Cavendish Square moments

The extraordinary moment was that a gentleman came up to me after one of my sets of repertoire and asked me if that what he just heard was a digital recording and that I was faking the piano playing on the keys of the piano to synchronize. I was taken totally by surprise but not totally fazed. I then asked him to play some of the keys on the piano which he promptly did. I asked him if that sounded digital?

Much to his dilemma he defended himself by "saving face" that the banner next to the piano advertising the Kawai Grand Pianos says "acoustic & digital". I then explained that there are acoustic plus digital pianos available from Kawai.

The conclusion of this conversation made me realise that the banner is ambiguous as many listeners think that the piano I'm performing on could be both; with a simple switch or button to change from acoustic to digital.

Then, the other day another gentleman came up to speak too me after another set of repertoire on the Piano, and asked me if this was an Organ. I was speechless but realised that there was definitely a shortcomimg of general knowledge in most of the schools here in this country. 

I promptly corrected his "faux pas" and explained that this was a Grand Piano.

I explained the mechanism and how grand pianos are constructed, build and tuned. It was a mini lecture; wish I could one day impart general knowledge to schools like I did with him now. Well, he walked away with a smile on his face; a face of knowledge gained and I know he would go and spread this new found information.

I felt a sense of satisfaction but also felt sadness that so much is lacking in the education system.