I'm a pianist so maybe I'm biased, but I can't imagine it would be *too* difficult to learn to mimic the piano. Unless you are doing very intricate fingering and runs up close (well, even that can be practiced and learned fairly quickly) the issue would be just getting your finger dexterity and speed up. You wouldn't have to worry about hitting the right keys, just keys in the general vicinity and with the same rhythm and pace (moving right and left for higher and lower). With enough practice (a few weeks at least) and coaching from someone who knows the piece, it could be pulled off and look very convincing. Similar to, but a bit more difficult than, lip synching. Of course, the piano would have to be disabled so the action on the keys could be very light. I would think accurate pedal work would be much, much harder to fake, though. But no one is watching the feet when someone is playing (except sometimes I do!).
Also, this would be all the more difficult for someone who had no musical ability and who was tone deaf. I don't believe that description would apply to June Allyson, though.
To me the hardest instrument to fake would be the violin because that left handed vibrato is so difficult to master!
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jpgr1
13 years ago
Ok maybe I'm being nitpicky, but I am watching this now and paying close attention and I just saw some chords she was hitting where the notes in the song go from major to minor and she never moves off the white keys to the black. She does hit the black keys during two-handed runs, but when she's playing chords she sticks with the white keys.
But to the untrained eye she does a fantastic job!
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liscarkat-2
10 years ago
That reminds me of so many movies where somebody is supposed to be playing guitar, and their left hand either just slides up and down the neck, or doesn't move at all, while you can hear notes and chords changing. But June's piano faking looked very realistic to me (a non-painist). In another example, Sal Mineo did a convincing job of playing drums in "The Gene Krupa Story", but you don't actually hear him--the sound was recorded by Krupa himself.
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tika313
8 years ago
Sal did study for months with Gene prior to filming. We don't know what amount of effort June put into preparing for this role. Her timing is most convincing but we're not hearing which notes she's hitting. She does a believable job nonetheless.
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atlasmb
8 years ago
I agree. I think she is a talented "faker". For another example of this talent, watch Mickey Rooney fake play the piano. Clearly they practiced.
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