Improvisations
10-5-2013 – Norman Leventhal Park – Piano #28
I think there might have been some wedding portraits happening at the other end of this park as I was playing! This piano was unoccupied when I got there, and the park was relatively empty of people in that corner, so I ended up playing for a while. This is just a sample of it…
10-5-2013 – Old State House – Piano #25
When I got to this piano, a street musician was set up across the alley playing guitar with recorded accompaniment. I waited for a while to see if he was going to move on, but so many people just plunked the piano keys as they walked by, while he was playing, that I figured it was probably okay to play, too!
10-5-2013 – Readers Park Boston – Piano #27
See that guy in the green shirt? He had his portable radio going full blast, so I very considerately tried to blend in with the song that was playing! But I didn’t feel like I should play too long…
10-7-2013 – Cambridge Common – Piano 31
This was my third time trying to play this piano! Other times, I either got there too early, or it was covered in plastic and locked because of rain. With this piano, I finished playing all the public pianos north of the river!
10-5-2013 – Government Center – Piano 26
I waited in line behind three other people for this piano, and that was after I wandered around the whole antique car show that was spread out at Government Center! The piano was really tucked in a corner, and because of the acoustics of the place (and the fact that golden oldies were blasting over speakers!), you couldn’t hear it until you got within 30 feet.
Some people, when I mention this project, say that they’ve been through Boston neighborhoods in the past couple weeks, but they have only noticed one or two pianos. I love that most of them are hidden in plain sight, and that sometimes you really have to know to look for them before you can find them!
10-4-2013 – Harvard Square – Piano 15
I actually planned to leave work early that Friday so I would have time to play as many Cambridge-area pianos as possible before I had to be at the Cambridge YMCA to help set up the Femme Show, and it started raining in the late morning. I was so sad! But just after I biked to Cambridge in the rain, the sun started to come out! I found this piano with its plastic sheet covering it, and I felt very fancy getting to be the one to unveil it! For the rest of the afternoon, I had such good luck! I was grateful for the rain, because I didn’t have to compete with many people for time to play!
10-5-2013 – North End Park – Piano #23
Somewhere over the rainbow…
10-5-2013 – Rings Fountain Park, Greenway, North End – Piano #22
This was my first visit to the Rings Fountain, and it was so cool! I sat down and ate my lunch after playing, and I was totally mesmerized by the globules of water that formed at the top of each spurt. Some kids would dare each other to run through during the short intervals when the jets were all off, and others would try to catch the water as it fell.
10-5-2013 – Old North Church – Piano #21
My first public piano of the day! I had just gotten out of bell ringing rehearsal up in the tower, and a couple of my ringing friends came and listened to me play – fun! I love how some of these pianos were really tucked away – you had to know to look for them.