Sam and the Recital
Samantha has been taking piano lessons and Saturday was her first recital.
The fourth child to play the crowded recital hall at the local Evola music center, she performed two pieces. Each was only about 30 seconds long, but she did a great job at each. Her posture was good, her hand position was proper, and she kept her eyes firmly on the sheet-music. Confident and happy, Sam eagerly posed for the above picture during intermission*.
She says she can’t wait until she gets to do a recital again, which warms my heart. I’m so happy to be able to offer her these opportunities.
One of my enduring regrets is that I never really took piano lessons.
When I was about ten or eleven my family purchased a larger home. It was pretty big, and attached to the living room was a small library/den. One wall was taken up by a set of built-in bookshelves and the other wall was conspicuously blank.
Purely for aesthetic reasons, my parents adopted a 1934 Kimball upright piano and ensconced it here. As the aged instrument was mainly intended as a piece of attractive furniture, the fact that it was no longer in tune and had several dead keys was not a concern. It was this piano which I fooled around on for the years I lived in that house.
Though I was not shy about my interest in the instrument, and the Kimball was loud enough that my activities with the thing were hardly secret, I was never offered any opportunity to get lessons and, to make matters worse, I was frequently told to stop that noise. So here I am, 35 years old and unable to play any recognizable tunes nor able to read music. Not to mention the fact that, because of the Kimball’s many dead keys, I was forced to play everything in one of two keys, both of which were mostly made up of black keys. And, lastly, the constant requests to stop playing undermined my confidence to the point that I usually don’t want to play in front of others. Despite this, I have placed many of my compositions on SafeT’unes, so you can listen to the wreckage that ensued.
I want to make sure that Samantha (and Riley, when she’s old enough and if she’s willing) will have the opportunities that I didn’t have. So when she showed interest in the piano, I put her in lessons. And no matter when she asks, I always tell her its OK to play the piano.
And I make a point of telling her to turn the volume up so I can hear her.
If I have anything to say about it, she will never be told to “stop that noise.”
“Turn up the volume”, you’re a good man SafeT!
At least you weren’t in any doubt as to where your musical interest stood in relation to your family. I was given the piano lessons, and told to “stop that noise.”
Terribly confusing.
Good for Sam. Let her plink to her heats content.
She certainly looks like a professional. Since you won’t be hindering her, she might well turn out to be one.
A professional killer, of course. Dun dun DUNNN!!
Joe, you know when you were living at home, you played our piano at extremely inappropriate times just to get attention. And, I most always said something like, “I enjoy your compositions, but now is not the time to play.” It was only after you failed to stop that you would be just told to ‘Stop!!’ You only paid attention to the shouted ‘I said stop!’ never hearing how much I enjoyed what you played, even if it were played at the wrong times.
If you had asked for lessons, we would have gotten them for you. You were certainly old enough when we got the piano to have expressed such a desire, and you know you were not shy with your verbage- ever. Besides, just getting you to do homework was a major problem, I can just imagine how hard it would have been for us to get you to practice piano every day.
By the way, we got the piano: A–because it was free and B–because I, your mother wanted to play piano. We did get the piano tuned, but unfortunately, it has a cracked sound board which makes it impossible to tune it perfectly, and we, who were raising four children at the time, could not afford to get it repaired.
So, now that you are approaching middle age, if you cannot read music or play the piano, it is no longer our fault anyway. Learn to play! Take lessons, either in person, or get a PC piano teaching program and practice, practice, practice!
Grandpa and Grandma once had a neighbor who bought an organ, and did not know how to play at all. The man was at least your age, he learned to not only play the organ, but play it well enough to get hired at a restaurant to play the organ professionally. I admired his determination and accomplishments. The fact that he stole Grandpa’s expensive giant ‘fake’ book to faciltate his professional organ gig, was however, less then admirable.
I am and always, and always will be, impressed with your musicality, and I love Samantha playing anytime. Hope Riley enjoys it too, eventually. By the way, use of Grandpa’s violin is a standing offer if either of your offspring evidence a desire to learn to play. I would love to have a violinist in the family once again.
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