Flying to Merrill to play Where Everybody Knows Your Name on the airport piano.
I returned to Merrill Municipal Airport today–my third trip so far!–to take a stab at playing Where Everybody Knows Your Name, the theme song from Cheers, on the airport piano. I do this every so often when I learn a new song or two and I intend to keep doing it for as long as I am able fly a plane and play a piano.
This is a great little piece of music. It’s a thread of pop culture that weaves through every child of the 1980s. From this moment forward I’ll be able to sit down at a piano and connect with anyone in the room “of a certain age” without saying a word. Having the ability to connect without words is nice for an introvert like me.
I’ve been working on the song for about four weeks, piece by piece, but I only started putting the whole thing together a couple days ago. I have a long way to go. I need to make it flow, make it musical, and learn to sing along to it. The vocal is the melody and the feeling isn’t complete without the words.
My voice doesn’t cover the range of the vocal, I’m not sure where I’m going to go with that, but I’ll figure something out. I want to have it done by my “almost one year piano anniversary” flight to Merrill on or about May 28th. In two and a half months, it’s all doable.
What the locals say
I was lucky enough to run into a couple Merrill residents at the airport who gave me some backstory on the piano and its owner.
Most importantly, they allayed my fears about whether the piano would remain at the airport for the long term. According to them the owner would never remove it. He’s swapped different pianos in and out over the years, he owns many, but he’s never taken one out without leaving another in its place.
This is a huge relief for me. The Merrill piano is the prime mover that finally got me off my butt after a lifetime of wanting to learn the piano. My plan is to return every so often–two, three, four times a year maybe–as I learn new music. I’d hate to return one day to learn that it has gone.
I considered offering to buy the piano and donate it to the airport permanently if there had been any chance that the current owner might move it, but I’m told that won’t be necessary. Which is good! I have no idea how to value a piano but my impression is that it might’ve set me back several thousand dollars.
It has to stay right where it is. It’s about the experience. It’s about flying halfway across the state to sit at the instrument that started it all. I’m happy to know I’ll be able to do that for years and years.
Appendices
- Track logs
- Where Everybody Knows Your Name (from Cheers season 1)