playing them, but I walked quickly anyway and sat down at the red upright. I started off with "Arithmetic." Second, I played "Where I Stood." I could tell people were walking behind me, and I overheard someone say "She plays very well." Other people were sitting (and one person was sleeping) on the park benches. After I finished, I ran over to the brown piano to make sure I played it. It was a smaller piano, and the pedal didn't work. I played "Nightminds" on it and then ran back over to the red piano, which sounded much better, and finished my set with "Scarlet." After that, I stood up to take a picture then moved on.

The brown and the red and SoHo Pharmacy in the background

Piano 30: City Hall Park
I walked up to Canal Street and took the R train to City Hall. The photos on Street Pianos website were somewhat helpful in my search for the piano. There was no wide-angle shot, but I at least knew it was by a building. I also couldn't take any aural cues, as nobody was playing. But the piano came into view, and I saw a woman standing at the piano. She walked away just before I approached, and I sat down to play "Arithmetic." I felt a small crowd gather, and when I finished the song, a Filipina woman called out her son's name. I asked her if I could just take a quick picture of the piano, but then she offered to take my picture, so I gave her my camera and played "Where I Stood." When I began to play, a breeze picked up, so I had to stop and pull out more books to hold down the music.

Displeased with myself, I started over and felt much better about my performance. When I finished, a woman behind me clapped loudly and I turned around and said, "Thanks!" I got up and also thanked the Filipina mother who took my picture. She called her son's name again, and he sat down to play a piece I didn't recognize, but it was very beautiful. After he finished playing, I walked a short distance to the 6 train and took it uptown...

Piano 31: Astor Place
The subway exit at Astor Place was exactly where I needed to be to play the piano. A man was playing the piano when I got there, and he was playing the upper half of the piano mostly, and it was badly in need of tuning. Badly. He said he had a tuning wrench in his car, but the piano was locked anyway. A younger guy sat down to play, and a man was going to take his picture, but the guy said, "No pictures." That was the first time I heard somebody say that. Kind of interesting, being that it's public area as well as a public art installation, but the man obliged and didn't take any photos. I asked the would-be photographer if he played the piano, and he said yes. The younger guy didn't play very long at all. Even though I was there before the younger guy and the would-be photographer, I let the would-be photographer go before me because I was waiting to see if Jessica might join me at Astor Place. The would-be photographer told me that he runs a website for street musicians in New York and asked if I would film some video footage for him. I happily obliged. He started to play, and I felt dumb because I saw the red light but only a black screen, and it took some exploration until I realized the cap was still on. Whoops. But the piece was several minutes, so I got lots of footage and moved around to capture a sense of the location, and I also did close-ups of the piano-playing. I hope I did a good job, but I did admit to him that the cap was on the camera for the first bit. He gave me his business card, so I'll have to check out the website and see if the video is posted there. Although he had to meet a friend, he asked if I wanted to be filmed. I said no (since I was going to play "Arithmetic" again), but I asked if he would take my picture, and he obliged. He took shots with my camera as well as his and then took off to meet his friend.

After "Arithmetic," I decided I would attempt "Shadowfeet" for more people than when I played it at Gansevoort Plaza. I had two other piano books holding down the sheet music for the song. I saw a man standing and possibly listening in my peripheral vision. While I was playing the song, a girl asked, "Can you play 'Special Two'?" My ears perked up, and I immediately stopped playing and said, "Yes!" I turned around, and it was a girl most likely in her early teens. She was with a group of friends, and the guys asked if they could play, so I let them. The girl told me that she danced to "Special Two" in a recital, so when the guys finished (it was only about a minute of testing the piano), I sat back down, invited her to sing along (she didn't want to), and started to play. She toyed with the idea of dancing, and once I got to the bridge, I could hear her sing very softly with me. So cool. During the song, one of they guys asked if I owned the piano, and I smiled and said no. I told the girl that she was the only person I'd encountered who actually knew Missy Higgins, and she said she loved her songs. She and her friends took off after the song, and I figured that I couldn't top that. Finally, a request I could and actually did fulfill! I listened briefly to the player who followed me and then walked south to the F train at Broadway-Lafayette so I could get to my next destination.

Piano 32: Seward Park
Based on the pictures I saw on Street Pianos website, I thought the piano at Seward Park was outside, as in on a sidewalk. So when I saw the piano was inside the park, I immediately wondered where the entrance to the park was because the gates I saw were all locked. And I knew the park was open because I could see children playing and people sitting on benches. So I retraced my steps and found an entrance at the south end of the park and walked back to the piano. When I got there, there were flies sitting on the keys, which was gross. The odd thing was that the keys weren't sticky or anything. I waved away the flies and proceeded to play "Arithmetic." The piano worked well for that song, but on the next song, "There's a Fine, Fine Line" from Avenue Q, I discovered several keys weren't working even though I could press down on them. Despite the key situation, I felt I redeemed myself. I decided to both play and sing the song, and to my surprise, it helped me to do that. A few people walking along the outside of the park stopped to listen while I played, and that was nice. A man sitting on the bench reading the newspaper moved to a bench closer to the piano. Also nice. Next up, I was going to play another Josh Groban song, but there were too many nonworking keys that the song required, so I had to abandon the idea of playing that song. Instead I played "Your Eyes" from RENT. I finished up with "Where I Stood" and then took this picture of myself.

Not my favorite decorated piano, but it did have character. Also, a major plus for being in the shade -- you can tell because I'm wearing my regular glasses and not sunglasses.

