A Piano... or a TV?

When I was very young, I very much wanted to take dance lessons, but my mother determined that was not the best investment. She had it in her mind that piano lessons were the better way to spend the little amount of money she had.

As I remember her reasoning, it went something along the lines that once we (Dearest Sister and I) were finished with said dance lessons, probably in somewhere in our teens, that would be it. We would never use those acquired capabilities again. On the other hand, the wicked skilz we would learn from the piano teachers? Well, possibilities were endless! Accompanying church choirs, entertaining family gatherings, … playing in rock bands, ...or maybe in smoky dives and bars…our abilities would shine forever!

Then there was the infamous deal the 'big kids' made that left Dearest Sister and I with a piano instead of a TV. We siblings fall into two groups. There were the three ‘big kids’, then ten years later, we ‘little girls’ came along. Dearest Sister and I are the ‘little girls’, still, to this day! My mother was a very young widow in the middle of the last century with hardly two dimes to rub together. In her efforts to make do, and I believe not being able to afford both, she asked the ‘big kids’ if they wanted a TV or a piano. Supposedly, they voted for the piano. In the next few years, the 'big kids' all left home. Dearest Sister and I ended up without a TV, and having to practice the piano! No Gilligan’s Island, no Beverly Hillbillies, no Lost In Space, no Superman. Just the old upright piano, and practice! Practice! PRACTICE!! It’s surprising we are even close to normal.

We did have access to my great aunt and uncle’s TV out on the farm. They recieved one channel when the weather was fair, and no one was using the electric mixer in the kitchen and/or vacuuming. It was on this TV that we watched Bonanza, Wonderful World of Disney, and Saturday Night at the Movies. I saw my first science fiction movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still, on that TV, which primed me, I am sure, for my love affair with Star Trek. (I remember memorizing the words ‘Klaatu barada nikto’, just in case I ever needed to turn off a menacing robot.) That TV is probably the only reason Dearest Sister and I are functioning members in today’s society.

But back to the piano lessons…and what I remember about, and from, them. I remember riding my bike with my books in the ‘saddle-bag’ baskets to lessons when the weather was nice. I remember sometimes wishing I was anywhere but on that piano bench. I remember practicing not so much, and not being entirely truthful about it. I remember piano recitals as being nauseating times of intense nervousness, and no one ever understanding the depth of the fear I was feeling. I would have rather done anything than played in recitals. I am not sure I learned anything from those times of serious torture.

I now know how to play the piano at an acceptable level for my own pleasure, and I do enjoy playing the piano…when no one is around to hear, mostly. I have been able to take my music reading and counting ability to handbell playing, which I enjoyed very much for over 20 years. I appreciate other’s natural musical talent and ability, and I appreciate other’s diligent practice and dedication to improving what nature gifted them. When I see someone able to sit down at a piano and just start playing, and if people can sing along to them playing…. that is just awesome. When they starting singing along to their own accompaniment (especially in key), I think that is just about the most awesome…awesomeness EVER.

I learned that I needed to give my own daughters the chance to appreciate music, and to be able to read and count notes, too. (But I didn't make them play in recitals if they didn't want, too.)