My Piano-Playing Experience
Making Music: Highnotes
I had always wanted to learn to play the piano, so when I was offered the chance to undertake an intensive session of lessons during the last summer recess as part of the BBC series “Play it Again”, I leapt at the chance. The idea behind the programme was to challenge six well-known people to take up an instrument of their choice, usually starting from scratch. The programme makers were keen to inspire people to begin to learn an instrument, or to go back to an instrument they had learnt as a child.
Like many people I had always liked the idea of playing a musical instrument, but had never got around to learning to play one. The idea of starting from scratch seemed extremely tough but I thought if I didn’t give it a go now, I never would. My first lessons made me realise what a task I had in front of me. The keyboard was completely alien and my fingers wouldn’t do what I was asking them to! However I was determined to make a real go of it, and also resolute that I didn’t want to make a fool of myself on national television.
Learning an instrument as an adult is an interesting experience for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is strange to be learning something completely new. As children we are accustomed to taking on new things, learning new skills and starting from scratch. By the time most people reach my age their lives are filled with activities they already know how to do, or at least already have the necessary skills. However challenging life may be, it does not normally involve learning a new skill, a whole discipline, from scratch. I also found the experience of coming to an instrument later in life interesting because I already had a love of listening to music, and a well-established repertoire of music I like to listen to. This adds to the frustration of learning an instrument from scratch because you are not able to jump straight in and play the music you love.
Whatever the difficulties that I encountered if asked to do it all again I would without a doubt. Learning to play the piano was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life and taught me as much about myself and my family as it did about the piano. I was thrilled to travel to Jamaica and learn about the musical history of my family, it was like discovering a piece of my life that I never knew existed. Learning the piano made me feel part of that history.
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