I love piano music! I took piano lessons for several years as a kid in elementary school, when I was probably about 8 or 9 years old. My parents signed me up with a piano teacher that was recommended by someone in our church. She was older and lived in a neighboring town, so they drove me there for my lesson each week.
Eventually I managed to pick it up, along with my (somewhat irregular) practice, but she didn’t make it interesting enough for me and I got tired of the lessons and quit. I think it was a traditional approach to teaching piano, but it didn’t get me playing music that I enjoyed so it lost its relevance for me. Later I tried some other musical instruments at school, such as the clarinet for a while; then I tried guitar lessons at a local music store for a little while (until my fingers got sore and calloused).
With high school, college, work, marriage, and children, I never really got back into playing music, although I always loved listening to music, attending concerts, etc. My music interests have always been quite diverse, but recently I have become infatuated with solo piano music again. Now I have decided that I finally want to try learning and playing piano again to see if I can play it like the wonderful artists I enjoy.
We have had a Yamaha piano in our house for probably over 30 years now, but it’s rarely used. Initially, we thought it would be nice to have a piano available to play, and always thought it might be something I would like to do someday. Also, we rationalized that it would be good if our two boys had it available so they might learn music.
Actually, my youngest son is quite talented and creative with both art and music. He has a great ear for music, and could hear a song on the radio, cassette, or record (remember them) and just sit down and start playing it from what he has just heard. We were totally amazed that he could do this, but he would never actually want to learn or read music.
We bought him MIDI keyboard synthesizers, drum machines, and music software to encourage his interest in music, and he really got into that. In fact, he has composed lots of music, which is really quite good, and he even was selling it on the internet for a while and making some money from it; it’s mostly trance, house, techno, etc., and he has even DJ’ed a little at some dance clubs with his music. He still enjoys it, but mostly for himself, and even has those initial things we gave him as Christmas and birthday gifts. My older son also likes music a lot too, and does play guitar which he picked up on his own.
I have thought I would like to play piano again, but there just was never enough time (or at least I did not make the time available). Since I retired several years ago, it’s something I have been thinking about doing sometime, and now is the time to get started! I will turning 70 soon so time’s passing by, and it’s about time to do things that I have put off until later. By the way, I decided to finally get started cooking too, but that’s another post. Later is getting shorter!
