Tuesday, April 19, 2016

A to Z April Challenge: P is for Piano Lessons

Genealogists and family historians get a lot of satisfaction from chasing their ancestors’ stories. Finding a diary, a message on a postcard, or a photo with a name attached is like the sun coming out after a storm. One day we will be somebody’s ancestor. We need to leave our descendants a little bit of sunshine too. So here is my story told alphabetically, not chronologically: Growing Up in Cradock.

is for piano lessons.

We are nothing like the Osmond Family by any means, but music has always been viewed as an important component of child-rearing in my family. Even during the Depression my mother was given lessons in piano and tap, so it went without saying that her children would get piano lessons too. There was a number of music teachers offering lessons in their homes in Cradock. On recommendations from her teacher friends, Momma arranged for me to take lessons with Mrs. Anne Shuler. Her home was about a 15-minute walk from my house.

Schaum theory books
Mrs. Shuler had a beautiful baby grand piano in her living room where she gave lessons. Upon arrival, I would sit on the sofa and wait as another student finished. Mrs. Shuler valued music theory and made sure every student got a good dose of it. If my wait was going to be long, she instructed me to move ahead in my Schaum book. I had a love-hate relationship with the series of music theory books. On the one hand, I liked the challenge of answering the questions, especially when they felt puzzle-like; on the other hand, I was discouraged by the pressure to remember what I supposedly had learned.

My book of scales written by Mrs. Shuler
While I recognized the importance of practicing scales, they were not my favorite thing. Mrs. Shuler wrote out the major and minor scales, and cadence chords in a special music notebook. She even gave me the finger numbering.

Mrs. Shuler also valued technique. If my hands were not in the right position while playing, she would slide her hand under mine to lift them up. She also expected a graceful lifting of the hands and placing them in the lap as the last note evaporated.


Wendy Slade December 1964 http://jollettetc.blogspot.com
Wendy in December 1964
Obviously I was just sitting at the piano. There is NO music
AND my hand position shows I was not playing. 

Every week Mrs. Shuler wrote my assignment in a notebook: which scales to practice, how many music theory pages to complete, and what music to practice including whether sections were to be memorized. If I had a good lesson, I got a gold star. Gold stars were important to me, but they did not come easily. Of course, Mrs. Shuler might have been more generous had I actually practiced like I was supposed to. Students had to EARN those stars.

It’s not like Mrs. Shuler was the Piano Nazi impossible to please. No, she was “in tune” with her students (har har) and always tried to select music they would enjoy. When I was going through that moody teenage stage, I discovered the dark tunes of Frederic Chopin. Mrs. Shuler made sure I got to play some of it as well as other classical music by composers like Felix Mendelssohn. There were many sonatas and sonatinas in my musical past.

I really enjoyed when Mrs. Shuler and I played duets. Somehow it made me feel like a better musician than I really was.

Wendy and Mary Jollette
Were we playing "Heart and Soul" or "Chopsticks"?

What sent me over the edge though was the yearly recital. Mrs. Shuler always planned a lovely evening in her home with students playing for the parents a special piece they had been working on. Even when I was prepared, I hated it. Nothing made me as nervous as performing for an audience, not an oral book report, not a presentation of a project, not delivering a speech for the student body, not even reciting a poem from memory for English class. Part of the problem was that I was years behind some of my friends because I started lessons later than they did. While they were playing complex “important” pieces by well-known composers, I was playing what I considered “baby music.” It was embarrassing. Of course, it was partly my own fault for not being a more dedicated student who could have progressed more quickly had I practiced. When I turned 16, I put my foot down and refused to play in any more recitals.

I just wanted to be able to play music. I didn’t really want to KNOW anything. Poor Mrs. Shuler. Probably every music teacher has had their fair share of difficult students, and I was certainly one of them. I just hope I wasn’t the worst because she was the best.

John and Anne Shuler
photo courtesy of their daughter Jan

For more pontificating and other pieces in print, pop over to the A to Z April Challenge.

© 2016, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved

20 comments:

  1. I used to love doing scales - seeing how fast I could get my fingers to whizz up and down the keys. I wasn't so good at the tap lessons. My feet just wouldn't move - I guess my fingers drained all of their power. But I was good at arm and hand movement, which detracted from the poor footwork :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When I was determined to get that gold star, I did those scales faithfully. I really liked playing the cadence chords more.

