PIANO

THE PIANO LESSONS

(photo from NYPublic Library/Google


Ok I have had 2 lessons with my teacher. I paid for three. We do not seem to be connecting at all. There is no common ground other than my interest in learning to play again.

The room is very very small. Very small. I am self-conscious about my inability to get things going. The smallness of the room escalates the sound of my mistakes. I am almost 66 years old and in book 1, the same book I was probably in when I was 7 years old and just starting, only I progressed faster. I know two lessons is not enough to make a judgement.

I practice about 30 to 40 minutes at a time, anywhere from once to four times a day depending on my sense of frustration and my level of tolerance for it.
I wear earphones so no one else has to listen to it over and over and over and over. If I get the timing I hit a wrong note. If I get the notes I mess up the timing. Sometimes I look at a note in the middle of something and it appears to be in a foreign tongue: I have never seen it before even though it turns out to be middle D and I have seen it and played it approximately 1000 times that day already. My brain stalls. My timing disintegrates. My fingers tangle on the keys.

The teacher and I do not connect. I said that but to me it makes a difference since I work harder for people I like and want to please. I don't dislike her at all but I get no sense of accomplishment from her. She writes "Good Job!!!" in big loopy script in my book. I am not twelve. A check-mark would be fine.

And there is her perfume. Whatever it is she uses lots of it and by the time my half hour is up I have a raging headache. It takes about 45 minutes to dampen it down to tolerable levels.  Luckily the headache doesn't start until right near the end. During the lesson I spend maybe 15 minutes actually playing.

The teacher is very nice and accomplished plus of course she has a beautiful voice and a serene manner. Her fingers are very long and thin, like spiders on the keys, beautiful to watch: mesmerizing. I look at my bumpy-with-arthritis, white, comparitively stubbly fingers (altho they are not stubbly) and despair.

This inability to do several things successfully at one time has always plagued me. I cannot get a multi-dish meal on the table all at one time. Something is always late-- the rolls, the corn, the gravey for the dressing and potatoes... I do usually manage to get the wine served.....

Anyway John and I discussed all this and he thinks I should bail and look for another teacher, one I can relax and relate to.Convenience is what led to me this place. I will have to look around. Meanwhile, does anyone have page 1 to the JSBach Minuet?