Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner What do you do when you see an unoccupied piano in public?

And there are people around. Do you do nothing? Do you tinker around with it? Or you jump on and blast away your best piece?

It depends.

Silly to have strong feelings about such a thing, but I simply would never commandeer a piano under those circumstances. Just strikes me as show-offy in the extreme.

I guess you wouldn't do it if they were all strangers? What if they are mostly people who know you?

I doubt that, "in public," they would be mostly people who know me. In any case, I think that playing the piano in a public venue without a specific or implied invitation to do so would be presumptuous in the extreme.

Regards,

I couldn't agree more. But even if I know the people I'm not about to climb on board without an invitation. Even then, I'd be careful to assess whether they really wanted to hear something or were just being polite.

Edit: just to add, it's not (of course) as if I don't share the very human impulse to show others any talents or abilities I might have, But I have an even stronger desire to keep this need under wraps. And all that said, as to the former, it's an impulse that continues to wane as I age...

It depends. If it is a hotel piano where I'm staying as a guest, I'll ask the clerk at the front desk if I can play it. I bat about .500 on those requests.

If it is in a private home and I am a guest at some social function, I'll wait to be invited.

If it's got a "do not touch" or "do not play" sign, I respect the sign and refrain from playing.

If it's located in a place where there's no obvious person to ask permission, I'll play it as long as there doesn't seem to be anything going on nearby that I might be disrupting. I'll also play it if I see other people playing it and then leaving.

me2

Footnotes: Begging raises it to about .600.
Making advance arrangements raises it to maybe .800.

how much alcohol have I consumed ? 1-5 , show off, 5 - 10 , try and steal it.

Good answer.

Lucky me! I don't play piano in public, so it is not an issue.

Leave it alone!

Depending, as has already been said, on the circumstances. If it won't interrupt anything then i'll play for as long as i like, not to show off but i usually just improvise little pieces for myself. I have done this a few times before, the oddest occasion, i would think, was when i came across a piano in a chinese takeaway and played something! The kitchen staff even came out to applaud me!
Of course, if it's in someone's home i wouldn't play it at all.

I think it is actually good justice for workers who are bored as heck. Listening to someone play would be a much needed remedy for them.

A hotel? If I feel like playing, I'll sit and play.

I can't go pass a piano store without stopping in and pretending I'm interested. I always drop that I'm an engineer, and I'm never bothered by the salesmen besides the occasional "oh, please come try the 9-ft concert grand in the back room."

Someone's home? I pretend like I don't notice the piano and hope I'm not asked to play something.

Weird, eh?

-Daniel

Although I don't sit down and start playing, I can't resist checking to see if it's in tune. It's sort of an ongoing poll with me. (they're never in tune)

i just check the brand and raise my eyebrows or not.

I basically never play in public. But one time I was in a hotel with hundreds of other teenagers trying to qualify for the Jeopardy Teen Tournament. The wait was getting long, so I finally decided to play the piano which was sitting unoccupied for a long time. Then some man approached me and said "That's Beethoven, right?" and walked away. It wasn't until the next day that I realized he was TV actor. I had a feeling that there were other celebrities there than Alex Trebek. Anyways, no one was bothered by my playing, which was only about 10 minutes.

Under the usual circumstances that I have such encounters, I tune it.

A generous friend visiting took me out to dinner on my 30th birthday to a pricey French restaurant in a rural setting. It was a quiet evening with only a few tables occupied. After dinner I inquired with the French owner/chef about playing a few of my pieces on his piano sitting in the restaurant. I played a short set and afterwards to my (and my friend's) surprise he wiped off our entire bill - over $200 ! And a young couple visiting from the States invited us over to their table and proceeded to order $150 bottle of Champagne, then another.... until finally the owner cut them off and told me privately they had already spent over $1000 that evening.