We wish you a scary Halloween!

You are here: Real Ghost Stories :: Apparitions / Voices / Touches :: Ghost In The Piano

Real Ghost Stories

Ghost In The Piano

 

This is the story of the only paranormal experience that I've ever encountered first-hand. It took place when I was a teenager, and sparked my interest in the paranormal.

I lived in a house with my mother, 2 younger sisters, and my mother's boyfriend. We moved the house when I was ~8, and my sisters and I always had uneasy feelings about the basement, laundry room, and garage (which were all connected). We often dared one-another to go down there for 5 minutes without getting scared. I don't recall anything ever happening to us, but we were always uneasy. When I was 12 my sisters decided that they were tired of sharing a bedroom, and so I was moved into the semi-finished basement to free up a bedroom for my sister.

Once I had set up my bedroom, and started sleeping down there I started to notice all sorts of weird noises. I tried my best to ignore them, but adding noises to the uneasy feelings creeped me out. I couldn't fall asleep without something drowning out the noise. I often relied on the furnace/hot water heater, the TV's sleep timer, or a loud fan to help lull me to sleep. I would never fall asleep with my back to the laundry room door, and often let my dog sleep in bed with me in order to not be alone.

My first tangible experience occurred one evening between 7:00pm and 9:00pm. I was in my room cleaning up, and organizing my CD collection, my parents were watching TV in the living room, and my sisters were in a bedroom watching TV. I heard someone yell my name as clear as day. I was unable to distinguish it as a male or female's voice, so I jetted upstairs thinking it was one of my parents. When I asked them what they wanted, they looked at me confused, and said that they hadn't yelled for me. I then approached my sisters, who laughed and said they were watching TV and were talking about boys, so they didn't want me around. I was a little uneasy, but went back downstairs confused. The next day I got a crucifix from my grandmother to hang above my bed.

My second experience was a little more frightening. One night around 3:30am I was sound asleep. My toy poodle KC was sleeping in my bed with me, and he started barking at the laundry room. Aggravated and half asleep I told him to zip it, and fell back asleep. He stood and stared at the laundry room door. At ~3:45am I heard a sequence of loud noises, which sounded like our manual garage door being opened. I tore out of my sleep, panicked, and quickly hit the radio button on my alarm clock to scare off whoever was coming into the house. The noises quickly subsided, and KC freaked out and ran upstairs. I couldn't fall back to sleep that night, and sat in my bed staring at the door and waiting for something to happen.

My third, final, and scariest experience happened a few months later. When I was a kid my grandfather brought us a very old piano that had been in the basement before I moved down there. We were told that it belonged to our deceased great-grandmother. Instead of selling it, my mother had asked that it be brought to our house for my youngest sister to use as a practice piano for her lessons. My sister never fully dedicated herself to her musical studies, and never grasped more than a basic understanding of the piano. As I slept in the bedroom, I heard someone playing sorry attempts at chords and melodies on the piano.

Sleeping face-down I assumed that my sister had some trouble sleeping, and decided to play the piano at 2:30am. Without looking I said, "Jillian go to bed". The noise stopped, and I abruptly fell back to sleep. Some time later I heard the noise again. Again, without looking I gave a more stern warning, "Jillian if you don't stop playing that damn piano I will make you stop!" The noise abruptly ended and I fell back to sleep. Again, some time later I heard it again. Evidently I had turned over while sleeping, because I was lying on my back. I sat up poised to strike, and discovered that it was not my sister. There was a greenish/yellow figure at the piano. I was speechless. I sat watching for about 10 seconds (though it felt like an eternity). When I could finally speak, I simply blurted "What the f***?" in a calm tone. The figure turned, and looked at me. It had a maniacally dead stare, and a mouth that looked like a smile travelling from ear-to-ear. It then quickly shot into the piano.

Needless to say, I freaked. I bolted upstairs, and lied awake on the couch for the night. I slept upstairs for a couple of weeks, and eventually worked my way back downstairs. A few months later I moved to NY to live with my father. I will never forget that experience, and am somewhat grateful for it because it led to my interest in the field.

My family has since moved out of that house, and I have never heard any stories of experiences from anyone else in the house.

Hauntings with similar titles

Find ghost hunters and paranormal investigators from Missouri

Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, DissonantApathy, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

cmordies (11 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-07-24)
The figure must of known you from somewhere to smile at you or was it more of an evil grin? I'm guessing evil because as soon as I read about the grin it made me think of the chessure cat off alice in wonderland
dreamergal72 (6 stories) (793 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-07-23)
My My I hate name calling, Everytime I go to my mom and ask her she call for me she got the look and say no she didn't I thought maybe I am imaginced so but why name calling. I heard about piano ghostly in my life.
DissonantApathy (1 stories) (2 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-07-22)
You've actually sparked my curiosity, so I called and asked my mother what they did with the piano. Evidently they sold it at a garage sale just before they moved. She said it was a random stranger, so I'd have no way of finding out who to inquire about any incidents. I guess the piano will remain a mystery, or has already been written about in other stories.

As for the pictures, my great-granny was a tiny little woman with short black hair. This apparition seemed to be tall, and big (from what I remember). I get the impression that it was tied to the piano itself, and not Granny.
nmg5789 (2 stories) (48 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-07-21)
wow this story really creeped me out! I'm sitting at my desk at work and I got the chills reading the part about the ghost turning to look at u! You are brave for staying down in that basement even after the first occurance happened...I'd bolt and never go back!

It would be interesting if you could find out what happened to that piano. After that incident did it ever happen again?
JamesRobiscoe (419 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-07-21)
DissonantApathy--A bond isn't necessary to see an apparition, but I wondered if perhaps a family photo album might have had a snapshot of her you could recognize or not. I'm sure you/re aware there are other stories on this site of ghosts in pianos (and other objects), but since the spirit did not follow you, it may not have been your relative. If the piano was older than she, I wonder if she saw it, too.
Maybe you've had your allotment of sightings for a lifetime. Then again, maybe not. Happy hunting!
DissonantApathy (1 stories) (2 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-07-21)
I don't know if it was my great granny. I never really knew her, so we didn't have any sort of bond. I can't remember the music since I was half-asleep while the music was playing. I don't know what happened to the piano. My family moved out of the house a few years after I was gone.
JamesRobiscoe (419 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-07-20)
DissonantApathy--A classic spooky-dooky tale, a ghastly grin from ear to ear. Could it have been your great-granny? Could you identify the music if you heard it again? Was the piano left for the poor saps who took over the house when your family moved?
No further experiences occured since that time, I gather, despite your interest. Well, it opened your mind, that's for certain, though your name is a curious one for a seeker.

To publish a comment or vote, you need to be logged in (use the login form at the top of the page). If you don't have an account, sign up, it's free!

Search this site: