Thursday, January 14, 2010

What would YOU call 30 pianos on one stage?


I took piano lessons for about 7 years in middle school and high school. I don't want to say I hated it, because I truly didn't. It was fun learning how to play, especially at Christmas or to be a showoff or whatever. My piano teacher was nice. She was the organist at our church and was very intelligent, musically. My sister and I had back-to-back lessons at her house after school once a week. Mom drove us until I was 16, and once I started driving, were always late. We would say things like, "oh, traffic was really tied up, I'm surprised we actually got here at all!" which would be a decent excuse if we didn't live, like, 4 blocks away.

I never practiced. Ever. Ohh, how I hated practicing. I would get to my lesson and not be able to play without screwing up the notes and then say, "Hm, this is SO weird, I just practiced this before I left and played it perfectly! Are you sure there isn't something wrong with your piano? The keyboard feels weird. New bench? The light is so dim in here. Or too bright. And did you turn the heat on? I think the change in atmosphere just  threw me off. Why don't you get this all straightened out and we'll try again next week, ok?"

Every year, the music department or music teachers group or whoever it was, organized this big recital. All the piano teachers in the city gave their students two or three songs to learn. Most of them were duets; in total, there were maybe 15 songs. Then we would meet in an auditorium where they set up 30 grand pianos on the stage, and we all got up there and played the songs we learned in unison, there was a conductor and everything. What I'm talking about here is 60 kids playing the same song on 30 different pianos AT THE SAME TIME.Did I just blow your mind? It gets better.

The name of this magical musical extravaganza? PIANO-RAMA, Y'ALL.

I just told that story at work and they were all, really? Where was this? and I said, Huntington, WV, of course, the most awesome place in the world for unison piano playing, DUH.

What is the point of 30 pianos at once? Answer: to use the phrase Piano-Rama.

P.S. I just searched for Piano-rama on Google Images and this is what came up:


What?

If this doesn't give you the creeps, I don't know what will.

7 comments:

Miss Yvonne said... Reply to comment

I took piano lessons for 10 years and I can barely play "heart and soul" now. Money well spent, Mom!

Jackie said... Reply to comment

omg......that picture is just too much for words!!!!!

I started piano at age 7 and continued all through college (even minored in music) but I never (or rarely) practiced either. I completely credit that to making me an awesome sight reader of music ;) Unfortunately, I haven't played for over 4 years (don't have a piano here in our tiny townhouse). :(
At Mayo they have pianos set up in different areas of the clinic and hospital (lobbies, atriums, etc.) and they are there for anyone to play (respectfully, of course) since music is such good therapy and people really enjoy it. I should go play on one someday, but I feel I should practice first. ;)

MariahSmile said... Reply to comment

That's pretty hilarious! I don't know why I haven't ever heard of Piano-RAMA or I would have for sure gone to see such an event!

tootie said... Reply to comment

That is too funny!

I took piano lessons, too, and I hated practicing. But ironically, once I stopped taking lessons, I actually started playing more.

But I never had piano-rama. Guess I missed out! :)

Crazy Shenanigans-JMO said... Reply to comment

HAHA OMG!!!! I can't believe that photo is the one who came up.....only wv....

Stephanie said... Reply to comment

Yep, totally gives me the creeps!!

Anonymous said... Reply to comment

you remind me of me! i took piano lessons for 11 years and can scarecly play anything now. i hated practicing!

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