A Late Start is Better than No Start
C, Sharpened F, A, C, Flattened B, repeat.
Don’t laugh. I’m still new at this. I know it’s really F sharp and B flat and so-on, but I’m still working on reading music. I’ve only been playing piano for a little while now. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother learning an instrument at 17. I mean, I’m way older than most people when they start playing. I’m too old to learn a new skill and be any good, right?
It’s this kind of mindset that often keeps us from doing stuff. So maybe I won’t ever be a concert pianist, which probably wouldn’t have happened anyway.
When I was about 10, I got a kids’ guitar and video lessons. I stuck with it a while, but couldn’t stand the sound of the cheap kid sized instrument, so I gradually stopped playing.
When I was about 14, we got my mom’s old piano from my granddad’s house, and she started teaching us how to play. But then, we moved and were without the piano for a few months, so I never picked it back up.
Recently, I decided to pick up one of these past interests again. I started with guitar, and got a good ways. My dad taught me a few chords, and I even got my calluses fairly well established. But my fingers still hurt whenever I tried to learn a new chord. So I started piano. I figured something out. Piano keys are nice and smooth. I’m more than half way through the book now, I’m beginning to read music, I’m learning how to work the pedals, and I’m loving it!
Summer is upon us, that means: festivals, concerts, summer jobs, vacations, pools, summer camp, and best of all, no school! With all this going on, I still have a challenge for you. If you don’t play an instrument, learn one. If you do, try and see how much better you can get before school begins again.
Along with this challenge, I have a few tips as well:
- Get an adult course. Don’t try learning piano with the kid’s book. The adult book starts very quickly with real (albeit simple) songs. When offered “Oscar the Octopus” or a “bit” from Brahms’s symphony #1, which would you pick? See what I mean? While the children’s course has its place (which I’ll explain in my next point), I much prefer the adult course.
- Take the time to learn to read music. This has been really hard for me. Sometimes the notes seem to jump from a space to a line when my mom comes over to help me figure out why the song sounds weird. No kidding. That was TOTALLY an “E” just three seconds ago. You know how it is. You’re looking for something, Mom tells you where it is, you can’t find it, Mom comes and POOF, there it is. It’s the same with notes. Something that has helped me is going back to the kid’s book. It explains reading music really well, whereas in the adult book it seems like they assume you already can read music.
- Keep track of hashing and slanting. Now I’m sure you’re thinking, “Annie, what in the world do you mean by ‘hashing and slanting’?” Take a look at the shapes of the “sharp” and “flat” symbols. See? Sharp is just “#”. #hashtag anyone? And flat “♭”? To me, it looks for all the world like an italic lower case “B”. “♭” “b” See the similarity? “Accidentals” are easy to miss, but boy, can they make a difference.
- Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly, at first. You can’t start out playing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. I tried this right after I started playing. I thought: “Hey, it’s in the book not too far ahead, and I already know it.” So I tried. I got through the “dun dun dun DUUUUN” but couldn’t make it any further. It’s taken a while—years--since that first try, with over a year of not playing at all, but I’m almost there (if I could just figure out this song I’m on now I’d be there!). You can’t start out good. If it’s worth being good at, it’s worth the badness at the beginning.
I’m not really sure why I decided to start playing in the first place, let alone picking it back up years later. Maybe it was because my mom was teaching everyone anyway, so why not. Maybe it was so that I would have something to say when people asked the dreaded “get to know you” question, “Do you play any instruments?” Whatever the reason, I’m so glad I did! Not only do I now have something to say when people ask about my musical skills, it’s been a real confidence boost, and it gives me something to do that’s not electronic (growing harder and harder to find).
Don’t let your age get in the way of your learning.
Annie Hall, Teen Blogger