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Airport Pianos: Find Pianos in Airports
- wlonkly 3y ago"A gentleman is a man who can play the public piano, but doesn't." (With apologies to accordion players.)
- matthewfelgate 3y agoI understand the appeal of introducing elements of culture and music into public spaces. However, airports are often stressful environments for many passengers, including myself, and it's important to have areas of quiet and calm. While the intention behind placing pianos in airports might be positive, there's potential for it to become disruptive for those seeking a peaceful environment. It's crucial to consider all passengers' experiences and perhaps think of alternative solutions that cater to everyone's needs.
- tb_technical 3y agoHas anyone had an experience of a worker deterring people playing on the piano? (I don't mean obnoxious kids pounding on the keys and damaging the piano, I mean actually skilled people playing tasteful music)
- zerojames 3y agoHello everyone! One of my favourite things to do is play piano in airports. The prospects of discovering, or being able to play, a piano brighten my mood when travelling. That's why I made Airport Pianos, a site dedicated to pianos in airports. The site is text-focused and has a client-side search feature that you can use for planning an itinerary. One of my favourite parts about this project is seeing submissions and data on Google Search Console about piano-related queries. It's so nice to see so many people out there looking for airport pianos; if you know of one, let me know! My favourite airport piano? Maybe Chicago; really well maintained. P.S. pianos.pub and www.worldpianos.org also have airport pianos listed!
- reaperducer 3y agoObviously not airport-related, but one of the hospitals I frequent has pianos in the lobbies of some of the buildings. Every now and again one of the doctors will use it, and it fills an otherwise drab, institutional space with a bit of joy. My observation is that it's used in the afternoons to blow off anxiety, though it seems to get used most often in the mornings. I like to imagine it's the doctors loosening up their fingers before doing surgery.
- joaonmatos 3y agoHi James! The link on the page https://airportpianos.org/pianos https://airportpianos.org/pianos, section "About the List" that points to the JSON file is actually pointing to a localhost address, not your public host name. Cheers
- zerojames 3y agoThank you for the report! I have just pushed a fix! The code is open source, too; MIT licensed: https://github.com/capjamesg/airport-pianos https://github.com/capjamesg/airport-pianos The list is at https://airportpianos.org/_data/airports.json https://airportpianos.org/_data/airports.json. A friend said he wanted to post the data to OpenStreetMap. I hope the data is syndicated to different places! Edit: Fixed errant close bracket.
- Cerium 3y agoHKG, there is a piano in the connected airport hotel.
- rwmj 3y agoYou should do train stations next. There are a couple I know in London -- Euston and Liverpool Street stations -- and I'm sure many many more.
- pfranz 3y agohttps://airportpianos.org/pianos/ https://airportpianos.org/pianos/ Searching by airport code only seems to work in a few airports (perhaps by coincidence?). I see airports like Salt Lake City International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, and Los Angeles International Airport on the search page, but none of their codes work. DUB and MEX work, but that could be because they're the long-form names as well.
- yeldarb 3y agoLove this. Not because of the Airport Pianos per se, but it reminds me of the Internet's early days where people created websites to just celebrate their niche interests out of love with no profit motive. No ads, no paywalls, no newsletter, no tracking scripts, just wholesome content about airport pianos.
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoEarly Youtube was the same, no corporations, no sponsored ads to products from corporations, no algorithm forcing you to hit certain metric in order to be visible, just some guys making fun content as a hobby wanting to share it with the world. Guys like that are still out there, but much less easily discoverable.
- OfSanguineFire 3y agoPeople still selflessly create things to celebrate their niche interests, it is just that often they find that content is better contributed to a single unified website instead of a personal website in the corners of the internet that few people would find. For example, lots of people spend many, many unpaid hours of their lives contributing to Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, or Wikivoyage, and since that data is available for free to the world with no ads, paywalls, newsletters, etc., it shouldn’t be seen as inferior.
- freitzkriesler2 3y agoThat feel when I picked the wrong instrument to learn to play as a kid. I loved violin, but communal violins aren't as much of a thing as communal pianos.
- Rygian 3y agoGuitar is probably the sweet spot between portability, versatility, and probability of stumbling upon the instrument somewhere.
- rollcat 3y agoAs someone who had hitch-hiked across Europe with a guitar, the portability aspect is probably slightly overrated ;P
- julian_t 3y agoA Brunner folding guitar (https://brunner-guitars.com/en/b-compact-models/ https://brunner-guitars.com/en/b-compact-models/) is definitely portable, although not exactly cheap.
