Did you have to learn piano as a kid? Are you glad?

[Argus Skyhawk]

I once read an advice columnist (Probably Ann Landers, though I'm not certain) who said she heard from many people who were forced to take piano lessons as children... and every one was glad as an adult that they had learned to play the instrument, even if they hated trying to learn it when they were kids. No adult ever said, "I wish my parents hadn't forced me to learn the piano."

My own experience does not contradict this. I had piano lessons as a kid. I usually thought it was boring to practice, and I usually would have rather been doing something else. Now, I'm glad my parents made me learn. I'm not a great pianist by any stretch of the imagination, but if a song is not too difficult I can learn to play it after awhile. I enjoy being able to sit at the piano and make simple music come out of it by tapping the keys. It's nice if someone needs me to play something at church or if my family is singing Christmas carols.

I wanted to know whether other TrekBBS visitors have experiences that support what I read in the column. As a kid, were you required to learn to play the piano or some other musical instrument? Was it against your will? Are you glad you had the lessons, or do you wish you didn't have to go through that?

 

[Kestra]

I was made to play the violin and I hated it. I played the piano on my own until my parents finally realized I enjoyed that more and let me switch. I'm definitely grateful that I learned how to read music.

 

[Marie1]

I was made to play the violin and I hated it. I played the piano on my own until my parents finally realized I enjoyed that more and let me switch. I'm definitely grateful that I learned how to read music.

I wanted to learn, but my parents made me take piano.

Frankly, even though I had to stop because one of my parents is nuts, I really don't regret it and came to enjoy it.

I was made to learn piano because my parents thought it'd make me improve at math. Hah!! But I learned to really like it, and it helps if you have the music notes with your music lines so you can sing properly!

But no- found it a wonderful de-stresser and once I learned to play pieces I liked, it was fun!

 

[Canadave]

I never had to take piano. But I did enjoy taking music in high school.

 

[6079SmithW]

I was forced to have piano lessons as a child and guitar lessons as a teen. While I liked guitar more I really hated music lessons and practice. I eventually quit guitar too. I can't play either of these instruments today.

I really despised most of those lessons and wish I didn't have to go through with them. My dad learned both as a child and still plays piano and guitar regularly and I guess he wanted me to do the same. I kind of wish that I'd stuck with guitar as the contemporary music was fun but I just couldn't afford the time to practice anymore. I had to concentrate on my school work.

I also could never "feel" the music so to say. I always approached it very mechanically, having to focus on where to put my fingers for notes and chords and trying to remember which notes/chords were which.

 

[thestrangequark]

I had to force my parents into letting me take music lessons. When I was 5 I apparently (though I don't remember) told my mother I wanted to learn either the cello or the oboe. A mild case of childhood asthma nixed the oboe idea for me, so cello it was. My dad didn't like the idea of spending money for me to learn an instrument, so I had to be creative. When I was 8 I managed to convince the principal of my school to let me join the orchestra, which was a free program but only for 5th and 6th grade students. Since I couldn't afford a cello of my own to practice on at home, I went to school an hour and a half early every day to practice on the school cello -- it was actually the nicest one the school had because it was the only half size: the other students were big enough to start on 3/4 or full sized instruments, so the half size was rarely used.

My mother recognized my devotion and started taking house-cleaning jobs behind my dad's back to save money. By the time I was big enough for a full size cello my parents had divorced and my mom had saved enough to buy me one.

When I was in 7th grade I started skipping school. By the last trimester I had stopped going entirely, except for orchestra. I walked 3 miles to school carrying a cello that was bigger than me to go to orchestra, and then walked home. I skipped 8th grade and moved to a new school district for high school, there they had a better orchestra, and I also joined the West Seattle Community Orchestra. I played in the Seattle Youth Symphony, and made it to principal cellist, and I used my knowledge of music to teach myself the violin, mandolin, and currently, guitar.

My cello is in my closet now, and I've played it only a handful of times in the past ten years. I was so passionate about it in my youth, but I've filled my life with other things these days. I'm happy that I learned it, and it's the only thing I own that I cling to purely out of nostalgia. Maybe someday I'll return to it.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I actually wanted to learn piano or violin as a child but my parents could afford neither. In middle school I was able to borrow a neighbor's old clarinet and play that in music classes at school, but it wasn't my instrument of choice. My grandma bought me a keyboard around then as well, and I took a few free community lessons, but I stopped. It was like a mutual break-up where you both part ways knowing that it would have been great if it had worked out, but it just wasn't happening. I actually got very good at playing with one hand, but I could not play the piano with both hands doing separate things. It was just like, no, this isn't going to work.

I had to give back the clarinet about a year later, so I haven't played any instruments since then. I have never been very musically inclined, but I did enjoy it from a technical standpoint of hitting the correct notes at the correct time.

If I have a child, I would want to introduce them to music, but I would not force them to continue lessons if it became clear that they were not musically inclined.

 

[BlobVanDam]

I wish my parents did let me take lessons for piano as a kid. I love messing around on my keyboard, but I still can't sight read at all, and I'm not very good at playing anything complex.

