[music]
Frère Jacques, no less. What a bit of fun; a charming children's toy of a piano,
and I've got a whole lot of my keyboard collection here with me. That was the
very first one I ever bought. She's getting a bit from worn out by now,
all falling to pieces, but never mind, it's given a lot of fun to children in the past.
Another very early one which amazed
me at the time, this is a very early electronic card, and unfortunately,
since it is nearly 40 years old, all the electronics have long since stopped working,
so it doesn't play any more tunes. But to have this way back in 1982 was astonishing.
Nowadays it is very common, you can get these everywhere,
but back in the eighties, so many years ago, it is astonishing they could do it,
and I do like that. By contrast about the same time I bought a very nice piano
which does not play, it is just a greeting card which looks gorgeous; when you open it up like that
you get that scenario, which is very pretty. It is a superb greeting card
to give to someone whose loves playing the piano or who loves dancing.
It goes absolutely flat and opens up to give that charming little scenario.
Isn't that nice? So keyboards... i have got plenty of them.
Here is a ruler for instance from the WONDER company in Japan who make these lenticular rulers,
there is a little centimetre ruler at the top, but when you move it up and down, because it's lenticular,
you get a little bit of education for children; what does each piano note mean,
both in the Western system of music, and also the Japanese.
It is quite a nice explanation, and I like the little feature
of a metronome at this end
ticking away as you move it up and down, that is very sweet. So it's meant for
students learning piano, a little 'aide memoire' for them. That's a nice one I think.
Here is a very early electronic one which I did actually learn to play ...
not that well, and since then I think it's probably a bit some past its best now,
but a few of the notes still work - oh, that is not bad, but many notes don't work...
and then you can play different tunes and it can also play automatically, this is very early days,
and you can adjust the volume, but it's it's long time since I've used this
and it is getting a bit past it now I think, but I did have a good time with it.
Here is a very strange thing, which brings us right up to date, with an extraordinary idea
which is a calculator, a keyboard calculator! We turn it on...
we will try 1, 2, 3... and then on the black note we press the 'times' button,
then 4, 5, 6, okay. Then we press 'equal' and that's the answer...
It is a bit difficult to use, I have to say...
The thing I miss most of all is the fact that there is no music and they do say
very clearly on the package 'no music involved'
it is purely silent. It could drive you mad I suppose,
but if it had music and then you could turn it to silent that would be very nice, but never mind.
By contrast here is a telephone I had which I used for quite a number of years
which does play tunes, every time you use it. So if I dial up a colleague ...
Hello, hello? Oh dear, I had forgotten. She is on holiday! Never mind. I will phone her next week.
But a nice idea that. The white notes play tunes
and even the black notes play, you can play tunes, but it is a working telephone
What a nice concept. Something similar is a tie which plays tunes!
Frère Jacques. But you have to play it on the vertical
like this with your hand going up and down. It is quite possible to do that.
I think people playing the accordion have to learn to play the keyboard on the vertical as well.
It is nice to have it as a as a little novelty tie.
The accidental [black] notes that don't play, only the white notes play, but still
you can play a few tunes. A nice concept. There are some extremely interesting puzzles
out there, two of which I have got here. This is something we've had on the website for
some time. It is a keyboard puzzle - each of these pieces comes out;
this is now solved, but in its original form it was all
out of order; and you can see it is solved, because it has got two black notes,
three, two, three, two - it is solved. It is interesting that after playing the piano
for most of my life, I never noticed there was no corresponding black note at the
very bottom. The A natural is the bottom note, there's no A flat on a normal
keyboard and I asked a professional pianist and they said yes, that is the convention,
so something I'd ever spotted all those years. So this is a difficult puzzle to
do, when it's all muddled up like that it is quite a job to get it back into
its original form again, so that's a good one.
This is probably the best of the keyboard puzzles I've ever come across -
this is actually a loan from a friend of mine - but my goodness what a beauty.
It is a Japanese puzzle box; inside is a space where you might put treasures,
I have not actually put anything there, but to open it, what do you do?
Well, you can press the piano keys, no music happens, but it turns out that to solve it you have to press...
the chord of C, and then you have to slide the top to one side
then it lifts up, there's a little hinge there, and you put this on, and...
you've solved it, and you have got a little space inside for treasures or whatever you want.
