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THE TOY PIANO SANCTUARY

Click on the logo to go to our Patron Page

SPECIAL THANK YOU TO OUR MONTHLY DONORS:

  • Dr. Winnie Cheung

  • Karina Maucha-Cohen

  • Dr. Rafael Monteiro

  • Andre Bertoncini

  • Dr. Viviane Louro

  • Sueli Inamorato

  • Dr. Daniel Stein

  • Andre Pitol

  • Brady Lanier

  • Gregorio Oliveira

  • Dr. Yerin Kim

  • Dr. Dedra Demaree

  • Dr. Nathália Kato

  • Mariana Rodrigues

  • Rebeca Da Coll

  • Bob Lyness

  • Jennifer Graham

  • Benjamin Robinson

  • Dedra Demaree

  • Rebeca Oliveira

          A safe haven for instrument lovers, the toy piano sanctuary rescues, restores and makes it available to the general public a number of instruments that are normally inaccessible. Starting with toy pianos and chord organs, my mission is to tell the story of these instruments and how they went from children’s toys to concert hall commodities.

          While presenting its history and the repertoire composed for Toy Pianos from 1947 to 2020, we will stimulate the general public to embrace their curiosity and natural desire to touch these adorable instruments and approach music learning from a pleasure filled angle.

          There has been a prevalent pattern in my years collecting toy pianos: Everyone wants one. Everyone wants to touch them, hear them and have them. Fortunately, many composers have already incorporated these instruments into their regular repertoire writing, suggesting that there is room in our society for toy piano in music schools and orchestras, as well as toy piano ensembles and chamber

          From restoration and historic preservation, to education, creation and social engagement, we then arrive at the third part of this project, working on technological development and the creation of new generations of instruments that are portable, intelligent, inclusive and affordable. We are in the unique position of having access to documents from our predecessors that detail their choices in design, marketing and use of such instruments, having these instruments physically still present with us, but in a new era with renewed fashion and purposes.

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Become a monthly donor at:
 www.patreon.com/danielinamorato

or

Venmo: Daniel-Louro-2

    Our Collection   

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1890's Bliss

Toy Piano

 Schoenhut  1900

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Eight keys, fully functional Chime Piano

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Performance Tip:
Take the top wood out for better resonance, and unscrew the legs to facilitate performance; this way you can pile them up and perform using many toy pianos at once!

2018 Japanese Kawai

Messy Living Room, moving to a new home with so many instruments took some energy!

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More pictures will be added soon

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Color Coded Grand Toy Piano with long legs!

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Color Coding the keyboard keys has proven to be a reliable associative pedagogical device to help young students. Many mid 20th century toy pianos already came color coded, even with wildly varied and inconsistent tuning. I would caution against the overuse of colors, as students might develop system overdependence. Nevertheless, if students have a hard time reading music, colors can definitely bridge student's memories to the abstract universe of music notation!

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Unique Leg Length!

This is an annually long legged instrument.

As children grow up, their instruments grow with them and the legs had to be adapted to toddlers learning how to stand up.

Play AWay Tin Toy Piano with music scores attached!

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Uncle Sam's Tin Baby Grand

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EMENEE

Electric

Organ

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MAGNUS ELECTRIC CHORD ORGAN

BROWN MAGNUS ELECTRIC CHORD ORGAN

AUDION ELECTRIC CHORD ORGAN

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Did you know that John Cage composed a Toy Piano Suite in 1948? It is a fairly simple five movements piece written also with techniques that are just meant for Grand Pianos, as the piece can also be performed on regular stringed pianos.
Look at the left hand in the first measure; he wants the initial sound to be sustained for many measures, what is not possible on toy pianos, as the metal vibration has a short life span. This Toy Piano Suite actually sounds really good if played in multiple toy pianos at once, but it isn't a very convincing piece performed as it is written. Many toy pianists perform this piece for its historic significance, but don't let them fool you, there are hundreds of better written toy piano pieces out there.

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GRAND PIANO

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SCHOENHUT

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IT'S HUGE

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MELISSA

 &

DOUG

TOY

PIANO

JAYMAR

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PianoLodeon Roll Reader - Electric
We have 3 of these instruments in our collection

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We have two of these instruments in our collection. To find out more about the restoration process and see the inside of the instrument please visit Loren Ludwig's webpage:

http://lorenludwig.com/pianolodeon-909-rebuild/

There were 50 songs made into Rolls at the time that this instrument came out. The Rolls I have are listed bellow, you can soon watch them all at The Toy Piano Sanctuary's YouTube Channel:

1- Oh Shine On, Shine On Harvest Moon

 

2 - No. P6 Sweet Sue (Just You)
C 1928 Shapiro Bernstein & Co. Inc.

Renewal Shapiro Bernstein & Co. Inc., NY, NY

J. Chein & CO Burlington N. J.

3 - No. P-3 Frosty The Snow Man

C 1950 Hill and Range Songs Inc., NY NY

J. CHEIN & CO Burlington NJ

4 - No. D -3 The Old Piano Roll Blues

C 1949 by LEEDS Music Corp.

5 - No. P – 7 Seet Georgia Brown

Bernie, Pinkard, Casecy

C 1925 Jerome H. Remick & CO

J. CHEIN & CO Burlington NJ

6 - No. P – 2 In The Good Old Summertime

7 - No. E-1 Aint She Sweet (Ager – Yellen)

C 1927 By Advanced Music Corp.

Copyright renewed

J. CHEIN & CO Burlington N

8 - No. P – 2 In The Good Old Summertime

J. Chein & CO Burlington N. J.

9 - Frosty the Snow Man

10 - No. D -3 The Old Piano Roll Blues

C 1949 by LEEDS Music Corp.

J. Chein & CO Burlington N. J.

11 - No. P -1

Alexander’s Ragtime Band

C 1911 by Irving Berling

Renewal 1938 Irving Verling New York N. Y.

Made in USA J. Chein & CO

12 - No. A – 1

Here Comes Santa Claus

(Gene Autry, Oakly Haldeman)

J. CHEIN & CO Burlington NJ

13 - No A – 5

Rudolph The Red -Nosed Reindeer

C 1949 by St Nicholas Music INC.

J. CHEIN & CO Burlington NJ

14 - Come on and hear

Come on and hear

Alexander’s Rag Time Band

C 1911 by Irving Berlim

Made in USA J. CHEIN & CO

Repertoire tip 1:

Isida Kazue Rockzaemon is a Japanese composer, toy piano collector and performer.

He is a really friendly person, and he composed hundreds of pieces for toy piano that are very charming and well constructed!

He will most likely send you PDFs of his scores if you write him a nice email!

Make sure to send him a gift or MONEY as appreciation! His email: grokyu@gmail.com

Check his pieces:

Aves - 60 Preludes for Celesta or Toy Piano

Florum - 360 Pieces for Toy Pianos

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Another repertoire tip, check

The Toy Piano Digital Library:
 

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Casspinette Toy Piano
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Unnamed

Very rarely we encounter a toy piano that apparently wasn't developed by a big corporation, with odd bones and its unique color and shape!

BC Toy Piano

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Recently Acquired

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Roll Player Organ
with
Manuel Lever

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For more information visit www.thetoypianosanctuary.com or email daniel.inamorato@gmail.com

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