by Mark McKinney
My older sister took piano lessons as a kid, and she seemed to enjoy it. When I reached a certain age in elementary school (I don’t remember if it was 2nd or 3rd grade, but it was around that time) my mom signed me up for piano lessons as well. I remember it very well – I enjoyed playing the piano and hearing music that I was creating with my own hands, but the lessons themselves …?
My memory tells me that I had to muster a fair amount of endurance to get through it. The long drive to the teacher’s house, walking down to her basement where the piano studio was located, hearing her high, piercing voice sing along with the notes, using her fingers to poke the underside of my palms as I played if my hands were not properly arched for the proper technique of striking the keys. And then those “recitals” – preparing to play in front of a judge and audience and needing to perform at my best – ugh. I wonder if that’s where I developed my distaste for being in front of a crowd?
But did I really suffer? Was it really so awful, and did it have a lasting effect on me? I have years of distance from that time to soften the memory, but I still don’t think it was bad, but rather very good. Learning the piano first (I later picked up the saxophone) was extremely helpful in learning about scales and chords, since you can play many notes at once on a piano versus one note at a time on a saxophone. My interest in music was stimulated, and I certainly was exposed to different types of music, considering beginning piano lessons usually involve some exposure to Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, and not Top 40 or hard rock (although that can come later).
Now as a parent with two young kids, I want to share my love of music with them, and want to give them an opportunity to make music (as opposed to just listening to music). They’ve seen my saxophone, but can’t yet figure out how to put air into it in a way that actually makes sounds. We were listening to some jazz music the other day with a fantastic pianist, and I remarked “I sure wish we had a piano,” but lamented soon after that we didn’t have the money or the space in our house for one. A few weeks later, with some birthday gift cash in my pocket and not knowing what to do with it, I got an idea: I can’t afford a piano, but maybe I can get a small synthesizer! I know the purists out there will groan, and believe me, I’d much rather have the real thing. But I found a “Portable Grand Piano” synthesizer which really, truly, does sound like a piano, and is a lot of fun to play.
Part of my rationale for buying it was the hope that it will spark the curiosity in my kids to try it, to play with it, to be able to make a wealth of sounds (there are over 400 other sounds one can set other than the grand piano) and develop an interest in making music. I’m hoping it will seem more like something fun to do and less like an imposing piano, on an imposing stage, waiting to be played in front of a recital judge. And I promise not to sing along in falsetto or slap any hands … just let ‘em play and discover the act of making music.
Mark McKinney is the director of www.artsology.com, a web site which aims to teach kids about the arts (visual art, music, literature and dance) through fun games and activities. Artsology hopes that enjoyment of these games will act as a springboard to further investigation of the arts and the cultural figures and ideas contained within the site.
My older sister took piano lessons as a kid, and she seemed to enjoy it. When I reached a certain age in elementary school (I don’t remember if it was 2nd or 3rd grade, but it was around that time) my mom signed me up for piano lessons as well. I remember it very well – I enjoyed playing the piano and hearing music that I was creating with my own hands, but the lessons themselves …?
My memory tells me that I had to muster a fair amount of endurance to get through it. The long drive to the teacher’s house, walking down to her basement where the piano studio was located, hearing her high, piercing voice sing along with the notes, using her fingers to poke the underside of my palms as I played if my hands were not properly arched for the proper technique of striking the keys. And then those “recitals” – preparing to play in front of a judge and audience and needing to perform at my best – ugh. I wonder if that’s where I developed my distaste for being in front of a crowd?
But did I really suffer? Was it really so awful, and did it have a lasting effect on me? I have years of distance from that time to soften the memory, but I still don’t think it was bad, but rather very good. Learning the piano first (I later picked up the saxophone) was extremely helpful in learning about scales and chords, since you can play many notes at once on a piano versus one note at a time on a saxophone. My interest in music was stimulated, and I certainly was exposed to different types of music, considering beginning piano lessons usually involve some exposure to Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, and not Top 40 or hard rock (although that can come later).
Now as a parent with two young kids, I want to share my love of music with them, and want to give them an opportunity to make music (as opposed to just listening to music). They’ve seen my saxophone, but can’t yet figure out how to put air into it in a way that actually makes sounds. We were listening to some jazz music the other day with a fantastic pianist, and I remarked “I sure wish we had a piano,” but lamented soon after that we didn’t have the money or the space in our house for one. A few weeks later, with some birthday gift cash in my pocket and not knowing what to do with it, I got an idea: I can’t afford a piano, but maybe I can get a small synthesizer! I know the purists out there will groan, and believe me, I’d much rather have the real thing. But I found a “Portable Grand Piano” synthesizer which really, truly, does sound like a piano, and is a lot of fun to play.
Part of my rationale for buying it was the hope that it will spark the curiosity in my kids to try it, to play with it, to be able to make a wealth of sounds (there are over 400 other sounds one can set other than the grand piano) and develop an interest in making music. I’m hoping it will seem more like something fun to do and less like an imposing piano, on an imposing stage, waiting to be played in front of a recital judge. And I promise not to sing along in falsetto or slap any hands … just let ‘em play and discover the act of making music.
Mark McKinney is the director of www.artsology.com, a web site which aims to teach kids about the arts (visual art, music, literature and dance) through fun games and activities. Artsology hopes that enjoyment of these games will act as a springboard to further investigation of the arts and the cultural figures and ideas contained within the site.
