Brilliantly someone at AT has thought to install a piano at Panmure Station. Passing through in the afternoon lull it was really great to hear random members of the public bashing out tunes. Some were really good too. No one attempted Rach 3, and there were a few repeats of Chopsticks and wonky versions of Fur Elise, but there were also a couple pretty handy players. And the acoustics turn out to be great.
So if you have the skills why not head over to Panmure on the weekend and give the people a little love….? Or better still entertain the troops at rush hour.
Processing...
Great idea but the piano look bit too close to the escalators, may need to move it to allow public movement
If I’m ever up there I will attempt my own amateur rendition of the wonderful opening bars of Rachmaninov’s 3rd Piano Concerto. Not sure whether this would draw more passengers into the station or send them scurrying down to the platforms as quickly as possible.
By the way if anyone is interested, The NZSO are playing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No 2 and the mighty Mahler 5th Symphony in Wellington this evening (will be repeated in Auckland next Friday, 17th). Power and Passion. This is a must-go!
Look at the constant flow of people. The ‘new network’ and then AMETI will transform this place.
Wellington and Napier have had public piano’s outside for years- I am always surprised by just how many people can play them
Where are they in Wellington? Waterfront? I’ve seen one there occasionally but not consistently
Waterfront AKL have had one both outside and in a container for quite a while down at Wynyard but what struck me as especially good about this is that it’s A. Inside and in a place with strikingly good acoustics, and B. At an ordinary working station not at a special development area that people visit for recreation.
Seems to me like a lovely gift to the ordinary PT user, and all the more marvellous for that.
There’s one by frank Kitts park, it is kept in the sheds built into the base of the park at night and on wet days. There is the occasional one that roams upper Cuba street round the food trucks and laundry. They are an inexpensive and popular way to help make the place a bit brighter.
That is pretty cool. ++ It’s little ideas like this that make the daily commute more pleasant and interesting. Do they roll it away in the evenings so it isn’t vandalised by naughty kids et al?
Pretty engaged staff there at least during daytime. The seat is chained in.
There was one outside Tart at the Grey Lynn shops. Council wanted to charge them a heap to have it on the footpath, or its gone.
It’s gone…
Maybe AC can take a leaf out of AT’s book?
Did they get this idea from the public piano at St Pancras?
http://streetpianos.com/london2012/pianos/st-pancras-station/
This is an excellent example of how AT have lost sight of their core business.
The reality of our PT system was accurately described in the Herald http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11477763
It’s no wonder users have these experiences on our system when AT’s priority is getting piano’s into stations. Stations that are supposed to function as a transit area, not concert halls. It’s no wonder the faster electric trains have ended up being slower when this incompetent mob are involved.
I’ve just come up with a solution. A musical instrument on every carriage. They wont decrease dwell times but they will distract customers so the trip seems to go faster. I should work for AT.
This really is a parody account, surely. Too funny.
Should probably rename yourself The Onion.
The Real Onion.
Councillors are voted in, generally on a platform of making Auckland a better place, though they all have different ways of going about it. I say the council organisation they oversee has done an excellent job here of that here. Place-making is a core council responsibility.
There’s been a piano outside the Central Library on Lorne Street on and off for a few years now. It seems well used and unvandalised and it’s amazing how many people can sit down and tinkle the ivories (I think most of them are students taking a break from their wifi binge inside).
I quite regularly see a sign on the piano, that it is not to be played before 9am. Does anybody know the reason for this?
whanganui has a couple of Pianos too
Great fun
Awesome idea. daily refreshment for commuters like me.
put one in britomart pleaseeee