I ♥ Piano

Koreans love to send their kids to academies. There is a need to study,to compete with others and not to be left behind. It is also a means of showing off for mothers who can brag about how much they spend on their child's education. It can help teach some children respect for adults. It gets them out of the homes and gives the mother some peace and quiet too I guess. Right now it's the Winter vacation for all school kids and this is when they spend even more time in academies. I make my living from one such academy so I'm not complaining.

Last month I moved into a bigger apartment and now I live above a piano academy, wonderfully named I ♥ Piano. You can find many of these types of places without much searching and there are three just thirty seconds away from my apartment. Every week day from about 10am to 4pm (when I go to work) I hear an assortment of familiar tunes. The quality of the playing ranges from OK to beginner as they bash out the notes, but most are in the middle of that range.


One former co-worker used to bitterly complain about the noises coming from I ♥ Piano, especially during the Summer months but I don't know why. The sound in my living room is not so bad, in fact if I watch TV or listen to music I can't hear it at all. I don't mind the noise though. it's always nice to hear some live music. I find it relaxing. Right now someone is butchering Scott Joplin's The Entertainer (made famous by the film The Sting) and it reminds me of my youth and this classic sketch from Morecambe and Wise - skip to 8:40 for the best bits.