Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Nice places in NYC to serenade a lovely lady?

Yes, I'm a hopeless romantic.

I posted in the "Piano" section and the replies were helpful, but only 2.

I'm looking for a grand piano in a relatively private setting I can use for 20-30 minutes one afternoon to show a date how to play a few simple songs and maybe play her some, oh I dunno... Chopin?

Any ideas?

Polonaise in A flat, Op. 53 will knock her socks off, she will think:

"waaa, so Manly"

haha..

Grand piano in a relatively private setting?

That's tough, unless you get an apartment, buy a grand piano, and put it in there.
(I mean put the piano in the apartment.)

But seriously folks.......usually you'd have to rent a space to get that. Is that what you're thinking of?

Or sneaking into a practice room at Juillard, NYU, Columbia....

If you know anyone that could help you get access, this would probably be your best bet.

Call some of the "community" music schools: Lucy Moses, Turtle Bay, etc. See if they rent practice space. The probably do in the mornings before lessons start in full force during the afternoons.

Also this is coming to NYC later this month. Not as private, though.

Midtown studio space

I have not used this space before, but I've been wanting to for a while. The pictures look nice and the prices are reasonable.

steinway hall is building practice rooms for $30 an hour. not sure they're ready yet; give 'em a call.

At $20.00 per hour, these seem like real bargains for NYC!

Regards,

Thank you!!!!
I'm not the one who asked the question but I think I'll be able to use that place, maybe quite a bit. I often look for places to run through recital and competition programs -- usually I use Merkin Hall but that's hard to get, not to mention expensive.

I'm checking out this place later today. Thanks!!!!!

Darn right!
Although.....you have to realize, it seems most of the grands are TINY -- I just called the place and the guy said they're 4'11, which wouldn't be real helpful for me and I imagine not for you either. One of the rooms has a 5'7 (and is priced a bit higher), and that's the one I'll be checking out.

I thought that the pianos looked quite small, and I agree that anything less than a 5'6" might really be inadequate for the serious musician doing a final few run-throughs of a recital program. We don't know where the pianos came from, but I hope they weren't specifically purchased for the venue; why spend money on "furniture" cases when a plain black ebony for (around?) the same price might have brought in a larger, better piano.

Then again, some of those studios are quite small and one might not want a larger piano in them.

Regards,

....and the actual pianos are smaller than what you see.

I actually didn't think they looked small in the photos and so I was surprised when he told me 4'11. When I said so, he explained that the pianos in the rooms mostly aren't what is shown.

That's a little disconcerting, isn't it? When you click to see the photos of individual studios, the caption is "This is (name of studio room)".

"Truth in advertising"? No, I guess not .... Some might be disappointed. Oh, well.

Regards,

Yes.
That's part of why I said I'm "checking it out."
I chose my words purposefully.

Let us know how the pianos are. I really want it to be a decent option as it's just blocks from my office.

Seems to me you can always wander into a piano shop and tell the salesman you want to browse a bit and would like a little privacy. When I was looking for a piano in the Boston area they never objected to that, though some of them couldn't resist popping back every ten or 15 minutes to see "if I had any questions."

Only problem with showrooms/dealers is, people coming in and noodling around on other pianos in the showroom. And of course, the salesmen "checking up on you." Some dealers apparently have private rooms. I'm looking into that...

Renting space is out. I just feel it'd be classier if I could find people willing to let me use a nice space on a handshake rather than go through a toll booth.

I'll definitely poke around NYU if I can't find anything else. I'm an alumnus, so that should help.

Keep 'em comin' folks! Thanks!

I don't live in NYC but play her a Chopin Nocturne or Mazurka. I won over my Girlfriend as she overheard me playing Chopin's Nocturne Bb minor Op. 9 No. 1.

If I were she, I'd feel better that you were classy enough to RENT a space...and an hour would not be too short!!!

Best wishes!