Piano Lessons

Piano Lessons
Jackie Batey

This double-sided concertina is created from a folded sheet of vintage pianola roll paper (Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, 1802). The rubber-stamped hands become increasingly contorted throughout the sequence as the player struggles to finish the piece, the fingers tangling completely at the finale.

Concept:

This book contains an autobiographical narrative based upon the artist's early recollections of practising the piano and becoming increasingly frustrated with her inability to get her small fingers to stretch where they needed to be. The rubber-stamped hands are drawn from her own hands on the keyboard, exaggerated as the concertina unfolds. The book seeks to capture the love of listening to beautiful piano music and the realisation that this is unattainable for the player.

From around 1880 a standard piano keyboard measurement has been fixed at 48” this replaced various piano-like instruments that traditionally had narrower keys. The average European adult male hand span is about one inch wider than that of a European adult woman meaning about 87% of women piano players can’t reach a tenth on a standard piano, which is a problem if you want to play Beethoven. Hearing a piano played expertly can be a moving experience and the appreciation of the hours of repetitious practise that’s needed to acquire this skill is enhanced by one’s own lack of practice and inability.

Dimensions: 16cm x 15cm artist’s book. Inside consists of a removable double-sided concertina of pianola-roll paper folded into 8 to make 16 pages. The concertina is 48” long, the length of a standard piano keyboard.

Weight: 90g

Materials: Red book cloth cover with rubber-stamped detail, tied with two-colour twine. Inside covers are lined with vintage sheet music. Hand-cut rubber-stamped hands throughout printed on vintage pianola roll. Embossed with maker’s mark and signed and numbered. Brighton 2020