Why?

[OlderGuy]

Here is a stupid question  :
In all languages I know the verb to perform music on the piano is "to play".
I understand that piano is fun in general, and we all are used to this word in this context, but does not sound it kind of inappropriate, if you think about it, when you say, for example: ".. he is playing at a funeral today...".
-Peter

[frederic]

Ha! i sort of understand what you are getting at.... sort of... not really....
What would you prefer then? Hitting at a funeral? Pressing-keys at a funeral? And come to think of it... why is it called "keys"? I thought "keys" were things you open doors with? Scales? Is that a thing you measure stuff on? Major? really big? Minor? small??
English is a mystery...

[jeff]

i read somewhere that in Italian, you use the verb "to sound [the piano]"...  i think i read that in James Francis Cooke's book, Great Pianists on Piano Playing.

[MATASCO]

It´s not true. On my language (Spanish) we say something like "touching the piano"(Tocar el piano). This is like touch your girlfriend , or your head.

[chopinetta]

we'll... in our dialect "tocar" means to play an instrument... like "tocar sa piano" means "play on the piano..."

[Legatello]

Hey! maybe that thing "tocar sa piano" comes from the spanish guys who settled there long time ago ! cos in spanish (as matasco said) we say touching the piano too

Saludos matasco !