Parramatta sing-along street crawl of the Sydney Festival Street pianos
To follow up on my last blog:
Last Friday, John, Dan and I (well, really John and I were the keen beans, Dan was a willing and enduring but bored tag-along) set out to play the 10 Sydney Festival street pianos located in Parramatta. This is how we went.
Piano 1: Parramatta Ferry
At roughly 3pm, Dan and I arrived at the ferry stop, following the sounds of John ardently practicing his Clementi.
(John has not had regular access to a piano for some time. Given that he now lives close walking distance to ALL of the Parramatta street pianos, I've told him there is no excuse for not practicing every day, for the month of January. And good on him for working at his technical skills.)
On arrival I immediately pulled out a score for Buffy: The Musical - 'Once More, With Feeling', and set to playing and singing. *smiles*
The piano was in slightly rough shape. The touch and sound was somewhat warped from age and heat and humidity, but the piano was still very playable, and very musical.
Piano 2: PCYC
We wandered over to the Parramatta PCYC to discover - the piano was blue! An officer was busily applying the PCYC logo to the side of the piano while another officer took pictures. The piano looked rather striking. We had a lovely chat to the officers, who mentioned that the piano had been recently tuned, and was apparently in really good nic, relative to the other street pianos. The tuner informed the officers that the piano was over 100 years old...a fact which made them somewhat uncomfortable about agreeing to let some kids paint the piano blue!
As nice as it was to talk to the officers, it was only so long we could resist the music making. And I was delighted to find that the officers were right - the piano was in lovely condition considering the circumstances. I believe I insisted that we sing Tara's song there, while on a good piano.
Break 1: Max Brenner
Ok, we'd not been at it long, and the Parramatta pianos are all quite close to each other...but it was sunny and hot and how could I resist dropping into Max for a peanut butter iced chockie? Unfortunately I did not bank on the indifferent service of the Max Brenner staff, who took almost 30 minutes to make 3 iced drinks! [They were neither busy nor understaffed - just inefficient, and poor at prioritising orders. Many a customer who arrived after us got servied before.]
Piano 3: Parramatta station
There was a gentleman industriously tapping out a melody on this piano when we arrived, who quickly vacated the piano seat when we arrived, assuring us that he was hopeless, and we should go on ahead. We cheerfully played and sung a tune before running off. I was somewhat annoyed that people had been using the piano top to rest Hungry Jacks drinks on - for goodness sake this is an instrument of music, not a bin or a resting bench!
FRUSTRATION 1 - Church Street mall
We had been warned at the PCYC that this piano was not playable, and when we reached it there was a sign saying as much. Wondering exactly what happened to it the 3 of us lifted the lid to take a peek - to find out that some ****holes had broken EVERY SINGLE HAMMER on that poor piano. B*******S! Low-life jerks!
The piano had been well placed - it was at a pedestrian thorough-fare, under an umbrella to protect from sun and rain, and there was a plastic cover that could be pulled over it in case of rain. And all that thoughtfulness had come to naught because some ****heads thought it would be fun to destroy something. And the damage is certainly beyond being worth repairing.
A quick aside - with respects to the destruction of instruments for artistic purposes, e.g. smashing guitars at rock concerts, setting fire to pianos on video clips...do you approve, or not?
Generally speaking, I think the destruction of an instrument is sacrilege. Exceptions would only be if the instrument was already beyond repair, beyond reuse.
FRUSTRATION 2 - a hairdressor on Church Street
John had mentioned that he believed some of the pianos were in shops, and as we walked up Church Street I spied a street piano in a hairdressor. Problem: the store was locked!
It was barely past 5pm on a Friday afternoon, and the hairdressors was closed. Who closes at 5pm on a Friday?! How dare they frustrate the goals of our sing-along street crawl: to play ALL 10 pianos??!!
Piano 4: The bridge on Church Street over the river, near a bus stop
There were lots of people by this piano, as it was basically situated at a bus stop. As a result it is frequently banged on - not a pleasant sound (particularly if you live in the apartment building across the road and have to listen to it at 3am in the morning.)
Surprisingly, the piano seat was not being used as a public bench. So we sat ourselves down and had a tinkle and a sing. This piano is also in reasonable condition. We left it with the lid down, as we found it...just hoping that would somewhat reduce the chances of someone coming along for a bang rather than a play!
