Make Music and Memories with the NYC Big Piano Experience!

women doing pilates on a lifesize piano like the one from the movie Big

The Big Piano Experience at Pilates on Fifth is a musical journey that you and your family won’t want to miss. It’s an epic NYC experience that hits the right key with everyone.

The legendary Big Piano from the classic movie “Big” and iconic store FAO Schwarz is back in NYC and will make magnificent music and memories for kids of all ages. The Big Piano is back and better than ever thanks to identical twin sisters Katherine and Kimberly Corp (former Rockettes and Pilates On Fifth co-founders). They commissioned Remo Saraceni, the original artist/creator of the Big Piano, to make this clone for their studio.

You’ll earn some serious street cred when you tell everyone that you danced on the light-up piano better than in the movie “Big.” If you’re looking for a one-of-a-kind gift or experience for your family or someone who has it all and wants to do it all, this is it. And you can bring the Big Piano to your birthday parties, school functions, or special events with their portable Big Piano (it unfolds to about 22 feet long and about 3 1/2-4 feet deep).

This pitch perfect piano will delight everyone as you play and learn for fun or exercise. The studio has adapted melodies and created musical cliff notes so you can easily play everything from Beethoven’s Fifth to Star Wars. From echo drills (think dueling banjos) to games (like “name that tune”) there’s truly something for everyone. The sky is the limit!

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Families will laugh, dance, and make beautiful music together with their own private experience where you play through tunes, rhythms and melodies. Plus, there’s no musical experience necessary to play this piano. We started out with a simple warm up of a few runs up and down the piano to hit each and every key and went on to learn about speed, agility, memory and balance drills, and learning to play some favorite songs throughout. Families can also learn a full song that you all can play and take video footage home.

The kids could have played all day but the “sneak attack cardio” got the grown-ups. The chord leaping and octave changes make for quite a workout but you’ll be having too much fun to notice. And grown-ups will also love that it is an educational and brain boosting activity for kiddos (building both muscles and brain cells!).

You’ll exercise your mind and body as you learn songs and moves on The Big Piano NYC. Families will love dancing on the larger than life sized piano together and making musical melodies and memories to treasure. It’s a childhood dream come true for everyone in the family. Just be prepared that kids are sure to ask to return for an encore performance.

Here are some guidelines from the experts for kids of different ages to best experience the Big Piano:

5 years-old and under:

  • Skills: They love just to run up and down the piano or jump up and down on the piano, as motor skills and brain skills are not developed sufficiently to be exact or to learn melodies. They love making their own music, but also experiencing the Big Piano as a player piano and jumping along
  • Length: 30-45 minutes is plenty of time (including watching their parents play or being carried by the parents as the parents play)

6-7 years-old:

  • Skills: Motor skills allow for greater accuracy for fun melody drills.  Simple songs like “Chopsticks are fun and playable.  Kids who play piano might enjoy trying melodies like “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Name that tune can be fun as well.
  • Length: 45 minutes to an hour is perfect.  Echo drills or playing with their parents is also fun.

8-10 years-old:

  • Skills: This age group has a great time learning melodies like the “Star Wars Theme,” or simple Disney melodies. Their increased attention span as well as more highly developed motor skills and memory make it very fun to learn and master melodies of 12-20 notes.
  • Length: About an hour. We keep them working on melodies as long as they are still having fun. This group still likes to either watch their parents play or play melodies with them.

11 years-old & up:

  • Skills: Now we can have more fun with melody drills, more piano games, and more structure overall.  These kids can easily go an hour, and enjoy learning melodies to play with their friends, both together and as echo drills.
  • Length: One hour +

To learn more, visit pilatesonfifth.com/BigPianoNYC!

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