Auckland homeless man has learnt how to play the piano from YouTube tutorials.

After a year of watching YouTube tutorials, 55-year-old, Cookie, is delighted to be able to play on a public piano.

The piano stands outside the Auckland City library on Lorne street, and placed there every May, as the library’s traditional celebration of New Zealand Music Month.

When Cookie first started, he said he was “robot-like” and only knew the “Chopsticks”. One year on, Cookie can play a variety of songs from John Legend to Elton John.

The Auckland man said he wasn’t concerned about learning to read music, “I’ll be 155 years old if I learnt that way”. He started with the desire to learn just one song from the start to finish, now he wants to learn how to play every tune he enjoys.

Librarian assistant, who helped organize this year’s piano display, Dedee Wirjapranata said the public piano supports the message that “music is for everyone, anyone can come, play and enjoy it”.

Cookie said, “I find playing music is therapeutic for me”, he really enjoys playing the piano outside the library because often the people walking by pay him compliments and give him tips to help him improve. Both of which inspire him to play more.

Rodney Fisher, a representative of New Zealand Music Month, praised the Auckland City Library for the public piano, saying “it’s really cool to make having an instrument accessible to anyone and everyone”.

Ideally, Rodney said, “there would be pianos on every street corner” and community music initiatives like this are “amazing” and “should be encouraged”.

The piano has drawn people of all musical abilities, from people who can play advanced classical pieces to children just “clanking” on the keys, said Dedee. All of which can be heard all throughout the library opening hours and from the other end of the building.  

The library has an electric keyboard inside, but as Dedee said it doesn’t compare, “Having a piano just sitting here, people can practice what they’ve heard or just have the pleasure of playing a piano and hearing that sound.”