Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m basically a communist. Last time it was bothies, now it’s public pianos. I just bloody love this stuff where anonymous people share things with people they’ll never meet. Kindness for kindness’s sake. I would list a whole bunch of examples, but then it would be a spoiler alert for other posts that I could do in the future.
I regularly travel through Kings Cross St. Pancras as the middle station between Newcastle and my parents’ place and in that lovely station sits two public pianos. More often than not, there’s someone playing and, again, more often than not, they’re good (people don’t typically take lessons in public).
Anyhow, there was this one bloke on one of these trips who had a particular talent on the ol’ black and whites. I had the time, so I stood there for a few minutes. I wanted to ask him the name of a song that he’d played, but he moved swiftly between songs – at one point playing one of the few songs that I can play but can’t remember the name of – and so I didn’t have a chance to ask. Plus, I was a wimp.
It was actually a lovely moment with a few people watching, including someone filming and an old man who took a seat to listen, whilst a suited man gently placed his hand on the pianists back and complimented him. I, on the other hand, left without a word because I needed to get the train and didn't want to interrupt him. Plus, I was a wimp.
But this post isn’t about me being a wimp, it’s supposed to be more focused in the first paragraph. Besides, I have since played the public pianos at Brighton station and London Euston using that song I mentioned before, so I grew out of my wimpery. On both occasions, I had people stop to interact and listen to me tickling the keys, just like the guy at St. Pancras did.
So, I guess that’s the real story. How a love of music mixed with being willing to take the time to be in the moment can bring people together. And it was all possible because someone who none of us know wanted to share what they had to make other people’s days better.
I think that’s pretty cool.
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