What a lovely concept that is. Superb Japanese craftsmanship. A grand piano
which is a puzzle, a puzzle box. Wow. Here is an old friend.
I have had this for a few years, but this is an icon from 1970s.
It is the old Stylophone, what a lovely idea it was. You push there, pull this out,
it has got a wire, and I have got it on tremolo, so it'll make a nice sound - there is an arpeggio...
and accidentals. [music] Wow, that does take me back. The old Stylophone.
Something you can carry around in your pocket too - I love it.
Here is an interesting one, it is a proper children's play piano.
It is nicely made, and it has big batteries inside. You cannot play the keyboard
but it just plays itself; so you have to turn it on -
[music]
Do you recognise it? Fur Elise, by Beethoven.
A little bit discordant but not bad. Here by contrast is the music score of Fur Elise, but I've got
three scores to show you, all arranged for keyboards, but they have got a
tremendously quirky aspect to them. Fur Elise, it says at the top here,
you start looking at it and say 'what's going on? Here this is the basic clef- [sings] doo doo doo
doo doo doo at the bottom, no no that's wrong, it should be up in the treble.
It turns out this is a score for a left-handed piano, and they really do make them.
There is a place in Trier (Hungary) that makes Bluthner pianos which are left-handed...
It is for professional pianists who have got a stronger left hand. It is just a lot of money
many thousands of pounds. Down here where it should be the bass is the treble,
and that is their stronger hand, up here which would normally be the treble
is the bass. And that is what this is written for. This is up in the bass
[sings] la la la, et cetera, Fur Elise! Extraordinary. One curious little
bit of fun here, the professional musicians insisted that they keep
the normal notation of a treble clef and bass clef; but actually this is the
treble tune and this is actually the bass accompaniment to it, it's just a
little thing they discovered, they originally had it the other way around,
but people said no, no, it is too much to think about! And a professional pianist will play that
perfectly well. Fur Elise. There are two other extraordinary scores I have come across which
are again keyboard ones; this is for small children and you've probably come across duets
but this is a triplet; they do a few them. You have got three children
sitting on the piano stool, a bit like the rush hour! the first child
plays that tune there, the second child plays that bit there, and the third one
plays that bit. And they start playing Annie Laurie, a famous
Scottish ballad. Lovely idea! The hands are a bit cramped, but it is a triplet
for three children to sit at the piano and make a very, very nice sound. What a beauty.
And the last of the extraordinary piano
scores I've come across was this one here which is a Russian one from
Anatolin Kalinin. He has got a wonderful puzzle book. This really baffled me, because
I read music a little bit, not very well, but I can't read the Russian and I
couldn't understand it, and I showed it to my niece
who is a professional pianist, and she played it as it is, and it sounded
complete rubbish; so I took it along to a friend of mine who is a conductor and
a composer, who really knows music very well indeed, he is very accomplished,
he played it all the way through and said yes, it is funny
but there's something familiar about it. Then I said I only discovered last night what it was
and he said, oh yes of course. Look now, it is waltz time, in 3/4 time.
Every waltz you have ever come across goes um cha-cha, um cha-cha; for example
the Blue Danube goes um cha-cha etc. This one ends cha-cha um, cha-cha um
Oh yes, it is backwards. You start this end and you go in that direction,
oh yes, yes, and it immediately becomes clear - um cha-cha, um cha-cha [sings] Do you recognise it now?
A very well-known piece. I will leave that with you as a teaser. The last item is an
extraordinary device I picked up at the New York Toy Fair about fifteen years ago.
Santa's Magic Piano. It is a big robust piece, it is made of wood and plastic
and inside there is some quite advanced technology. Look at this thing here...
... little elf feet at the bottom with places for two accidental notes.
You put this on a piano between B below middle C, and F I think it is,
and you've plug it in and you switch it on, and you get carols coming from it.
What a lovely idea, it plays Christmas carols, on a normal piano. I think we have got
to try this don't you? Let us have a go...
[music]
So there we are. From Broadwood to Elfwood. More like matchwood I would say! what do you think?