Musical thoughts at night

I always loved music - and I always wanted to take piano lessons. Back when I was growing up taking piano lessons wasn't an option: the city I lived in was a small one, there was only one piano teacher, and our apartment was a 'gargantuan' 500 sq. ft. - where would you put a piano in it?! My mom went through the same troubles at her time - but she was more persevering than I: she actually got a violin and some lessons (not sure for how long, I'll have to ask her).

I remember I had a small wooden toy piano - with one scale, maybe one and a half - and the keys so small... but it was in perfect working condition! I used it almost every day to figure out my songs - I had an old book of songs and the music sheets were quite complicated, but I would play note by note until I figured them out. Until one day - when something broke inside the little piano, and I (the eternal handyman) took the screwdriver and tried to open it... only to hear the actual keyboard fell inside... that was the end of my piano. I can still see it, small and red - and I can see myself, sad as one can be (I was in grade 6, maybe).

Fast-forward to present days - I married my DH, a man with an amazing musical ear! I have a decent one, however - can't compare with his. Then DS came along - and as fate and his guardian angels will have it - he inherited his dad's musical ear. So what does a parent do with a child like this? She takes the offspring to music lessons. An angel must have been on our shoulder that day - we got the most amazing piano teacher you can ever had. Formally trained in old Eastern Europe she understand the perfect balance between technique, theory, and practice, and she can instill it in her students too (without the rigidity of the old methods)! At William's second lesson I asked her, fully expecting a laugh and a 'No', if they take adult students too. Her answer changed my life - she said 'of course!' and the week after I started taking lessons too - and we bought a digital piano, for proper practice (we had keyboards and guitars already).

It has been a long journey (over 4 years now) but one I love like nothing else. Learning to play piano helped me grow like I could never have imagined. I know it helps young people, I just somehow didn't believe it will make a difference in the life on an adult. It does! I am happy with the progress I'm making (even when I work on a small 2 pages piece for months in a row :)) and I absolutely love the mix of theory and technique our teacher is making me learn. And we both keep taking lessons with our dear Lana.

I am going to come back to this subject - it is one very dear to my heart, however I will leave you now with a piece I played in duet with my son 2 years ago, for the Christmas recital. It seems fit with the season :)

Enjoy!