Piano 5: The little gazebo in the park on Church Street
There was a little line-up for this piano! We encountered two girls just leaving the piano. They were armed with sheet music, as were we, and were presumably on a similar mission. One of the books was the sheet music to 'The Phantom of the Opera'. The other was a book of disney songs. The girl carrying them mentioned that she had piano students. Long live our fellow piano adventuring street-piano-crawling musos! :)
And then there was the Chinese mother with her young son. She popped him on the piano chair then ran off. The kid remained motionless. He didn't play, he just sort of looked around. I tried talking to him but didn't get a response. John simply asked for a turn on the piano, which he was granted.
The mother came back - armed with sheet music. A ha! And then started talking to me in mandarin - she wanted to know what all these pianos being around was about. I haltingly replied, wracking my brains for a means to explain the concepts of Sydney Festival, Street Pianos, in my pretty poor mandarin. She soon interrupted me to emphasise: "These pianos are just round? For everyone to play? For free? How wonderful!"
All she needed was the bottom line, not the reason. How quintessentially asian-economical.
Piano 6: The swimming pool
It took us a while to work out where this one was - it was INSIDE the gates of the swimming pool, around the back, near the basketball courts. It looked incredibly inviting - the front panel had been rolled up to reveal the inner strings and hammers, and there was a big sign behind it proclaiming "Play me, I'm yours".
The three of us discussed whether or not we'd be allowed onto the grounds without paying for entry. I decided that this was a public work, and as such admittance should be granted to us for free! It was at least worth an ask.
We wandered up to the counter at the front of the swimming pool, and I asked the girl behind the counter if we'd be allowed in for the purpose of playing the piano. (Notice, the boys left the task of attempting to charm the random potential obstacle to me!) She directed us to her manager, who waved us though without waiting for me to repeat my request: I guess we were not the first!
The piano, I'm afraid, had not been treated well. Most of its middle octaves were unplayable. Keys stuck, there were many broken hammers, and the keys had also become dirty and sticky from being outside underneath trees. We soon gave up any attempt to drawl music out of the poor piano. The wooden panel that normally covers the hammers and strings had come off its hinges, however we managed to reset it such that the strings were covered - our attempt to reduce the chance of further damage being done to the piano. Unfortunately I think that's another instrument that wil not be salvageable.
Break 2: Internets!
Having found 8 of the 10 pianos (2 of which were not playable) we weren't certain where the last 2 were and decided to take a break at John's place, where we could look up the location of the last pianos.
While looking at the website we noticed that the 'recently uploaded' thumbnail pictures showed a very familiar sight! In the time between playing the PCYC piano and getting to John's place, a picture of us had been uploaded onto the internet! See-
http://www.streetpianos.com/sydney2009/pianos/pcyc
I love the tag: "Broadway came to town with this singing trio." :)
Piano 7: Some internet cafe on Macquarie Street
I'm afraid I can't report on the condition of this piano since John did the playing, but it seemed alright! I believe it was at this piano that we finished playing through the musical.
Piano 8: Outside Yefsi cafe, on Church Street (across the station line)
Lucky last piano! Being outside a cafe, and across the road from Westfields etc, there was a fair bit of traffic, and we got asked a few times what we were playing, and if we were involved with the project.
Having finished our Buffy musical, what do we move on to? John brought is Andrew Lloyd Webber anthology collection. ;)
*pauses at the collective gasps/groans/rolled eyes*
John chose the song, and it was a good one - Gethsemane, from Jesus Christ Superstar. Before we got stuck into it, I had the following conversation with danman80 , who was no doubt wondering why he had agreed to trail after two music geeks for 5 hours.
Me: 'Are you ok with us singing this? It's ok, it's *good* Andrew Lloyd Webber.'
Dan: 'There is no such thing as good Andrew Lloyd Webber.'
Me: 'Yes there is! Jesus Christ Superstar!'
Dan: 'Oh yeah. I forget about that one.'
I have had this conversation many a time with many a person! Anyhow, I played. We sang. It was fun.
The verdict:
Last Friday, John, Dan and I (well, really John and I were the keen beans, Dan was a willing and enduring but bored tag-along) set out to play the 10 Sydney Festival street pianos located in Parramatta. This is how we went.
Piano 1: Parramatta Ferry
At roughly 3pm, Dan and I arrived at the ferry stop, following the sounds of John ardently practicing his Clementi.
