Art Series Blog #1 (Blog #5)

Art Series Blog #1

Phyllis Chen: Playing With Toys Presentation

Wednesday November 17, 2010 7PM at the Sears Recital Hall

            Less than a month ago I went to see a speaker presentation on toy pianos.  The speaker was up and coming star, Phyllis Chen.  She began the presentation by explaining how the toy piano was first marketed as an educational toy.  However, today it seems that toys kids want the most are marketed more electronically, such as guitar hero, rock band, and video games.  Due to that happening the toy piano has fallen off the market.  She went on to explain that the toy piano drew her attention because it was almost a fantasy world she was able to enter.  When she would play she was able to have fun and let go of everything else that clouded her mind and just play.  After giving a brief explanation on how she fell in love with the toy piano she then started to describe the features of it.  She told the audience that the toy piano has no low pitch and no foot pedals like a regular grand piano.  Also, there is a lot of extra sound due to the piano being made of metal rods.  Therefore, each and every toy piano sounds differently because it depends on how long the metal rods are cut and shaped.  She then told the audience of her fourteen toy pianos that are located all around the world in order to make her travels easier.  Phyllis went on to tell of her background explaining her part time job at a puppet theater in Chicago.  At the theater they had a toy piano and this is where she said she finally met and fell in love with the unique keyboards and sounds of the toy piano.  She explained how she went to Northwestern and Indiana for her schooling.  She then developed tendinitis due to the amount of work she was doing in school and outside of school. However, this unfortunate event ended up to be a blessing in disguise.  Chen realized that she was not going to be able to play the grand piano anymore because it was too much for her hands to handle.  Therefore, she was able to realize that the toy piano was jut right for her due to the keys being shorter to play and not as hard to press down.  She now has no tendinitis since she has cut down her workload and mainly plays the toy piano.  She then played a couple of songs on the toy piano and said that in order to hear everything she had to offer we would have to come back the next night for her concert.  I was not able to get enough of a taste from her demo songs so I went back the next night and you can read about that in my next blog.  Overall, the presentation was very interesting and I found Chen to be an intriguing individual.