- aidenn0 3y agoIt's a lot more portable than a piano...
- rollcat 3y agoDepends! You can get pretty compact and lightweight keyboards for cheap (heck I've fished one out on a flea market and then hitch hiked with both instruments). Meanwhile almost all guitars come in only one (bulky) size; travel guitars are relatively expensive, etc.
- matthewfelgate 3y ago[flagged]
- Cerium 3y agoWhy? Rarely do they annoy me and frequently the people playing in places such as airports or hospitals are fairly good.
- matthewfelgate 3y agoMaybe I'm not you.
- jjkaczor 3y agoWhy? It's not like someone who doesn't know how to play - and has some songs committed to memory is going to opt to play an instrument in a public setting without having some skill and talent...
- wlonkly 3y agoI wouldn't take quite as strong a position as this, but as public pianos go, airports are a weird one to me, because if you're in an airport you have no choice but to be there. Subway piano? I'm only in the station for a while, and I can choose to stay longer if I like. Outdoor piano? I can keep walking. Airport piano that happens to be near my gate? Ugh, I have to stay near this spot even if I don't want to listen. It's the "captive audience" part that I am not a fan of. Doubly so if the person playing overestimates their ability or the novelty of their repertoire.
- bin_bash 3y agoI feel like I see them by security or food courts, not gates
- chayesfss 3y ago[dead]
- dang 3y ago
- amelius 3y agoWhat's the best portable piano keyboard for traveling (self-contained, so not just a MIDI keyboard)?
- hggh 3y agoThere are foldable or modular 88-key keyboards: https://carryonplaying.com/product/carry-on-folding-piano/ https://carryonplaying.com/product/carry-on-folding-piano/ https://pianodevoyage.com/ https://pianodevoyage.com/
- rollcat 3y agoI've had my eyes on something like Akai MPK Mini, should fit in a backpack with a laptop (12.5" wide) but doesn't do its own synthesis so you're gonna need both devices (and I guess decent headphones as well), even if you just want to practice for a couple of minutes. Otherwise it looks great: 25 keys, 8 pads, pitch bend, USB-powered, all the standard assortment of features.
- amelius 3y agoYeah, I've seen the device, but as someone who hates using laptops, I'm not a fan ...
- xu_ituairo 3y agoExpensive, but the Teenage Engineering OP-1 is great if you can swing it. Battery for days and days and completely self-contained. You can create entire songs on the go. Though maybe more of a synth than portable piano — depends on what you’re looking for.
- amelius 3y agoCute, but doesn't have a touch-sensitive keyboard, which makes this a no-go for me.
- xu_ituairo 3y agoIt does look cute, but is also fairly formidable. And a software update earlier this year introduced velocity sensitivity.
- throwaway290 3y agoMost major airports (as well as many malls etc.) have at least one shiny pretty piano prominently somewhere. Almost all of them are behind yellow/red tape, say no touching and not allow to play and it is a sad sight. It's optics a la "look how we encourage culture" except not really. I much prefer a semi broken heavily used piano you can actually play but these are almost nonexistent.
- xedrac 3y agoI walked past the piano at John Wayne Airport (SNA) a few weeks ago and wished I had kept up with piano lessons as a kid.
- zerojames 3y agoCan you remember what terminal it was in? I would love to add it! Also, it's never too late to get back into piano! :)
- toast0 3y agoIIRC, it's between terminals A and B, outside Ruby's Diner. But it's been a few months since I was there.
- SushiHippie 3y agohttps://pianos.pub/piano/e8052482 https://pianos.pub/piano/e8052482
- xedrac 3y agoYes, that's the one. It's tucked away in the corner, just around the bend as you walk from terminal A to B. I couldn't say for certain if it's actually in terminal A or B, but I think it's closer to B than A.
- TRiG_Ireland 3y agoTim Minchin wrote this song on an airport piano. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAFMSplS4y8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAFMSplS4y8
- impendia 3y agoApparently the Budapest and Warsaw airports have public pianos: https://pianos.pub/piano/9a5d3025 https://pianos.pub/piano/9a5d3025 https://pianos.pub/piano/6b6c2d78 https://pianos.pub/piano/6b6c2d78 Given that the airports were named after Liszt and Chopin, respectively, I would hope so!
- lostlogin 3y agoI recorded the audio from a couple of kids playing a public piano in Gare du Nord, Paris. They were really good. And every few months I continue my search for what it was they were playing - I’ve tried apps, friends, listening to chart music from then (2018). I’m pretty sure it was a cover of some pop song, but damned if I can work it out.