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Posted on September 2, 2010 by June

When I was around three or four, my mother showed me a cardboard imprinted with black and white piano keys representing the octaves of a piano. The details of this teaching device are more than a little fuzzy, but the important thing about it, of course, was that it worked! It really taught me the names of the keys and made it possible for my mother to teach me the songs in “Thompson’s Book for Beginners”.

The really amazing thing about all this is that my mother, herself, had never had any piano lessons. And it wasn’t until I was an adult that I appreciated her accomplishment. No one ever commented that this was kind of remarkable. My loving mom had gone to a store, purchased a model of the keys along with the Thompson’s Book, and taught her little girl to play the beginning pieces after she herself had studied them. As I said, my memory of all this is pretty hazy, but I do remember that I loved my mom’s lessons and the times we spent together at the piano. She made the whole experience fun. And she taught me “Long, Long Ago”, which I can play from memory to this day!

Eventually, after moving into the apartment building, my mother arranged for me to take lessons from an “official” piano teacher and I progressed to a slightly more difficult piece known as “The March of the Wooden Soldiers.” It appeared that my piano career was really taking off when my music teacher announced that she was giving a formal piano recital in a nearby auditorium. I did practice “March of the Wooden Soldiers”, but looking back, I don’t think I worked very hard at it. I hadn’t an inkling of what it would be like to perform a piano piece from memory, especially in such an intimidating setting.

I dimly remember sitting at the piano, playing the beginning of “Wooden Soldiers”, and for the first time in my life, having my mind go blank! Ouch! When I think of the embarrassment, I still can fee the heat in my cheeks! Having attended a zillion recitals over the years, I know this is not all that unusual. At the time, of course, it seemed like the end of the world. It wasn’t the end of the world, but by mutual agreement it marked a long pause in my piano studies!