Unable to reach a conclusion, they agreed to discuss the issue again in a few days, as they had to give a music show and urgently needed to start rehearsals. Yet the piano didn’t show up in any of them. Instead, he kept himself locked in his room.

“Something must be done eventually, he’s totally indifferent”, the keyboard protested at the end of the final rehearsal. The other musical instruments then agreed, as he had not taken part in any rehearsal at all. Furthermore, they thought it quite likely that he would goof up during the performance.

“Alright, I’ll try to talk to him then”, the clarinet calmed them down. He then headed straight to the piano’s room for an honest talk. Just as he was approaching the door, however, he heard all sorts of beautiful sounds coming out. When he knocked, nobody opened. He then pushed the door open, only to be met with a strange sight: the piano was wearing a headset that blocked all outside noise, rehearsing all by himself and taking little notice of anything else but his music. Beautiful sounds that were similar to those the other musical instruments would be making for the performance were flooding the room.

“Sorry to interrupt but I’d like to have a talk with you”, the clarinet told him. Then they discussed for hours, coming to the conclusion that the piano preferred his solitude because the other musical instruments were constantly playing down on him, never to recognize his worth. The piano even mentioned specific events where he had put his best self forth, only to be ignored by the other musical instruments. In the end, he explained that if they kept going on like that, he would simply leave the orchestra as they made him feel worthless. “You ‘re right”, the clarinet told him. “Good night”.

The clarinet then gathered all the other musical instruments and explained to them that if they really wanted to have the piano with them, they would have to change their ways. “It’s a pity to see someone leave our company”, he added. The musical instruments agreed that they had gone too far and that they were indeed to blame, at least to some degree.

To make up for it, they thought of the following trick: as soon as the show would finish, they would ask their audience to give a big round of applause for each and every musical instrument. When the time for the piano came, they would join the audience in applauding him, to show him how much they appreciated him and valued his presence. So, it happened. The day of the show, they all gave their best selves. “And now a big round of applause for our piano!”, the clarinet said at the end of the show, and then everybody started clapping, the musical instruments included. The piano found it strange at first, yet realized what had happened shortly afterwards. “My sincere thanks to everyone!”, he exclaimed.

From that day he made friends with all of them and they acknowledged his value. To thank them for it, he went to rehearsals first and left last, never to hurry, as from that point on he enjoyed the company of others while rehearsing....