A group recently scattered 30 pianos across London. These are legal structures that will be around for the next three weeks, all for the purpose of people to throw off their inhibitions and get down and pass on the joy of music in public.
Anytime you’ve been in a major city, there is nothing but the best chance that you’ve been stopped by a street band. What if, though, you could sit down with them and join in at a piano, sitting right there on the sidewalk, asking to be played? What if, as we wander through the doldrums, little tinkles of tickles on the keys stopped us and begged our smiles? There’s an absolute grandeur in the shared experience of music. Lugging away on the guitar or pounding the piano, stretching our voices towards the haven, while people here and there whisper appreciation with a smile and a jiggle. We may hum tunes in our heads every day, but why can’t we share them with the world over?
So what if a project like this was taken up, but on a larger, more permanent scale? Pianos could be built into the cement to prevent their burglary, and structures could be built to house them during inclement weather. A small group of volunteers could do periodic tuning and repair of the pianos, with a non-profit organization taking control of the project, to keep government involvement to the minimum (or, if we really want to, why don’t we make the government take care of them and create a few more jobs for people to operate this project?).
I think there is more than just a small idea here. I think there is a plausible and reasonable measure that would increase community involvement in neighborhoods and foster a sense of a greater identity that would promote the idea of the melting pot of American cultures. Pianos play blues and jazz and salsas and minuets and polkas. We could all stop, even if for only a minute a day, to have a shared experience with the people we walk with every day, and realize there is a lot that goes into this great globe of ours.
If anything, I think, this would be a wonderful, beautiful experiment.