(John has not had regular access to a piano for some time. Given that he now lives close walking distance to ALL of the Parramatta street pianos, I've told him there is no excuse for not practicing every day, for the month of January. And good on him for working at his technical skills.)
On arrival I immediately pulled out a score for Buffy: The Musical - 'Once More, With Feeling', and set to playing and singing. *smiles*
The piano was in slightly rough shape. The touch and sound was somewhat warped from age and heat and humidity, but the piano was still very playable, and very musical.
Piano 2: PCYC
We wandered over to the Parramatta PCYC to discover - the piano was blue! An officer was busily applying the PCYC logo to the side of the piano while another officer took pictures. The piano looked rather striking. We had a lovely chat to the officers, who mentioned that the piano had been recently tuned, and was apparently in really good nic, relative to the other street pianos. The tuner informed the officers that the piano was over 100 years old...a fact which made them somewhat uncomfortable about agreeing to let some kids paint the piano blue!
As nice as it was to talk to the officers, it was only so long we could resist the music making. And I was delighted to find that the officers were right - the piano was in lovely condition considering the circumstances. I believe I insisted that we sing Tara's song there, while on a good piano.
Break 1: Max Brenner
Ok, we'd not been at it long, and the Parramatta pianos are all quite close to each other...but it was sunny and hot and how could I resist dropping into Max for a peanut butter iced chockie? Unfortunately I did not bank on the indifferent service of the Max Brenner staff, who took almost 30 minutes to make 3 iced drinks! [They were neither busy nor understaffed - just inefficient, and poor at prioritising orders. Many a customer who arrived after us got servied before.]
Piano 3: Parramatta station
There was a gentleman industriously tapping out a melody on this piano when we arrived, who quickly vacated the piano seat when we arrived, assuring us that he was hopeless, and we should go on ahead. We cheerfully played and sung a tune before running off. I was somewhat annoyed that people had been using the piano top to rest Hungry Jacks drinks on - for goodness sake this is an instrument of music, not a bin or a resting bench!
FRUSTRATION 1 - Church Street mall
We had been warned at the PCYC that this piano was not playable, and when we reached it there was a sign saying as much. Wondering exactly what happened to it the 3 of us lifted the lid to take a peek - to find out that some ****holes had broken EVERY SINGLE HAMMER on that poor piano. B*******S! Low-life jerks!
The piano had been well placed - it was at a pedestrian thorough-fare, under an umbrella to protect from sun and rain, and there was a plastic cover that could be pulled over it in case of rain. And all that thoughtfulness had come to naught because some ****heads thought it would be fun to destroy something. And the damage is certainly beyond being worth repairing.
A quick aside - with respects to the destruction of instruments for artistic purposes, e.g. smashing guitars at rock concerts, setting fire to pianos on video clips...do you approve, or not?
Generally speaking, I think the destruction of an instrument is sacrilege. Exceptions would only be if the instrument was already beyond repair, beyond reuse.
FRUSTRATION 2 - a hairdressor on Church Street
John had mentioned that he believed some of the pianos were in shops, and as we walked up Church Street I spied a street piano in a hairdressor. Problem: the store was locked!
It was barely past 5pm on a Friday afternoon, and the hairdressors was closed. Who closes at 5pm on a Friday?! How dare they frustrate the goals of our sing-along street crawl: to play ALL 10 pianos??!!
Piano 4: The bridge on Church Street over the river, near a bus stop
There were lots of people by this piano, as it was basically situated at a bus stop. As a result it is frequently banged on - not a pleasant sound (particularly if you live in the apartment building across the road and have to listen to it at 3am in the morning.)
Surprisingly, the piano seat was not being used as a public bench. So we sat ourselves down and had a tinkle and a sing. This piano is also in reasonable condition. We left it with the lid down, as we found it...just hoping that would somewhat reduce the chances of someone coming along for a bang rather than a play!
Piano 5: The little gazebo in the park on Church Street
There was a little line-up for this piano! We encountered two girls just leaving the piano. They were armed with sheet music, as were we, and were presumably on a similar mission. One of the books was the sheet music to 'The Phantom of the Opera'. The other was a book of disney songs. The girl carrying them mentioned that she had piano students. Long live our fellow piano adventuring street-piano-crawling musos! :)
And then there was the Chinese mother with her young son. She popped him on the piano chair then ran off. The kid remained motionless. He didn't play, he just sort of looked around. I tried talking to him but didn't get a response. John simply asked for a turn on the piano, which he was granted.
