Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner....

Picture the scene........you’ve sat down in a small area of an inner city garden, happily eating your lunch in the midday sunshine whilst a member of the public pulls up a stool, stretches their fingers and tenderly starts to play the most relaxing and beautiful music on a piano, which is placed in between two park benches. This happened today. In London. In the middle of Leicester Square. In the glorious June sunshine!

No, I wasn’t drunk, but enjoying what is known as Play Me, I’m Yours.

Presented for Sing London and the City of London Festival, 30 piano’s have been installed in London for members of the public to play at their own free will. And I say, how lovely!

Each piano is decorated in an individual style and is there simply to bestow cheer and joy to the people in London. It is there to bring people together, to get them singing, to get them playing and to have fun amidst all the doom and gloom which is the current climate.

So far I have only found one, but I plan on finding a few more and enjoying the music played by people who just want to be part of this happy event. Life is far too serious and it’s a wonderful reminder that music and song can make complete strangers come together and just simply enjoy themselves.

So I say, check out their website, pick a venue, find out a time when someone plans to play Boogie Woogie, Gospel or good old Knees Up Mother Brown, go along and sing your heart out with them, or simply clap along in time.

Who knows, you may bring smiles and laughter to other people, make some friends, or failing that, just enjoy being part of a very unique experience. Either way, you’re bound to go home smiling....and how great would that be....

Play Me, I'm Yours website: http://www.streetpianos.com/london2009/

Helen Mills

Financial Controller