So here I am in Florida for a business trip, and when I checked into the Peabody Hotel last evening I was delighted to see a piano in the lobby. Alas, upon walking up to it, I saw it was a player piano that was busy playing itself, with a big wooden sign on top of it that said "Please do not play the piano."

This morning, though, the player mechanism was off and the wooden sign was no longer there! So with hope in my heart, and because I am a rule-obeying person, I went up to the front desk and asked if I could play it. They said okay. So I sat down and let the first few measures of David Nevue's "The Gift" roll off my fingers. But that's all that rolled off, because another employee came rushing up and said "excuse me, but you can't play the piano. It's a player piano!" I looked at her and said, (a) I asked for permission at the front desk and they said it was okay, and (b) you can still play a player piano! But I got thrown off anyway.

The good news is that they said there was another piano in the basement that guests can play, so I went down there, tail between my legs. It was a Kawai grand, and while it was reasonably in tune, it clearly hadn't been regulated in years as it was the first Kawai I have ever played with a sluggish action and occasional skipped notes. There was also a squeak in the sustain pedal that drove me crazy. But I got in a good 40 minutes of playing anyway, so maybe I won't need that travel exemption for MOYD after all.

I'm still ticked, though, at being kicked off a piano that I had done the right thing and asked for permission to play!

When you said Peabody, I thought you were at the conservatory!

Is this the player piano in question?

http://www.peabodyorlando.com/peabody_orlando/pop_gen_pho_lib9.cfm

I wish I was in Orlando.

Yewwwww, I don't blame you I think I would have been ticked off too.

I would probably leave some type of feedback encouraging the staff to indoctrinate themselves on player piano capabilities in order to discourage them from relaying erroneous information such as the statement made by that one employee stating that piano players can't be played by human hands.

I would probably also put a note that I wouldn't recommend this hotel to anyone from here on due to their lack of fun factor in not letting people play the piano. he he he

While I was at it I'd also mention that as a customer you didn't enjoy being kicked off the piano by one employee after another told you it was ok. It shows a lack of communication among the employees.

I think that should get you a free stay and unlimited playing time from the manager.

Yes, that's it!

It wouldn't bother me to be told "no, you can't play the piano" (well, it would, but not all that much). But for one employee to say that it's okay but then get into trouble for doing so is unfair, to say the least!

It also irks me that they don't maintain the piano they allow customers to play as well as they do the one in the lobby that they DON'T let customers play.

Yeah, it's going to be in the 70s or higher in Orlando all week. Not that I'm going to know it, though, as I'll be spending 12 hours a day in the convention center. Yuck.

I thought when you said "Peabody" you were in Memphis.

I would ask her back "excuse me, but do you know how to play or know anything about a piano? do you know what a

Excuse my language.

Well, I just walked through the Williamsburg Hospital lobby and they have a little Yammie player piano. On it is a big sign essentially saying "you touch this, we break your hand."

I don't get it. Why have a nice piano in order to treat it like glass. Nobody ever plays the thing. It just sits.

i would have played it to see if they actually broke my hand.
i never liked messages like that to adults that are so condescending and disrespecting like that.

just say"please do not touch"

at one office i worked at the sign said in the kitchen "please clean up after yourself, we are not your mother"

please, do not disrespect me like that.

Monica, nice you got to play the kawai.
my parents also have a zimmerman at home that needs to be regulated and is the sluggiest piano ive ever attempted to play, like i am trudging through quicksand , and the pedal makes a big wooden pounding sound, so it makes all the subtle quiet songs i try to play pounding hard sounding.

i always was tempted to walk by the piano in the lobby of a hotel or at nordstrom, but in most cases they are always locked up.

one day i wish i can play in a lobby filled with people cheering so that when the security tries to whisk me away, they will boo at him making him look like a bad guy.

Looks like this thread has generated a little bad publicity for this hotel. Perhaps you should talk to the hotel manager about how they are hurting their own business.

I also don't understand why places like hotels, hospitals, etc. will buy a piano but not allow anyone to play it. I guess they think of the piano as being just a piece of furniture, not a musical instrument.

Does this hotel ever have a "professional" musician play, like during happy hour at the bar?

If they want to keep kids from recklessly banging on the piano, then they should just keep the fallboard key behind the desk and make you ask to get it. That way they could control who has access to the piano and when, but without tempting and denying everyone who walks by...

Monica, Sheesh!!!

It seems like you will have to resort to “Plan B.”

