Pink Think: “Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it.” – Tom Lehrer
A couple of weeks ago, my piano teacher told me that she was no longer going to teach piano, and instead would teach kindergarten.
Yeah, you got that right. My piano teacher, who is also the teacher to my three children.
I was heartbroken. I was an adult student when I started taking lessons from Ammie four years ago, when my oldest daughter was old enough to join her roll. My husband and I had this discussion then:
Me: We should get a piano (a common refrain from years past).
Drew: I don’t know; it’s a lot of money.
Me: Um (getting desperate), Sierra’s old enough to take piano lessons.
Drew: Oh, in that case…
I took one lesson as a child, and that was on a piano at school. Huge piano, my legs couldn’t reach the floor, in this dusty choir room. That was it, and I had always wished I could learn.
So when Drew and I got our first piano (thanks to Sierra), I signed up for lessons, too.
Over the last four years, Ammie has taught me more than piano:
1. If I practice hard enough, I can begin to look like I know what I’m doing. That applies to anything (writing, motherhood, basketball…)
2. Music is life-changing. To hear the song I’ve loved as a teenager coming from my fingertips sometimes makes me want to weep.
3. Just because I bomb at a recital (mind going blank before my song), it doesn’ t mean I am a failure.
4. I can accept a church calling (Relief Society pianist) even though I feel inadequate because the Lord will help me (He does).
5. I can learn and grow and thrive even in my 30’s.
6. I can play while others sing, and even if I mess up, it’s not the end of the world.
We’re switching piano teachers this fall (I’ll keep on taking lessons). I’ll miss Ammie. The score she has written on my heart will live on.
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I’m sorry you’re losing Ammie. She is a good friend of mine. I miss her, too. Have you found a new teacher?
P.S. Keep following your piano dreams.
That’s right, you do know her, huh? Yeah, we’ll all miss her around here. It just won’t be the same. We found a new teacher, and she seems nice. She lived in the Philippines some of her young life, so we have that in common. I’m kind of excited, actually…
Wow, that’s too bad about needing to find a new teacher.
We have two pianos, so if you’re ever in Texas you can come by and play. Anyone who quotes Tom Lehrer is always welcome at our house.
I will have to take you up on that when I someday go on my book tour :-). I actually try to find a piano when we are on vacation. I begin to miss it after a few days.
Once, my husband and I got to go on a little junket for vets in Puerto Rico, and I was so excited to find a piano at a deserted lobby in the resort (I was very “beginner” and didn’t want to have anyone hear me). The keys were sticky with humidity.
I don’t know Tom Lehrer’s music, but I hear he’s funny.
I need read this to my daughter–she is being really rebellious with piano lately 🙂
I hope she sticks to it. I hear far too many adults who say, “I wish my mother had made me stick to it as a child…”
My kids have gone through not wanting-wanting to play piano phases. The thing that has helped the most is I get them music that they pick out (esp. in the summer, and yes, even if it’s the 100th time I have to listen to “Pirates of the Carribbean”). I also have them practice first thing in the day before they could play (in the summer I cut them some slack, but they are still expected to play “some songs they like”). Good luck!