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Episode 23: Pianos
Pianos have always been one of my favorite instruments. There’s something about the weight of each key when you press it down, about how much sound can fill an entire room when you play them strongly, how different combinations of notes and chords can send different emotions and colors swirling around in the air, and inside my mind.
When I was in seventh grade I remember deciding I wanted to play the piano and I asked my parents to get me into piano lessons. They did, and for a few weeks I would go to the music shop on Ocean Avenue, and sit with a pianist in the back room who taught me the basics of reading music, and playing with both hands. I didn’t have very much patience though, and quickly taught myself some basic chords and scales and never took the time to learn more.
Now, I can still noodle around on a piano or follow along by ear to most things, although not well. I wish I had put more time into my lessons – I guess it’s never too late.
When I first moved to Portland, one of the first projects I was exposed to around art and creativity was called Piano.Push.Play – its a music and community driven project that rescues pianos that are destined for the dump, fixes them up and then commissions artists to paint them or customize them in fun and beautiful ways, and then sets the piano in a public space around Portland during the summer, for anyone to come up and get an opportunity to play a piano. It had never occurred to me before being exposed to Piano Push Play that there are probably millions of people who simply never get the opportunity to hear how a piano sounds in person, or feel the weight of the keys beneath their fingers.
I’ve gotten the opportunity to collaborate with Piano Push Play for a few years now and it’s one of my very favorite projects to work on. Each piano seems to be different, each style or make or model has its own ornamentation and decoration, and it seems like each one has a personality that I have the honor of updating with paint. It’s magic.
Pianos are amazing.