The mother came back - armed with sheet music. A ha! And then started talking to me in mandarin - she wanted to know what all these pianos being around was about. I haltingly replied, wracking my brains for a means to explain the concepts of Sydney Festival, Street Pianos, in my pretty poor mandarin. She soon interrupted me to emphasise: "These pianos are just round? For everyone to play? For free? How wonderful!"
All she needed was the bottom line, not the reason. How quintessentially asian-economical.
Piano 6: The swimming pool
It took us a while to work out where this one was - it was INSIDE the gates of the swimming pool, around the back, near the basketball courts. It looked incredibly inviting - the front panel had been rolled up to reveal the inner strings and hammers, and there was a big sign behind it proclaiming "Play me, I'm yours".
The three of us discussed whether or not we'd be allowed onto the grounds without paying for entry. I decided that this was a public work, and as such admittance should be granted to us for free! It was at least worth an ask.
We wandered up to the counter at the front of the swimming pool, and I asked the girl behind the counter if we'd be allowed in for the purpose of playing the piano. (Notice, the boys left the task of attempting to charm the random potential obstacle to me!) She directed us to her manager, who waved us though without waiting for me to repeat my request: I guess we were not the first!
The piano, I'm afraid, had not been treated well. Most of its middle octaves were unplayable. Keys stuck, there were many broken hammers, and the keys had also become dirty and sticky from being outside underneath trees. We soon gave up any attempt to drawl music out of the poor piano. The wooden panel that normally covers the hammers and strings had come off its hinges, however we managed to reset it such that the strings were covered - our attempt to reduce the chance of further damage being done to the piano. Unfortunately I think that's another instrument that wil not be salvageable.
Break 2: Internets!
Having found 8 of the 10 pianos (2 of which were not playable) we weren't certain where the last 2 were and decided to take a break at John's place, where we could look up the location of the last pianos.
While looking at the website we noticed that the 'recently uploaded' thumbnail pictures showed a very familiar sight! In the time between playing the PCYC piano and getting to John's place, a picture of us had been uploaded onto the internet! See-
http://www.streetpianos.com/sydney2009/pianos/pcyc
I love the tag: "Broadway came to town with this singing trio." :)
Piano 7: Some internet cafe on Macquarie Street
I'm afraid I can't report on the condition of this piano since John did the playing, but it seemed alright! I believe it was at this piano that we finished playing through the musical.
Piano 8: Outside Yefsi cafe, on Church Street (across the station line)
Lucky last piano! Being outside a cafe, and across the road from Westfields etc, there was a fair bit of traffic, and we got asked a few times what we were playing, and if we were involved with the project.
Having finished our Buffy musical, what do we move on to? John brought is Andrew Lloyd Webber anthology collection. ;)
*pauses at the collective gasps/groans/rolled eyes*
John chose the song, and it was a good one - Gethsemane, from Jesus Christ Superstar. Before we got stuck into it, I had the following conversation with danman80 , who was no doubt wondering why he had agreed to trail after two music geeks for 5 hours.
Me: 'Are you ok with us singing this? It's ok, it's *good* Andrew Lloyd Webber.'
Dan: 'There is no such thing as good Andrew Lloyd Webber.'
Me: 'Yes there is! Jesus Christ Superstar!'
Dan: 'Oh yeah. I forget about that one.'
I have had this conversation many a time with many a person! Anyhow, I played. We sang. It was fun.
The verdict:
- That was fun!
- We went by all 10 pianos but were only able to play 8 out of 10. :( One was unplayable, and the other locked up.
- Damn that hair salon for having the piano locked up!
- *unmentional expletives* to the low-lives who destroyed the Church Street Mall piano. If only they understood the gravity of what they did, *******s.
- It sure is tough to put a piano outside somewhere, for all to play, and still keep it safe from sun damage, water damage, heat and humidity, dirt, dust, sap, and vandals.
- The PCYC is a brilliant place to put the piano and increase its chances of being safe. Painting a 100+ year old piano may have been a bold move but it sure looks striking, and that particular piano is easily in the best condition of the Parramatta lot (and I'd not be surprised if that also extended to the Sydney pianos).