When you return from your conference sessions (you ARE attending some for your “report” to justify the “Orlando in January” symposium aren’t you?) you MUST alter your amiable personality and announce, “I am a concert pianist and demand to have my piano!”

To really pull off your hissy fit you will have to refer to the employee that booted you off the player piano as “swine” and demand that regulation be made IMMEDIATELY on “zee Kah-V[/b]eye"! !!

Practice in front of a mirror with the "HELPFUL HINTS"[/b] that follow!!

[/b]

AFA, RMA,
Daria

Oops... I didn't mean to slam the hotel; after all, they were very polite and did in fact point me to a piano I was able to play. But I am a compulsive "comment card" filler-outer, so I will definitely raise the issue when I check out.

And I would still recommend the hotel. It is a fun place; every day they march about 6 ducks down the elevator into the lobby where they splash around in the fountain all day. It's a great show.

And, yeah, they have a professional musician play the piano; there was a guy singing and playing there last night after dinner. That's another reason I got ticked by their "you can't play it because it's a player piano" comment. Why not just be honest and say "we don't want customers to play the lobby piano but there's one in the basement you can thrash around on to your heart's content"?

a player's piano is still a piano. so why can it be played by someone?

some hotels or banquet places would just lock the piano up rather than letting anyone touch it. it sucks...

Monica,

The hotel you stayed at was on the Travel Channel and they showed the ducks marching to the fountain, that has to be fun to see in person.

Sorry about the run in you had with the lobby piano. Since you really enjoyed yourself in spite of the piano, I would write the managment telling them what you have told us and request that they have the piano in the basement tuned. Wonder why they have relegated the available piano to the basement.

These places must think pianos are made of glass that will break as soon as it is touched. Player piano can be played by live musicians, their employees should be better informed. It doesn't make sense to tell you that it's a player piano and can't be played, only to have a pianist play it later in the day.

I would have said, "Everyone’s a critic!!"

Monica

That is a hilarious story...even if you were not amused!

Think of it as a milestone.

I, too have been booted from pianos and I do not think it was ever a result of my playing ability (or lack of)! Usually it is because the management has a policy or the piano was a piece of furniture. I HATE "Do Not Play the Piano" signs.

Still, I applaud your mettle for stepping up to the bench in the first place.
Bravo!

Hobie

Isn't that the same hotel with the ducks around the fountain, and the big "Do Not Feed The Ducks" signs?

Geesh, they just don't want their guests to have fun do they.

I stayed there last year, they wouldn't let me play the piano either (and they didn't mention the one in the basement).

It's a common misconception that playing a player piano somehow is hard on the mechanism because it's being back-driven (this is true of some machinery). In reality, the mechanism is a passive one. In other words, the machinery simply presses on the keys just like your hand and is out of the way when playing manually.

I do a lot of consulting work for QRS and I can tell you that one of the prime directives is that the player piano must always also function as a regular piano. You can't, for example, disconnect the pedals and operate them from inside: the pedals must still perform manually.

As far as playing a hotel piano, I can see where they are coming from. If you allow anyone who wants to play to sit down, you get every teenage kid in the hotel banging out Heart and Soul and driving your customers crazy. They have no way to tell how accomplished you are, how appropriate your music will be for a hotel lobby, and by letting you play, they must let anyone else play or explain why you are getting special privileges.

The easy way is to just keep it off limits.

Don
Kansas City

Whats the point of having a piano if you can't play it??? Could the piano fit in the elevator by chance? It doesnt sound like anyone would miss it

Matt

What an outrage!! But hey, The Kawai grand - even if underprepared, is at least a happy ending to the story!

If that person thought you can't play a player piano - i sure hope they don't have an automatic car or one with cruise controll .."hey..you don't need to drive it...."

In a hotel at St Louis....

There was a piano player system.

It was stuck on the same song for an hour while I was waiting for a limo. Lord knows how long before or after.

Couldn't the help hear that?

I was ready to throw something at it.

LOL!

Monica:

After hearing about the ducks outside that you can't feed and the piano you can't play; I could'nt help but start humming a popular Howard Jones tune from my glory days in the 80's.

You may want to download this song and leave a copy of it for the hotels mgmt!

Sing it with me will you!


