One of my status updates on Facebook this week read ‘I’m signed up for piano lessons!’
Indeed. I am very excited and took my first lesson this week. This is a big deal for me, as someone in their 40s, to learn to play a musical instrument. I’ve wanted to play the piano since I was a child at our cousin’s house, banging on the keys of an upright. I imagined myself in a flowing gown with glittery shoes playing on a stage. Of course the reality was my mom yelling across the room for me to stop and go do something else, preferably outside.
I realize it will not be as easy to learn as it is for a child as repetition and memorization are key. However, I do have an ear for music, just no voice. Ask anyone in my family, and those who sit near me at church. My father used to howl when I would sing aloud with headphones.
The thought of learning to play my favorite hymns, Christmas carols and my ultimate goal of playing “Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov spurs me forward. I can see the bumblebee when I listen and watch it come toward me with evil intent. Luckily, I’ve conquered the fear of bumblebees, although it plagued me until I was in my early twenties. This fear comes from being stung twice in the jugular while picking blackberries when I was six years old.
A bumblebee is not your friend. Don’t try to take one home.
As a homeschool parent, one of my mantras is to never stop learning. This is especially important to teach children who can, it seems, look for any opportunity to stop and put their brains on pause. I believe this is just as true for adults. I’ve figured this out about myself. If I’m not challenged I become bored and stagnate.
Current piano classes teach me to remember my alphabet and correspond them to my fingers, learn which notes have what number of beats and to sit up straight while playing. I’m learning a new vocabulary.
Never stop learning. As my father-in-law used to say, (and it became our homeschool motto), ‘Get an education. You don’t want to be stupid all your life.’
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: A bumblebee and a piano