Wednesday, January 03, 2007

The Piano

When I was young I only really ever had one babysitter. I was quite close to her and her family. Her son was a couple of years younger than me and we used to take swimming lessons together. I went camping with her and her family for a week in the summer. Sometimes I would daydream that I was part of her family instead of my own. One of my favorite things about her was that she taught piano. She was the music teacher at my school.

I spent many days at her house plunking away at her piano figuring out little tunes. Like 'Mary had a little Lamb'. I often begged her to teach me how to play, to give me lessons. She always gave me the same answer. 'No.' She told me that because I didn't have a piano at home and wouldn't be able to practice that there was no point. Looking back now I think it had more to do with the fact that my parents likely couldn't afford lessons for me. I told her I would practice at her house or at the school, that I would find a way. She still refused and I had to settle for playing around on her piano when I was at her house.

I still regret never learning to play an instrument. I still wish that I'd had the opportunity to take piano lessons and think that I would have been very good if I'd had the chance. When Peter and I bought this house mutually agreed that a nice old piano would really suit it and we wanted to get one. Almost three years have passed since we've moved in and we hadn't looked into getting one. Shortly before Christmas my sister told us that some friends of hers who already had a piano had just inherited another one. Since they didn't need two the offered to give us the one they didn't want. We were only responsible for the cost of having it moved to our house. (Which was about $200)





And this is how we ended up with this beautiful piano. We are all enjoying it already. Even A who sometimes sits at it and delights in the music she can make. Other times she absentmindedly drags her fingers along the keys as she walks by. I would love to take up piano lessons now. But for the time being I am settling for learning by watching videos like this.



I am so looking forward to the beautiful music that our new piano will bring into our home.

6 comments:

Mall Worker said...

That is a beautiful piano. I'm so glad that you guys were able to get one. Baby A will love playing with it.

Anonymous said...

I am one of your lurkers. Total Mom Haircut's Mom. You should take piano lessons. I never did as a kid and when Beth took them when she was around 7, I took them too from the same teacher. I only did it about a year but I still could pluck out something on the piano and can still read music. And I found practicing to be great therapy.

Lynanne said...

Oh what a wonderful find! I'd second the suggestion to take piano lessions.

I'm still catching up on my reading but I wanted to say thank you for your comments on my blog. It meant so much to me and kept my spirits up when I was feeling so discouraged. You always know exactly the right things to say. Thank you for your friendship! Happy New Year!

Dawnyel said...

So jealous of your piano! Many years ago I took lessons...HATED them, but once I quit...you couldn't stop me from playing. Now that we DON'T have a piano, I miss it. I should take advantage of the ones my mom has at her house, but I just forget...until I need a piano fix, that is!
If you want to learn to play, why not do it now...you're NEVER too old to learn something new! (My grandma has been taking lessons for the past few years, and she can play pretty well!)

Jenn said...

How exciting! And what a deal! That would be fun to take lessons. I wish we had a piano too.

Jenn said...

Mama Decrescendo,
Now you will go into hock buying sheet music..hehe. It's really beautiful. So when are you making your own music?