Take Pianos

Pianos used to be in every household and the sound of little fingers practising chords and scales was a daily routine to passers by who remembered the music lesson days. Not too many kids have the benefit of piano lessons now. For one thing, they are not only costly but also are a big commitment in time.  Children are whipped off to ballet or hockey practise where their bodies go through the paces but seldom do those endeavors stick with them throughout their lives as much as piano lessons do. Children who learn to play the classical piano seem never to forget entirely how to render a tune with or without the music in front of them. They also remember other matters about piano lessons:  the recital experience when they crouched in the kitchen of their music teacher's house, nervously awaiting their turn to go into the living room where all the parents sat, just as nervously, to feel pride in their young pianists. Few of the youngsters make it to become concert performers but most have fun sitting at the keyboard and whacking out a tune later on. Life  kind of sucked them in to its vortex and they had to move on to other more pressing events. When you've had piano lessons, however, it isn't too hard to pick it up much later and play for enjoyment or perhaps take further lessons, and become quite proficient. To learn how to play the piano as an adult with no previous childhood lessons is a very difficult and often discouraging task. I have heard those who attempted it and sorry, but it shows when they hack out "I Lost My Heart In San Francisco" with  laboured effort and bad timing and touch. I have suffered through this very thing, when a very rich lady who could afford a beautiful instrument in her mirrored parlour, found that money doesn't buy everything.  The depth, the resonance and flow just were not there. The effort to learn at a later date is gigantically courageous, however, and these folks get my accolades for the attempt. Learning to play the piano takes decades of work. Sure, there are slickery trickery schools of popular  music but that is not piano. Let's not kid ourselves. The difference is fooze ball compared to actual football. If you laboured through your childhood learning to play, you will find there is nothing more satisfying than leafing through a music book and plunking away a little jazz or show music or even taking a hands-on review of your old classical pieces that you thought you had forgotten. You realize it's mostly your fingers that know where to go and what to do even if a bit rusty and stiff. You can still hear your music teacher patiently or perhaps impatiently counting the beats and thrumming on your shoulder the tempo. You also are glad that now you can play for pleasure and not have to start your session off with stretches, scales and a little Liszt before Beethoven and Mozart.  Diana Krall jazz and the standards can become an afternoon of true joy that we former piano students revel in even if the neighbours find a reason to suddenly drive off in their SUVs or take in a movie elsewhere. A one, a two, a three, a four!