Thursday, June 30, 2011

Singforhope.org-- I love this organization :)

I took a walk yesterday-- the first day out of school!!! Awesome. I'd seen one of the pop-up pianos at Highbridge Park during our 2nd-3rd grade historical field trip, and I wanted to know more!!! Imagine my excitement when I saw a brightly painted piano in my very own beloved Inwood HIlls Park.

I met my neighbor and her cute 2-year-old there yesterday, and we played our best renditions of 'chopsticks' and 'heart and soul', and then we attempted to sight-read a few of the very multicultural songs provided at the piano... We paid homage to Mozart, we made plans to reconvene at the piano for more music soon, and we went on our merry way.

Today: I went for my noon sunshine walk. A cute elementary-school-aged girl and her mother were at the piano, getting ready to play their rendition of 'Lean On Me.' I encouraged this, singing along with my most soulful sound. When they were through, I plopped down and warmed up my fingers with a couple of rusty scales, which, though rusty, still drew a friendly audience. So I dived into "O Solo Mio" at the encouragement of my new tennis playing friend Nosario. We were joined by Rafael, who lent vocals, and soon by a wonderful woman and her 2-year-old charge. After Rafael, an unidentified man with soul (talk about Guantanamera renditions!) and Nosario (Julio Iglesias tunes... wow, who knew there was so much talent around) had given us some tunes, 2-year-old curly boy gave what might have been his first public performance of an original composition and received thunderous applause.

The group made plans to reconvene for more music on Saturday at noon, with volunteers to bring food and strategies for interacting with the adjacent Saturday farmer's market popping out of the woodwork. A community triumph.

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