Monday, July 6, 2009

Give us a tinkle on the old joanna

We are a family of five from London, planning to embark on a round the world trip in about eighteen months time.  I am Victoria, the chief blogger, and I think about travel a lot.  In the meantime, we do lots of fun things in London with our children.  Follow me on Twitter (@vwallop) and through our blog http://itsasmallworldafterallfamily.wordpress.com/

Give us a tinkle on the old joanna*

DSC_0368 by you.

'Play me I'm yours' is an installation by artist Luke Jerram, who has put 30 Street Pianos in London's public squares, parks, train stations, and markets.  The idea is that people will stop and play the pianos which are for anyone to play and will be in place until 13th July.  Each piano is different, for instance in Leicester Square it's decorated with flyers from West End Shows and the Natural History Museum one (above) is covered in butterflies, and they all have a stool and songbook.

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It's amazing the effect putting a piano in a public place has on people.  Every piano I've visited has been surrounded by a crowd of people listening to some surprisingly good playing.  Londoners have been hiding their musical talent under a bushel and I've heard a schoolboy playing the soundtrack to The Piano (right), while his mates egged him on, an unconvincing transvestite playing Rachmaninov in Liverpool Street, and in Soho Square, an excellent jazz pianist being 'helped' by a drunk woman.  You get all sorts round these parts.

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*For any non-British readers, this means 'play us a tune on the piano' in Cockney rhyming slang.

Follow me on Twitter (@vwallop) and through our blog http://itsasmallworldafterallfamily.wordpress.com/

 

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