play me, i'm yours

A Street Piano is a piano placed in the street which passers-by are encouraged to play. The best known examples are the Play Me, I'm Yours projects by artist Luke Jerram.

Play Me, I'm Yours

A Play Me, I'm Yours piano being played near london's Millennium Bridge

Artist Luke Jerram has put together street pianos instalations in various cities. The initiative comes as a reaction of a creative individual to the general rule, prohibiting anyone to play music in public places without special arrangement - no matter how skilful you are at playing your piano or how popular your music is with the audience. Any musician would have been stopped immediately by security outside the City of London and Sing London festival.

Birmingham

In 2007 artist Luke Jerram installed 15 streetpianos across Birmingham,UK for the public to play. In just 3 weeks 140,000 people across the city played, listened and connected with one another.

Jerram said "Questioning the rules and ownership of public space 'Play Me I'm yours' is a provocation, inviting the public to engage with, activate and take ownership of their urban environment."

[]São Paulo

13 pianos have been installed in São Paulo.^[1] Luke Jerram reported that many of those who stopped at the pianos had never played a real piano or even seen one.^[1]

[]Sydney

30 Street pianos were set up across Sydney for the Sydney Festival 2009. A website (www.streetpianos.com) was set up for the public to upload and share their films, photos and stories of the pianos being played.

[]London

In June - July 2009 30 Play Me, I'm Yours painted pianos by Luke Jerram were installed across London "like a creative blank canvas" for members of the public to play. The painting on each paino was chosen to suit it's location.^[2] The project was produced by Sing London and City of London Festival^[2] at a cost of £14,000.^[3] A music license had to be obtained for the location of each piano.^[3]

The Street Piano in Sheffield

The Sheffield Street Piano

In Sheffield The Street Piano was a piano on the pavement on Sharrow Vale Road in Sheffield, UK. It was originally left outside temporarily because the owner could not get it up the steps into his new house. As a social experiment the owner and a friend then attached a sign inviting passers by to play the piano for free. This offer was taken up by a great many people and the piano became a part of the local community. It has so far survived for over a year, including being stolen and subsequently replaced by a newer model (having 4/5 separate volunteers willing to provide a new one).

It became the center of a local campaign once the council decided it constituted an abandoned item, and the campaign to save it spread quickly to local news outlets, and several articles on Indymedia. As of July 2006 a spokesman said in an interview for the National BBC Radio 4 that the piano was no longer under threat of removal.