The Blankest of Canvases, Adopt a Piano adventures in an ex-department store (part one)

Tomorrow we are heading into the dust shrouded remains of Debenhams at Ocean Terminal shopping centre in Leith to extract the final 35 pianos left from our time there. It’s been just over a year since Tim and Matt brought the Adopt a Piano scheme to national attention via this BBC story about saving 100 year old pianos from landfill  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-64175072

That article brought to life an entire ecosystem of pianos coming in to us to be cleaned, repaired, tuned and regulated before heading back out to new homes. Due to the success of the Adopt a Piano scheme staff and volunteers are now learning how to bring pianos back to life, revitalising a dwindling profession of piano restoration and more people are choosing to have these soulful instruments in their homes rather than a digital facsimile. That’s how things have evolved, but in the beginning it wasn’t quite so finessed.

Angus working on the newly arrived Pianodrome

The vast, empty space in the ex-Debenhams department store ground floor (lent to us by the good folk at the Wee Hub for six months or so) was the perfect breeding ground for the piano adoption scheme. Flying from its majestic roost at the Old Royal High school on Calton Hill the Pianodrome Amphitheatre touched down in the void of this abandoned, soon to be demolished half of Ocean Terminal shopping centre. The contrast was immense; a sunlit, wood panelled room had been exchanged for an all-white landscape of strip lighting, forgotten mannikins and a beep which emitted every thirty seconds from somewhere unknown.

Having sent out the call that we would take in any piano, overnight pianos of all descriptions appeared as if springing up from the beige floor tiles. I got a call from Matt to come down and help work out what to do with them. I found him deep in the midst of about 50 pianos, marvelling at the rich diversity of instruments we’d taken ownership of. Already hand written notes had appeared on several lids as people had somehow snuck in under the security shutters to reserve a good one. We roughed out a few details on how to proceed, placed a notice on social media and the website and I offered to open the showroom on Thursday to see what happens. 

Potential adopters at the entrance

It was chaotic, but good chaos, and thank goodness people came to adopt our first flush of pianos. With several groups pouring over the pianos, we tried to stay one step ahead and grasp the adoption process and administration of the project on the fly. There were incredible pianos going out the door in return for any donation to the Pianodrome. The donations we received allowed us to start to fund aspects of the showroom as well as keep the Pianodrome company afloat in the lull between projects. Three or four pianos left each time we opened.  Every Saturday a flurry of folk would come in seeking out a piano for their homes, during the week emails kept our administration legend Laura busy. A group of us emerged to hold the project as it grew, Mirra and Alison’s knowledge of tuning pianos was invaluable. Jonathan gave us business advice to steer the project. Pip helped with our first tentative steps towards fixing pianos and Shona worked out a system of logging our stock with Alma.

Tim wheeled out a piano to the front entrance to make a reception area and those who knew a tune took turns playing for the general public as they drifted past us towards the Royal Yacht Britannia elevator. Some tourists beguiled by the music diverted our way and followed a long, snaking line of pianos to the back of the room where the Pianodrome structure enveloped them. Word of mouth spread in Edinburgh and pianists of every ability and style turned up to play in the cavernous nowhere land of the old Debenhams, either out front, in the Pianodrome amphitheatre itself or randomly, delightfully, at a piano in some corner somewhere. The atmosphere of the room would change in an instant with the first notes of an unexpected song appearing from thin air and then transform dramatically again as a young child joined in with their first improvisational piece on another piano elsewhere.

Adoption station

In March I left for America to help build the world’s third Pianodrome and Shona, having dedicated hours of time volunteering since its inception, stepped up to run the project. I had mixed feelings about handing over the reigns. I knew she would do a great job but worried about the viability of the project. Adoptions had tailed off but the deluge of pianos coming in had not. Over 90 upright and grand pianos now littered the space around the Pianodrome structure, at this rate we were going to need a bigger department store to keep them all in. Donations could only cover the bare bones of the project, we needed to ask people to dig deeper into their pockets if we were to fully realise the potential of the project. As well as lacking the funds to work on the pianos which could be saved we lacked the knowledge to know which pianos were salvageable and which were merely decoration. Fortunately in my absence heroes emerged to move the project forward immensely. I’ll talk about them next time.

Joey and me, investigating

If you'd like to get involved with the Adopt a Piano scheme drop us an email at adopt@pianodrome.org