Get your public piano on

What a beautiful idea! But how do they make sure they stay generally tuned and in decent shape? I'd imagine all you need is one kid's well placed wad of bubble gum to finish off any piano.

Niiice. In college I had a friend who was a jazz pianist. Being a student, he couldn't really afford to buy a piano and carry it from dorm room to dorm room, so he was on a never-ending quest to find a piano to play. I'm glad someone thought to do something like this. Hope they can keep this up as a long-running thing.

What happens to pianos when they get rained on? @DBlack I never really thought about the plight of the jazz piano student - I guess you would have to suffer a keyboard instead?

I saw a man playing in the Times Square area! It was awesome!

@NeverSleeps: I'm sure he thought about weather conditions when placing the pianos in open areas. He must have made them weather-proof or protected them in some way. I would love to check out one of those pianos. I can just see myself sitting down at a piano and playing one of my songs.

@everyone: There was a young girl playing "Kiss from a Rose" on the piano in Herald Square yesterday. It was really cool. I hope this piano thing lasts.

That's so cool! I hope the pianos are protected - people can be such insensitive jerks when it comes to vandalism. When the Velib system launched in Paris (the free bicycles), hundreds were stolen and/or trashed within the first few days of the program

Man.. you guys are really inspiring me to check these pianos (and their players) out. @JenMac How is the sound quality on these piano performances?

The couple of times I heard players, they were pretty good.

Can't wait to see one of these piano players myself...

@BroadwayBK this is so cool.. fab.. summer is the best time to be in NYC.

Glad you guys are enjoying it.. I haven't had the opportunity to tear myself away from my computer, but I have the Brooklyn Bridge Park penciled in for tomorrow.

I guess there's a two hour block everyday during lunchtime that is set just for piano playing in Bryant Park. Please note!

I really need to get my fingers warmed up. I used my piano to play the music I wrote, but that was a few years ago. I really need to get back to playing the piano again.

@hhusted Gosh you are a man of many talents aren't you?

@Uptowngirl: Yes, I am. I wrote and published songs a few years ago. I stopped it to work in IT. But I have been asked by some friends to go back into it. I basically tried a lot of things once. But writing has always been my main forte - songs, fiction, nonfiction, and screenwriting.

I finally got to one of these pianos - in City Hall Park - but no one played the poor thing except my friend, who only knew chop sticks and the graduation song. Boo.

@BroadwayBK: Oh, well. Maybe someone will come along the next time you see one and really play the thing.

@BroadwayBK Aw...better luck next time! Maybe you just have to get to one where there are more people of an artistic nature. I imagine there are a lot more business types wandering around downtown.

@Neversleeps Agreed but the area is also filled with Tourists gawking at the WTC site and shopping at Century 21 but maybe none were the artistic type..or maybe they just didnt know

I'm not a huge fan of WTC site as a tourist attraction. I went once with my boyfriend, who was visiting, and found it weird and uncomfortable. It's...not a tourist attraction; it's...nothingness. A hole. A blank space.

@ajadedidealist Yeah, I think we talked about this before... the site is a strange, morbid tourist attraction indeed. @NeverSleeps @uptowngirl Yes, I think a lot of people were unaware that you could just play the piano... A lot of people asked us about it as if they thought they weren't allowed to mess with a piano just sitting in the middle of the park.

@Ajadedidealist: The WTC is an empty place alright. Empty of people but not ghosts. I was down there and felt the presence of ghosts. I even heard them telepathically. Some of them yelled out fire, burning, help, etc. What a disaster.

I didn't know that just anyone could play at them for a couple of trips past. So, that probably is the case. I think the Bryant Park one is played a lot.

@JenMac: Do me a favor and explain what you are saying: "I didn't know that just anyone could play at them for a couple of trips past." I can't make heads or tails as to what you are saying, unless you are speaking hip some kind of code or something. :)

@hhusted She is saying she didn't know that just anyone who wanted to could play the pianos until after the first few times that she walked by them.

@NeverSleeps: Thanks for clearing that up.

@hhusted - you heard ghosts telepathically? Seriously? Do elaborate...

@Ajadedidealist: Yeah, I was born with the keen ability to sense the presence of ghosts. I have seen, met, and talked to ghosts many times in my life. I have also had an occasional time when I believed I traveled to parallel worlds to meet the dead, and return without remembering how I got there and back. I told this to a psychic friend of mine and she said I traveled between dimensions. Wow. I remember the time I spoke to a ghost who told me my father was going to get fired the next day and that he would pull into the driveway exactly at noon time. I told my mother and she thought i was hallucinating. Well guess what. When the next day came, right at noon, here my father backs into the driveway with his toolbox. He told us he was fired. I even had a visit from a ghost who told me that Martin Luther King Jr. was going to be shot. I contacted a friend of mind, who was a member of the CIA. He thought I fell off my rocker too much. Well, the CIA didn't laugh when MLJ was shot. I even had a visit from a ghost recently who told me things about Obama. I will not disclose them here. If you want, I can send them to you privately.

@hhusted I too have been told that I have ESP as I kind of predicted my grandfather's passing and have even felt my long dead grandmother's presence off and on in her room but I have not had any such vivid experiences/encounters as you have had.

@Uptowngirl: You can develop them. I had the ability from birth and did not know it until later in life. I just thought I was seeing or hearing things.

@neversleeps: Thanks :)

@JenMac No prob.

@hhusted - wow, what a story! I've never had any such experiences, although a close family friend - a pastor - had visions from God, and spoke to me about them when I was a young girl. He's passed on now, but I remember him quite fondly.