Piano Lessons

My mom had always been saddened that she didn't know how to play a musical instrument.  Determined that my sister and I would be privileged, where she wasn't, she required us to learn how to play piano.  I didn't hate playing piano per say, but I HATED practicing.  There were always too many other things I wanted to do.

It didn't help that my sister was more naturally gifted at playing the piano than I was.  Once I was able to "choose" the instrument I got to play, I chose the violin and got "somewhat" better at it.  I shelved playing a musical instrument during my high school years, had a brief time where I tried to learn again in college and then let it go.  Fast forward 8 years later and I decided to try out for our Church choir and the choir director was happy to find I could read music.  I hadn't realized it, but my mom had opened a door to a different language for me when she made sure I learned music basics.

I enjoyed choir, but have again put that part of me on hold while I raise my son.  As I was talking to him, he enjoys music and listening to me singing and fortunately has his father's ability to pick up tunes easily.  Though my husband never had formal musical training, he's able to pick up a tune on the piano better than I can.

I now understand my mom's wisdom of starting us with piano lessons, before we got to choose our musical instrument we wanted to learn- first- it makes sense to not hop around many different instruments until you find the "one" and what you learn on piano is fairly transferable to other modes of music.  But what I realized most was while I was talking to my son- I asked him what musical instrument he might want to learn.  He immediately told me, "the Trumpet and the Drum".  I then realized that listening to an inexperienced piano player would be a lot more enjoyable than hours of novice drum and trumpet play.  Smart mom!