I turned a year older last week. I begged the powers that be for a baby but instead I got this piano! It was a lovely surprise. I received a phone call around lunchtime asking if I'd be home at 3 for a special delivery (oh do I miss my concierge in NYC!). Of course I stayed in and it was worth it. Mr M had surprised me with a new piano.
From the time I was 6 until about 16 I endured the hours of practise required to be a pianist - not all willingly mind you. But now I thank my mother for making me get up at 6 each morning and do 1-2 hours practise before going out to groom my horses. I read an interview with one the mother of one of the current Billy Elliots and she said that making her son practise his ballet was a bit like making him brush his teeth - sometimes he doesn't want to do it but she knows it's the best thing for him and therefore makes him do it. That's how it was with my piano and I'm so glad my mother made me do it.
It was actually Mama V who first got my mind thinking about a piano. I visited her one day and tinkled about on her ivory keys for a few minutes and suddenly dreamed of sitting at my piano with Master R and playing beautifully. That's when I started to beg the man for a piano.
What a shock last week when I finally sat down to play. I really had forgotten everything. I'd forgotten even where the notes were apart from middle C. At least that's a good start! I tried to play something and could only get through a few bars of Fuer Elise. The other shock is how hard it is on my weakened wrists. Previously about 1 hour was done each day just on scales to strengthen my fingers and encourage agility but now of course they have neither.
I've been practising most evenings now and can kind of do a scale properly and pick out a page of Beethoven's "Mondschein". Mr M is really enjoying listening to me and of course Master R loves banging away at the keys. Longer term I hope it inspires some creativity in my son.
Mama N, I know just what you mean about returning to the piano after years of hiatus. I took 10 years of lessons, starting with my grandmother when I was five. My Auntie D asked me to play something on her piano when Miss L and I visited her a last week and I had quite a bit of trouble reading the sheet music. I couldn't remember the silly phrases that used to help me remember the progression of notes, like (E)very (G)ood (B)oy (D)oes (F)ine. Keep me posted on the practicing! I think playing the piano should be a part of everyone's childhood. If only we could stick with it through those teenage and early adulthood years!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Mama N. Your post brings back so many memories, as I, too, was a dedicated piano player in my youth. One of my deepest regrets is giving up the piano. I must have played from when I was a tiny tot, up until my freshman year of highschool. I remeber the battles about practicing; uggg how i hated it for a while. Now, of course, I am kicking myself about having walked away from it. I went so far as to buy an electronic organ for my aparment back in my single days. Well that thing is somewhere in my parents attic now, needing a good dust off. I am determined to start again. Good luck!!
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