Hello creative souls! Someone looking for a place with a piano or other musical instruments?

[Beth3473]

I'm a musician traveling around and I was always missing having a piano to practice or just to play for fun. 

So, now I'm a host on airbnb and I've decided that my place should offer that  type of "amenity", please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/41782187?s=67&shared_item_type=1&virality_entry_point=1&sharer_id=72180...

[Helen427]

Hello @Beth3473 & welcome to ABB CC from across the seas here in Auckland, New Zealand.

You mention a topic that is on interest I'm sure to @Lizzie who started a topic in here some time ago about having music sessions in one's home.

Have a look through here in CC and it should pop up using related Keywords.

Your topic reminds me of when I hosted English Language school students and every now & then someone with musical talents would come to stay.

We went along to a Heritage Day at an Historic Home that belonged to Alfred Buckland, Highwic House, in Newmarket, Auckland and there was a piano in the Music Room. One of my Japanese teenage boys started playing it which was beautiful.

Churches and Town Halls often have musical instruments like pianos and so do schools.

Check them out prior to traveling, or pop into a music store or club / bar where there's likelihood of others with instruments you can use.

All the best

[Beth3473]

Hello Helen! Greetings from Vegas 🙂 Thank you so much for your reply. Music is such a bless. You are so right, churches and Town Halls are great options but I'm not sure if they so are friendly to this situation. I'll keep that in mind. A musical instrument should be listed as amenity for sure, lol. 

[Mike-And-Helen0]

@Beth3473 adorable! So pretty.

Being a cynical practical soul...

Will the neighbours moan about the noise?

Will guests look after the instruments?

Will they moan about the tuning of the piano?

My eldest would adore this, she gets twitchy if she can't play.

[Beth3473]

I'm glad you liked it.  I don't think neighbors can hear any noise. We never had any complain. It's so fun and guests- from kids to adults enjoy it. Let's make music! Yay 🙂

[Ann783]

@Beth3473 I’m a piano lover. I’ve rescued a few acoustic pianos but the last one ended up in the dump. For our airbnb we offer a digital Yamaha upright. No worries about tuning! I love your listing!

[Beth3473]

That's wonderful! Thanks for sharing 🙂

[Robin4]

@Beth3473  @Mike-And-Helen0  @Ann783  @Helen427 

I have played a piano all my life , still try to play an hour a day. Ade, when she was young also got her 'Letters' from the conservatorium, she could teach classical piano, so there has always been a piano not far away in our various houses!

In younger years we had a succession of acoustics that were family hand me downs, all good German iron frames, but, living at altitude they were impossible to keep tuned.....compounded by the fact that I had a go at tuning one once myself, managed to break a couple of strings and gave the piano tuner a devil of a time trying to get it back into some sort of audible acceptable shape!

The MS robbed Ade of the ability to continue her classical playing and now she never goes near the piano. Frustrated with the atmospheric interference, in 1994 I bought a Technics Digital keyboard. It was incredibly expensive at the time, the equivalent of over $15,000 now  but it sounded and felt exactly like a genuine piano....it had the touch and the feel of a concert grand, and was a vastly superior product to the Yamaha Clavinova series which I also looked at, and were released about the same time.........

Here it is in my man-cave a quarter of a century later still sounding, looking and feeling just as it did back in 1994...........

Many great nights have been spent around this piano with guests and every now and then a real surprise happens!

A couple booked my cottage for 3 guests, They had a Japanese visitor who was part of a service club exchange program, and they had taken this visitor into the Australian outback. On their way back to suburban Melbourne they booked to stay a night here.

The Japanese visitor was a 67 year old woman, she sat down at this piano and was, hands down,  the best jazz pianist I have ever heard, she was just amazing with her interpretation of many of the jazz classics, and we ate, drank and listened long into the night! I felt like a kindergarten kid next to her!

The piano has the ability to bring people together and I always encourage my guests to 'take it for a spin' ....you just never know where it might lead!

Funny, I had never thought listing it as an amenity.....possibly because I would get too many complaints from guests that it was NOT specifically sited in the cottage for their exclusive use, so I would get marked down for accuracy!

Cheers......Rob.

[Beth3473]

Hello Rob! Nice thoughts and good luck on having the piano as amenity, I hope it turn out great for you 🙂 The world needs more Music, more Art and more humanity! 

Cheers from Vegas!

[Mike-And-Helen0]

@Robin4 brilliant! Playing the piano is such a social skill.

[Beth3473]

Could not agree more! 🙂

[Christine1202]

Love your listing! I mention the piano in mine, too. airbnb.com/h/hospitality-nebraska-style

[John2406]

@Beth3473 @Wow!

My yellow piano isn't as yellow as yours, and also it isn't acoustic, but it does date from the 1930s, is the same make & brand (apparently) that Liberace once used (so someone told me), although his was a shiny black (the piano) and it also had candelabra both ends (again, the piano did!

I also have a violin (not left out for Guests at the moment, as its bow is rather the worse for hair) but I suppose its strings are good for plucking? Only thing being that whilst I don't mind children of all ages playing, or thumping on the piano keys (and there was one dog photographed with its paws on the keyboard, apparently trying to play "How much is that doggy in the window"! The photo even made it into a national magazine, although most unfortunately, either the dog's mum didn't mention the name of our property, or she did, but the editor edited out the name!) I might draw the line if - when plucking the violin's strings - one of them snapped (the string, that is), or - at worst - the cat from next door went missing (only joking, as I love cats, besides which, having heard me sing, most cats keep at least a couple of hundred metres/yards away!)

Joking apart though, I think that having musical instruments in an Airbnb, or any holiday home, is a great way to introduce music (other than on one's mobile phone, on the TV, or anywhere else, than hearing it live) not only to adults, but more specially to children, as in my book it doesn't matter whether they are able to play or not, but that when they push the keys, a sound emanates, so they push another, then another, and sometimes a lot of notes at a time, so that before anyone realises, the child has discovered what "Newton's cradle" is all about (music and mathematics/science already, and the child's only been in your property for a few minutes, so what will be the position by the time s/he and parents return home?)

To be perfectly honest, we don't promote the existence of our piano enough, although it does appear in the photos on Airbnb, and from them we have had a few bookings "because" of the "Eavestaff Mini" piano - which reminds me that I have to arrange for the piano to have its annual retune!

Your place looks great though, but what took my attention far more than that, as well as more than your instruments, was your wording; I mean to say, you expressed what I think, and what I'd really like to say about my place, but don't, if only because many Brits aren't used to such inviting, freely spoken, friendly (and yes, informative) descriptions. Y'know, I could almost see the warmth and cheerfulness as I read what you'd written, as - hopefully - will everyone who then go on to book, and then stay at your place!

Thank you for your post, and thank you also for inviting us into your home, and into your life.

Hope you'll have a great 2020, you certainly deserve it!

[Mike-And-Helen0]

@John2406 I now have an image of Liberace with candelabra at both ends!

[Kerry143]

We don't have a piano, but we do have a few musical instruments for guests to play. Last summer we had local musicians come and play in a building we have on the property, home concert style, by donation. We haven't listed this on our air bnb site just yet, but soon.  We feel music would add to the West Coast feeling of our place. I think it would a great addition to amenities.