The Search for More Pianos
I took the F train back to Broadway-Lafayette and then walked on street level to "transfer" to the uptown 6 train at Bleecker Street and eventually made my way up to Madison Square Park where I met up with Jessica and her dog, Missy. We strolled through the park to search for the piano. I had read that the piano was removed due to damage, but you never know... it could have been restored or replaced. Well, it wasn't. It was lovely walking and talking in the park, and Jessica informed me of the naked men statues in and near the park as well as the other statues placed on rooftops. These pictures don't really do justice, but here are a couple:

You can't really see the figures on top of the Flatiron Building in this picture, but they're there.

Said goodbye to Jessica and Missy to make my way north to Harlem Art Park on the 6 train (which was my subway line of choice today, apparently!). I'd read stories of the piano and/or park being locked, and you can add my story to the mix. The park was open, and I was really excited that I was going to have the piano all to myself, but when I reached it, I saw the piano cover. Locked out. Major bummer. I took pictures -- it's a wonderfully decorated piano.

Now that I know where it is and also knowing that it's one of the few remaining, still-existing pianos in Manhattan that I haven't played yet, I have no choice but to return. Time is running out though!

Two days to go. Forecast is in the 90s for Sunday and Monday. Oy. Will try to make the best of it, but I'll just have to factor in the need to take it easy and the need for more sunscreen. If you can believe it, I haven't been burned. Pretty proud of that.

My final goals are to:
1) Play all remaining pianos in Manhattan (4 more that I haven't played) and
2) Play at least one piano in each borough (2 down, 3 to go).

Total Pianos Played By Borough:
Manhattan: 30 pianos
Queens: 2 pianos

Play Me, I'm Yours... Day 5

Part 1:
Success! Before meeting Alexa for dinner, I decided to take my chance on the piano at Columbus Circle -- the piano I couldn't play on Tuesday due to the light rain that caused the piano to be covered in plastic and locked up.

As I waited for the crosswalk, I saw someone sitting at the piano. He got up, but as I started to cross the street, a woman sat down to play a song. Luckily, it was short and sweet, and she got up. At last, it was my opportunity for the taking, so I bolted for the piano before anybody else could get to it.

First, I played Missy Higgins' "Nightminds," which you may have seen me play on my keyboard (if not, the video is on my Facebook page). After I finished, people sitting on the benches clapped for me! I nodded to some of them and was thrilled by their response.

Next up, "There's a Fine, Fine Line" from Avenue Q. I hadn't practiced this one much, and it showed. But... there was a couple that was walking by, and they stopped. The man knew it was from Avenue Q and told his companion that. He tried singing along, and I pointed to my sheet music where I was in the song. And I tried to help him out by singing as well, but that song can be a toughie playing just the piano part. I messed up a bit from overthinking and worrying, but by the end, some other people came up right by the piano and smiled and clapped. Oh, during the song, it was a little windy, so the man held my sheet music down for me. So nice of him to do that!

After that, this girl came up to me and asked if I was a music student. I told her no, but I also said I took piano lessons from elementary school through high school. She told me she wanted to hear me sing again, and then I pulled out my music book of Brooke Fraser songs. Now, I've been spending time memorizing two of her songs, but I didn't want to mess up after my Avenue Q hiccup, so I stuck to the sheet music.

I first played "Arithmetic," which my friend Katherine first introduced me to. Love that song. Now, the piano is a bit out of tune, but what can you do? It's been hot and humid in NYC. I played on and sang as best as I could. It was a thrill to finally play that song in public.

My final song was "Scarlet" by Brooke Fraser. I told the girl that it was a quieter song. I knew I could do well with it. The girl turned pages for me, which was really nice of her. After I finished, people clapped again. And then it was time for me to go and meet Alexa for dinner. I thanked the girl for turning pages and asked what her name was: Simone. I told her my name was Allison, and she said to keep playing. And I certainly will!

P.S. There were strangers taking pictures of me, so if they appear on the Internet somewhere, please tell me! :)

Part 2:
After dinner & dessert, Alexa and I walked over to the pedestrian area in Times Square between 45th and 46th Street. Forever 21 (where Virgin Records used to be) has a giant screen above its storefront that shows people on the street, so a bunch of tourists were standing around looking at themselves. Good for business? Um... Fun for tourists? For sure... Annoying for New Yorkers? Most definitely. But, we played tourists for a little bit, stood with everyone else, and waved at ourselves.

I saw that there was a crowd around the piano -- the biggest crowd I've seen so far. A young guy was playing the piano, and then this woman jumped in and played along with him! That was such a highlight! Two strangers making music, and it worked! Next up, another young guy said, "And now for something completely different..." and he played and sang operatically in German. His younger sister was his page turner.

When he finished his second piece, a mother strongly urged her young daughter to the piano, so she played, and a couple of other children came up to the piano to hear her play and decided to plunk some of the upper keys. The mom of those other kids told them not to touch the piano, but one of the girls responded, "I'm helping her!" It was all very cute. After the girl finished playing, I decided to go for it.

When I sat down at the piano, a guy to my left asked me if I was going to sing, and I said yes. I covered "Arithmetic" by Brooke Fraser, and at least one person was taking video, and another person was taking pictures with a nice digital camera. I couldn't tell if he was a tourist or affiliated with this public art project. In either case, it was pretty cool. Thanks to Alexa for turning pages and taking this picture!

When I finished the song, I got up to let others play. A woman came prepared with her own handheld video cam and body microphone, and she asked someone in the crowd to film for her. She played two songs. Then Alexa played her original song "Try" which is part of her Sunland EP, now available on iTunes! Visit Little Anchor's MySpace for details.

What a day! What a rush. As I said in my first tweet/Facebook status update: More to come.

Manhattan Piano Tally: 2/29