THE PIANO RECITAL

THE PIANO RECITAL

 

At the age of seven, my folks decided I needed to learn to play an instrument.  We had a piano as my dad was learning to play…he taught himself cause he could just do things like that…so I decided to try piano.  I took lessons for several months and actually kind of like it, until I learned I was going to play in my first recital.

My first recital was going to be broadcast on the radio, 1580 AM or KFNO in Las Angeles.  I was to perform the “Teaching Little Fingers To Play” classic, “From a Wigwam.” (This tune would be totally politically incorrect today.)

Anyway.

“From a Wigwam” was the most difficult song in book one of TLFTP, it involved using both hands…at the same time! I panicked.  The thought of playing on the radio with maybe 18 people listening was too much.  I skipped two lessons which po’d my dad no end as he still had to pay.  I gave up the piano before the recital.

I never understood the recital thing, especially for young children.  For me it was too much and it caused me to quit piano before I found out if I would like playing or not.  I discovered later in life that I have no musical ability, but the recital thing still left a bad taste in my mouth.

Two weeks ago while visiting my North Carolina Crankettes I attended my first piano recital, some 60 years after I chickened out on my own recital.  Two Crankettes were slated to perform. 

The oldest Tommy, 10, played very well.  He stumbled a bit on the first piece, but he nailed the second.  Halley, 8, played beautifully; she did not miss a note, though she may have played as if the building was on fire.  She will learn to slow down.

The highlight of the evening came when the last student took the chair. 

The oldest Crank, my little girl, the mother of three of my grandchildren has been taking lessons.  Mary Beth played piano as a child.  She did not have lessons, we could not afford them.  Her piano was an old un-tunable hand-me-down.  At the age of six Mary Beth was playing by ear, and not just plink-plink plunk-plunk play by ear, she played with all ten fingers, chords and all.  Mary Beth would listen to a piece from a movie and then go replicate it on the piano.  When she first mastered “The Theme from Ice Castles” I was shocked.  It sounded just like it came from the television.

We did get MB lessons when she was older, but the teacher turned out to be a nut job.  She was paranoid and suffered severe anxiety attacks.  She was a good teacher, but she suddenly was taken away babbling incoherently…very sad.  That was the end of lessons, until just two years ago when Mary Beth decided she would learn to read music and play properly.

This recital was her second.  I was as nervous for her as I was when I chickened out on my own recital.  She played strictly classical…Debussy and someone else.

She was magnificent, oh she may have missed a note or two, but she soldiered on, no one noticed, and she played beautifully.  She played with touch and with feeling and I enjoyed every note as did the rest of the audience of parents and their children.

It took 60 years, but I made it through my first piano recital. 

It was worth the wait!