To have reported the shouty self-appointed piano police to the actual police?

[PeppermintCrayon]

I am half-expecting to be told I'm being U for posting a thread of the "please validate this thing I already did!" variety...

Recently I was at St Pancras Station. There are several pianos for public use there. They're a bit knackered; one of them has a few keys that don't work.

Some kids were playing one of the pianos, about eight or nine maybe. They were having a fun trying to play different tunes. They were banging the keys quite hard. A man of maybe 55, 60, suddenly appeared and started yelling: "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, YOU NEVER BANG A PIANO."

I went over and said I didn't think yelling at children was very nice and that these kids probably didn't have a piano at home and did he want to put them off music? He started huffing and puffing about how the pianos had to be tuned because of people messing about. I said perhaps he could have said: "Look, this is how you play a piano," and explained nicely instead of yelling. He then started yelling at me.

He then went back to sitting at a nearby cafe table glowering at anyone who went near the pianos, so I went and found a transport policeman and told him this man had been shouting at children for playing the piano and he went to have a word.

I don't think I was being U, but...

You have no poetry in your soul southeast

It's something you can't understand.

Is the Mona Lisa just a canvas with some marks on?

The Mona Lisa hasn't got a brain. Should your creative little darlings be encouraged to go play with that? With scissors maybe and some chalk?

Well you win the prize for most intriguing thread title op! For me anyway...

Are you in my head hidden??

oh don't be so rude to me, i am for children and people not objects.

that is ridiculour farfrom

get a grip people

The pianos are there for people to play .

The kids weren't playing the piano. They were bashing them. They aren't there for people to do what they like with.

I have seen those pianos. On one occasion I saw an old fella, grey hair, green jacket, grumpy looking(!), bag of newspapers, possibly vulnerable, play his heart out. He played beautifully and seemed to really love the piano itself, it changed how I saw him, it really did. My point being, no, he didn't own that piano. No one does, it is public property. But...let's say he was vulnerable, let's say he had fallen on hard times, and the joy he got from this one thing was what kept him going. In that case, seeing the piano being manhandled is going to cause him distress, hence what you consider to be his over-reaction.
The aforesaid scenario is no less common than the deprived kids getting joy from an instrument.
As it is, my two year old would thump the keys if allowed. My five year old would try to pick a tune out with one finger. My eldest, at eight, would know that both gets on my tits

In south's world they very much are fair game. Can't be saying no to the children can we? Presumably they don't even know the word exists!

Listen to it FarFrom and share my headspace as the darkness descends

Oh yes it's the piano that doesn't have a brain.

South, what if it was a play park with swings and stuff? Those are just things for playing with. So if some kids come along and start damaging those things, is that okay too?

I'll make a note and listen tomorrow. It's bedtime now and I've got Laudate Dominum lined up!

I wouldn't have reported him to the police but yes he was out of line. Those pianos are indeed really banged up and there for people to use. If he had to say something he should have done it respectfully.

Sorry, where were the parents of these disrespectful kids again??

they are old knackered pianos which are open to public use. that doesn't mean some old codger can come and have a go at kids using them in a way he doesn't seem fit.

lots of kids have zero access to a piano. when i was younger we had free school lessons for musical instruments and i played the flute. i wouldn't stop a kid trying those instruments, it could lead to a lifetime love of playing music.

it starts somewhere and stopping kids playing about on a instrument is not a way forward imo

some old codger

Charming.

They weren't using it appropriately. They were abusing it.

This is where it's all going wrong. Some children are not taught to respect anything any more and it really pisses me off.

God some of the replies on this thread.... You do know banging a piano's keys hard doesn't break it? Might put it out of tune but those banged up old pianos are untunable anyway. I say this as a pianist (of sorts). Presuming that the kids were banging on the keys with their hands and not a sledgehammer the piano would be fine.

So if every child came past and thumped hell out of the keyboard, you know what will happen? Eventually, every single hammer inside will break. Never mind the pianos being out of tune, they just won't work. Sad.

If I'd have seen it, I would have said something too, but more along the lines of lifting the lid and showing the hammers inside and explaining why thumping is a problem.

or gobbin some kid who has never been allowed to play the piano could thump the hell out of the st pancras pianos then understood how the instrument worked and then could take it up and learn and eventually be an accomplished player

So southeastastra you expect these children's actions to be treated with respect but you think it's ok to refer to the man as some old codger and tell me to feck off when I challenge that?

or gobbin some kid who has never been allowed to play the piano could thump the hell out of the st pancras pianos then understood how the instrument worked and then could take it up and learn and eventually be an accomplished player

Yes, and some unicorns could appear, running and leaping gaily in a field full of barleycorn whilst little angels hum the tune of Somewhere over the rainbow.

Meanwhile in the real world a couple of kids got told off for being too rough with a musical instrument...

God, Mumsnet is so far removed from the real world at times it's just weird.