Just back to Meltham, after another long day.

We left in thick slushy snow that melted during the day and came back to bare potholes.

Bob led the hour at Christchurch Woodhouse nursery. We had three new children with us today and lost three from yesterday.

Everyone again played the piano, in groups and solos. There was only about 90 seconds of time when no-one was playing the piano.

We are blessed with having a very quiet piano, such that when three or four children are playing it loud with fists and elbows and the sustain pedal pushed down, it doesn't seem to dominate the room in the way that pianos sometimes can. It will be really interesting to see what the nursery does with the piano when the project finishes. Will it become another toy in the room? Will they move it? How quickly will it disintegrate? How will the piano feel?

Great to see some players play a similar solo to the one they did yesterday (Chloe, Serenna and Lautrelle for instance, and it was great in the afternoon comparing the video of the solos from day one to day two) and then also to see how some of them developed and changed and extended their playing (Sophie and Serenna) and to have the new players who came in and had to just get their heads down and play (Kaden, Brody and Doris).

We found 6 more new techniques, 20 new approaches and 7 extra questions to add to the list from yesterday. Here are the new list of techniques discovered today, we gave each one a title and then the name of the inventor(s).

Techniques from day 2

1.    Play the keyboard and lower your head below the keyboard to look underneath while still playing, then bring the head back up, still playing. Peek-a-boo. Lautrelle initially copying Brody.
2.    Both hands close together on the keyboard, use all the fingers (not thumbs) to make wave patterns. Waves. Sophie.
3.    Play the piano with nose on the keys and using both hands. Piano Close-up. Serenna.
4.    Raise both hands left then right, above your head, fingers pointing out, spiky hands, then bring them down crashing to the piano, right hand just before left hand. Witches Flam. Georgia.
5.    Press the end-blocks (and other parts of the piano that are not keys) to see if they move and what sound they make. End blocks. Serenna.
6.    Play deliberately with one hand - only using the index finger, but approaching from high above the keyboard. Crane. Chloe.

In the evening session we made many more new pieces, using the work of the nursery children as the starting point. We also had much great discussion and laughter.

To begin with we shared personal stories about pianos. We tried a meditation 'Don't play the piano and put it from your mind' (I found it almost impossible), and we cast spells on the piano and talked about pianists as a breed.

Bob drew a line around the piano and we had to play it from behind that line.
The session ended with Chris completely covering four prone piano players and the piano with chairs as they played.

Hugh Nankivell