You can look at the menu but you just cant eat
You can feel the cushions but you cant have a seat
You can dip your foot in the pool but you cant have a swim
You can feel the punishment but you cant commit the sin
And you want her and she wants you
We want everyone
And you want her and she wants you
No one, no one, no one ever is to blame
You can build a mansion but you just cant live in it
Youre the fastest runner but youre not allowed to win
Some break the rules
And live to count the cost
The insecurity is the thing that wont get lost
And you want her and she wants you
We want everyone
And you want her and she wants you
No one, no one, no one ever is to blame
You can see the summit but you cant reach it
Its the last piece of the puzzle but you just cant make it fit
Doctor says youre cured but you still feel the pain
Aspirations in the clouds but your hopes go down the drain
And you want her and she wants you
We want everyone
And you want her and she wants you
No one, no one, no one ever is to blame
No one ever is to blame
No one ever is to blame

I didn't see anyone mention this, so I will.

I think most of those 'Do Not ******' signs are meant for children. As we all know, children being what they are, upon seeing a piano, will no doubtedly pound and bang away on the keyboard, much to the distress of all those present.

Of course, in many instances, the parents of said children will make no move to tell their kids to get away from the piano or to stop it. They'll just think the piano was placed there for their precious children's amusement.

So what to do?

Put up a sign reading: "Only Adults Who Really Know How to Play Can Play this Piano"

or

"Children are not allowed to touch this piano."

What about the child prodigy who happens to walk by?

So, it just another example of how the "many" are made to suffer because of the actions of a "few."

Glad you found a piano somewhere, Monica?

Kathleen

It seems to me that the problem is not children, but people that do not know how to play the piano and have the upmost confidence to go bang on one (mostly children I agree). But I know many great pianist children (me ....not so much).

Its just like in the 5th grade when just one or two bad apples ruined our fieldtrip for the whole class.

Perhaps is the owner of the piano would lock the lid and put a sign that said "If you would like to play please ask" and allow people that KNOW how to play to proceed...in my own opinion

Matt

The problem, of course, is that this puts the hotel in the position of being talent judge and having a debate with paying customers over whether they're "good enough" to play.

A similar situation exists with e.g., motorcycles. Some motorcycles have very loud exhaust pipes (i.e., none). Lots of places don't want to get into a debate with every motorcyclist who comes in as to whether theirs are loud so they simply put up a sign saying "motorcycles not allowed".

That is a good point...then mabey it is a good idea to say no playing at all to make it fair...


Matt

The solution is clear.

The next time you want to play in a hotel lobby just bring your own piano.

Well I for one would love to check into a hotel which had a nice piano, and a sign saying, "Please play me."
Spent this Christmas Holiday at an lovely lodge in the Columbia Gorge---gorgeous view, lovely accomodations, excellent meals etc. The place was decorated with Chrismas ornaments, and there was a roaring fire going in the huge stone fireplace, but not a sound of music. Just silence, and bits of whispered conversations. The lid on the grand piano was down and keys covered so I could not see the make, and on it sat a most ungracious sign----"Do not touch the Piano."

So, as several in my party play well, we thought it would be nice to liven up the place with some music. We asked for permission to play the piano, and it was denied on----now get this---the grounds of "fear of liability." Egads. Did they expect that the keys would bite us and that we would sue????
We asked for clarification, and were told, that it was "The Rule." period. Obviously, we were not to question "The Rule."

The only music the lodge provided during the 3 days we were there, was one hour of harp music, played by a not-too-talented harpist,who frowned the whole time, and fretted about the weather.

Well, anyway, Happy New Year to all of you. Now to get back to practicing. Gaby Tu

I have mixed emotions on this one.

As a piano player, I CAN'T walk by a piano without wanting to play it! Seriously, it's like they are calling to me.

I'm on overload when I'm in a piano dealer's store, or even NAMM. I want to play every one of them (I don't of course).

I've found some hotels will let me play if I introduce myself as the founder of Piano World, and a member of NAMM.

Others just don't care who you are, or how you can play, the piano is off limits.

I'm not sure what the "right" answer is.
Obviously you would want to protect the instrument from abuse (pounding, sticky fingers, food, drink, etc.).

By the same token, I always encouraged anyone who came into my store (yes, I owned a music store years ago) to play.

As the founder/owner of Piano World, I'm always looking to encourage more people to play. Saying "Don't Touch The Piano" isn't helping.

Many musicians have the option of taking an instrument with them when they travel (guitar, flute, violin, etc.). The piano player really doesn't have that option, so we are always thrilled to find a piano, and naturally want to play it.

Hmmnn, maybe I should open a chain of piano practice kiosks in airports and hotels :-)

That's a funny story Monica. I strolled into the Horton Grand Hotel here in San Diego. And being one to NOT follow the rules, immediately began playing one of my original pieces.

The manager walked up to me and offered me a gig right there on the spot!