 

[Kirby]

I had such an unfortunate musical experience growing up. Neither of my parents like music so we never had a piano, or barely even a stereo. I had to beg them to let me be in the school band when I was in 4th grade. Of course when we went to the meeting at the school I really, really wanted to play trumpet, but there were already too many trumpet players so I was stuck with the trumbone. I did it for a few years, but I never really warmed up to it.

I've been playing the guitar off and on, but now my son wants a guitar for his 9th birthday, so we're going to buy one for him later this month and get him into lessons this summer. I figure this will be a good chance for me to get serious about it as well.

 

[edisraf]

Yes, I had to learn. Yes, I hated it and yes, I am glad that I did.

Just being able to sit down after dinner and play for a half hour is very relaxing.

It was also useful for learning to play other instruments, since it was where I learned to read music.

And I now write music, and it is helpful there too.

Even though, by the way, I am still not a very good player.

raf

Charlie Brown (Peanuts Cartoon) asks Schroeder "How are you able to play such complicated pieces on your toy piano when the black keys are just painted on"

Schroeder: I practice a lot.

 

[Captain_Nick]

When I was 5 I apparently (though I don't remember) told my mother I wanted to learn either the cello or the oboe.

At five you knew what cellos and oboes were?

 

[RoJoHen]

I wish I had learned to play the piano.

 

[thestrangequark]

When I was 5 I apparently (though I don't remember) told my mother I wanted to learn either the cello or the oboe.

At five you knew what cellos and oboes were?

It's not really that odd, I think. My uncle was a composer, and he used to take me to the symphony. He'd probably taken me by the time I was 5. I used to have Peter and the Wolf on cassette with an accompanying picture book (the kind you listen to and turn the page on the tone). I loved that story, and I'm sure that's behind wanting to play the oboe -- if I recall correctly the oboe was the duck -- it's been years, though!

 

[Holdfast]

My parents made me take piano lessons.

I never bothered to practice regularly despite their encouragement; it was just so irredeemably boring. Unsuprisingly I never learnt to play with any skill whatsoever and my parents got bored of spending money on lessons a couple of years later.

Do I regret not practising? No, not really. I mean, I'd love to play well; it looks pretty cool to just walk into a room with a piano and play a quick tune. But I get incredibly bored learning repetitive motor skill activities like this. Same applied to learning to driving, but the difference there was I was very motivated to do that. I never felt any particularly elevated affinity to music, so there was never a similar motivation to learn to play an instrument.

One day though, I'll learn to play a single moderately complex tune perfectly. Shouldn't take long, and will garner me the ability to walk into that hypothetical aforementioned room and just show off and play. If anyone asks for a different tune, that's when it's time to flash a slightly sheepish grin and explain the truth. It will be an adequately endearing quirk, I think.

 

[barnaclelapse]

I kinda wish someone had signed me up for a few lessons. Instead the only thing I learned to play in my childhood was the recorder. I could play "Hot Cross Buns", and that was just about it.

 

[Jadzia]

My parents wanted me too learn piano because I (like several others in my family) have inherited my great grandmother's musical ear. At one point they were even thinking of buying a piano for me, until I dissuaded them.

Part of their reasoning is that I found the music lessons at school to be effortless, and my music teacher suggested time and again that I should learn an instrument, saying that I had absolute pitch and innate talent and that I was wasting that talent. She contacted my parents and told them as much.

I had seen others who learned instruments, losing their dinner hours and an hour after school to sit in the music room in one-on-one lessons practicing scales. I always felt that was stuffy, and I liked my freedom.

 

[backstept]

I didn't take piano lessons but my parents got my brother and I the old Miracle Piano Teaching System on the computer in the 90s
it was fun but we never really learned anything

 

[marillion]

My parents bought a piano when I was about 8.. I took lessons for about 3 years. Hated it and never could get my left handedness/hand-eye coordination to balance out. My parents, convinced I wasn't trying hard enough, cancelled the lessons and then blamed me for their expendature on such an expensive item, even though I they never asked if I had wanted to learn in the first place. Same thing happened with guitar and trumpet lessons... I liked playing guitar, but when my teacher retired, my parents felt I wasn't making enough progress and lessons were dropped..

So now I can play a little piano, a little guitar and a little trumpet.. sigh...

 

[Eyes]

I learned to play piano for a bit, but eventually, that dropped away, and I began to learn clarinet, which appealed to me more, until I dropped that as well for my exams. The lessons weren't exactly stimulating, and I wasn't the easiest of pupils, but I think I learned enough. The exams... learning scales was terrible.

I'm now moderately skilled on both, but with the piano, I can't coordinate my hands to play the harmony, but I can play a tune fine enough, just one hand though. However, with the clarinet, as long as I have the music in front of me, I can play it reasonably well, which is neat enough.

 

[M'Sharak]

I was never forced to learn piano as a child, but I did take lessons for a couple of years and later moved on to other instruments, playing on and off for the next 30 years or so. Never did really learn to like practicing, but I at least got to the point where I'd practice enough to ensure that I wouldn't embarrass myself too badly.

When I was 5 I apparently (though I don't remember) told my mother I wanted to learn either the cello or the oboe.

At five you knew what cellos and oboes were?

Doesn't everyone?