      Delete
  2. Mrs. Shuler sounds like Mrs. Curran :)
    I remember practicing three times a day - 20 minutes each time. Always scales first, then the lesson, and then I could play "fun" music.

    Molly @MyCozyBookNook
    My Cozy Book Nook
    Revising Life after 50

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That sounds like a smart schedule that would ease the "pain" of practicing.

      Delete
  3. She sounded like a great teacher! I think it is heard to be a teacher of any type of instrument, especially if the child doesn't want to play the instrument and is "forced" to by the parent (I'm not saying this was the case for you, just in experience with hubby teaching guitar). The key, as you know, is practice. The one thing absolutely 95% of people are not fond of doing, and hubby, playing for over 50 years, still knows the importance of practicing. He doesn't do scales, but he does finger exercises with the strings.

    A wonderful talent to play the piano. Do you still do to this date?

    betty

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have the piano I grew up on, but I do not play. I play hand bells at church though, so I keep up with sight-reading and counting that way.

      Delete
  4. I guess I'm the world's worst musician and cannot play a piano. A wonderful skill to have.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As they say, "use it or lose it" and I'm afraid it's about lost!

      Delete
  5. My grandmother played piano and she gave us her piano when my parents built our house. There wasn't much in our town but there was a music teacher, Mrs Rozon. My older brother took accordion lessons but my Mom, my little brother and I all took Conservatory piano lessons. We often played a piece for 6 hands on the same piano during the year end recital. I quit when I was about 15 and started picking out my favourite tunes on the piano and writing the notes in a book. I also played the ukelele - mostly in the car on family road trips.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My mother played by ear, so it was discouraging to me that she should listen to a song on the radio and just play it. Why didn't I get that gene?

      Delete
  6. What a blessing to have had piano lessons, though maybe sometimes it didn't seem like such a blessing. I never had the opportunity for any music lessons of this sort. Now, I can't hold onto a thought long enough to learn how to do it. We have a beautiful antique upright piano (c. 1895, mahogany) that is just begging for someone to play it. I would love to.

    My husband had piano lessons, but he did not take his lessons seriously. He said the lessons were more something that he endured rather than appreciated. He had a different attitude completely when it came to playing the tuba. He took it very seriously, trying to be the best tuba player that he could be.

    Thanks for another interesting post! Have a blessed day. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tuba! I guess there wasn't a lot of competition for being good at the tuba unlike the piano which is so common. When I was in New Orleans, I went to a jazz club where there was a duo playing tuba and trombone. Surprisingly pleasant combination!

      Delete
  7. I took piano lessons from two teachers. Neither was as good a teacher as the one you had. I learned to play but stopped when I was in Junior high school. I didn't like the teacher. My mother could play beautiful. I remember my paternal grandmother telling me I should continue my lessons because I could play at parties. I think that time had passed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was at the airport in Charlotte, NC, and there was a young man (I'd guess late high school age) playing the piano as travelers were coming and going. I wonder if he wondered if anyone was listening, but I found it lovely that the airport provided this kind of entertainment for those of us on a layover. See, you could have been playing at the airport.

      Delete
  8. Another spot on recollection!
    Cool seeing the scales mom wrote out...
    I could write a book about my very patient piano teacher and my 10 years of lessons with him!
    And trying to practice when your mom is a piano teacher and listening to EV.'RY.WRONG.NOTE. Ugh!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not sure why I saved that book of scales. I don't have my old music anymore.

      Delete
  9. I never took piano but I made sure our kids did, but their commitment level sure varied. My mother played though and I use to love to listen to her play on my Grandma's old piano when we visited. (I played clarinet)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My girls took piano until they joined the orchestra in middle school. As long as they were in music, I was satisfied. You and Barry can get together and entertain us with Dueling Clarinets.

      Delete
  10. I took piano lessons, too. I can't remember the teacher's name but I remember exactly what her house looked like and where it was. She even held our recitals in her home - the parents filled her living room while each one of us came out to play a few songs. I remember it was a very long day.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I took lessons for a year or two with the nuns...can't say it was fun except when I used to play on the neighbour's piano with my friend.

    ReplyDelete