My Music Lesson

Well, dear friends, today was scheduled to be my first formal lesson on my brand new musical keyboard. And it was. A lesson. Sort of...

I was at the music shop promptly at 11:00 -- my scheduled start time, with a collection of books and sheet music I was interested in learning how to play. To give my teacher an idea as to where I wanted to go with the lessons. You know...

Turns out he forgot I was coming. And he had a student pounding away at a piano in his studio until 11:15. When he opened the studio door and saw me sitting there, he apologized profusely for the oversight -- the student was having a make-up session and my appointment just hadn't made it to his calendar, so he thought he was filling an empty slot in his schedule. Yadda yadda.

But actually, I was quite pleased: "Aha! [I thought to myself] this guy must be a real musician if he'd foul up an appointment like this!" Doctors and dentists put their framed diplomas on the wall. Musicians forget things like gig appointments. Same same.

Anyway, he offered a free lesson for the day, and I told him I would have to leave by 11:30, but by all means let's see what we can get done in the 15 minutes we had available.

He left to find a keyboard exactly like mine, and was back and had it ready to go in two minutes flat. Then he looked expectantly at me and my satchel of music, as if to say, "So, what did you bring me?"

I fished out my laminated copy of "Fur Elise" and put it on the music stand. I almost had a chance to show him that I had been practicing the piece furiously for days in preparation for the lesson, but he stopped me just as my hands were reaching for the keys. He asked me what seemed to me to be a fully remarkable question: "If you're interested in music like this, then you're probably more interested in learning to play the piano rather than the keyboard. Is that right?" (So I'm thinking, "Is this some kind of Zen koan or something? A simple question without a simple, reasonable answer?")

I assured him I hadn't the slightest idea what he was talking about. So he said, "Well, if you were playing this piece as a piano, it would sound like this." And he played the song beautifully. Beethoven would have been delighted.

Then he said, "But if you were interested in playing the keyboard instead... hmmmm... let's try 'Has Anybody Seen My Gal?'" (Which is a fine old pop song from the 20's or 30's.) He then punched up a half-dozen buttons on the keyboard, explaining himself in presto tempo, and then started to play.

Good grief! In 10 seconds or so, he had created an entire small orchestra inside the keyboard which automatically backed up his melody line for the song absolutely perfectly. The orchestration had separate opening and closing sections and changed keys throughout the song to fit the song exactly.

It was scary.

I assured him that, although the keyboard support functions were certainly impressive, I was looking for the discipline of learning the piano -- and learning it the right way. Treble clef, bass clef, right hand, left hand, the whole nine yards. I then blurted out what might be my most important motivation for learning the piano -- an idea that had never occurred to me: my mother (who passed away several years ago) played and taught piano for decades, and none of the five of her children ever took up the golden opportunity to learn to play the piano the right way. Formal. Disciplined. The kind of background you can grow into a full mastery of the instrument. I think the fact that none of us took her up on this was a major disappointment to her.

But I digress. I wanted the piano.

My teacher looked at me as if I had grown a second head. Why would anyone pass up all the musical firepower that the keyboard offered for learning piano? The basic techniques of learning and playing probably hadn't changed in centuries? (If that was his unasked question, he actully got his own answer, whether he knew it or not.)

Anyway, so far the lesson had been informative and useful. My teach then asked me if I could find Middle C. Which I got first try. Plunk! He then showed me the basic technique for hand position: curled fingers, thumb over Middle C.

Then (I thought this was cool), he asked me to find A-flat. It took a few seconds to for me to make sure, and then I plunked the right note. So my first piano lesson was comprised of playing two notes.

And from this (and answers to several questions he asked), he verbally summarized almost exactly what my goals were for taking lessons. I think he'll do just fine as a teacher.

He had me purchase his favorite "My First Piano Book" (not its real name, but might as well be) theory/technique/song book and a manuscript book for taking notes. He then assigned me the first 24 pages in the book -- which shouldn't be that hard to master by next week.

So I'm off and running. And I think my mom would be pleased.