Me and my piano.

Just this week, out of the blue, I told a friend who came to the studio, that I am totally in love with my piano. I was surprised with myself for saying so, but it felt so true!

So here is how this love story began.

When I turned 60, I was looking for a new challenge.  Something to keep my brain “active”, was the main purpose.

First and foremost, I would not do something “academic”. I was not prepared to study and memorize, to do exercises at home, and finally, most dreaded of all, to take a final test at the end of the year.I just can’t, at this age, face “being graded”. As exotic as Japanese sounds, and as fancy as it would be, to be able to order sushi in the “real language”, it was not an option. 

How about a sport? In my heyday, I was a good swimmer, horse riding was once a professional career option and I learned to solo sail my secondhand Laser on my own. But quite a few broken bones over the years and a final heavy bike fall stopped me in my tracks. I was just recovering from a broken wrist and finger, from being clumsy while carrying a crate, when this whole idea came up.

A new craft! That sparked a definite interest. But what craft comes with not a lot of tools and even less mess? In other words: what craft does not require half an aisle of a DIY store to be crammed in my already very full home studio? Woodwork, bookbinding, glass fusing, even just making small items, had to be dismissed as soon as the idea came up. Too much tools and materials, too much storage, too much counterspace.  In short, totally unpractical and also far too time consuming. After all, I am a ceramist and I do not need another full time occupation. ;-)

Next came the idea of a music instrument. Now that would be a challenge for sure! Sight reading, the obvious big hurdle, would be a proper brain challenge. “Handling” an instrument is for sure a craft! And you always hear that “daily practice of 15 minutes” is all it needs to learn an instrument. Perfect! So now, how do you decide which instrument?

The practical side of a violin or a saxophone is obvious. The floorspace it requires is minimal: me and a music stand. And I can take it anywhere and everywhere.

Then I was thinking of how “easy” it would be to learn a particular instrument? A recorder and its larger alto versions have a limited range of notes. A guitar is far more complicated.

Not really sure this is correct, but this is how I thought and think about it. 

Next is of course, the sound! This might sound silly, but I took up the flute at age 30, and, after one year just could not stand the sound of it anymore. Donating it to an African music charity was a great opportunity to get rid of it, totally guilt free, and start again… only we were now 30 years later and nothing had happened in between.

From all the arguments above, I learned that none of them are valid for choosing an instrument. None of these really matter.

Nor does the price. Any instrument can be hired or leased or bought second hand.

And finding a teacher for an instrument, even as unusual as the balalaika, when you live in Brussels, is not an issue either. More recently, with Covid, now that we all learned to Zoom, I even have the option of a teacher in South Africa.

So, it all came down to… love!

What instrument do I love to hear?

What would I love to be able to play?

What would I love to share with others?

What instrument would I love to get to know?

In other words: what instrument really moved me?

The Piano!

In the future I might tell you about the choices of the actual piano (some more love stories to come!), learning methods (15 minutes enough or not enough?) and choices of teachers. I will most certainly tell you about the challenges and what I have learned on a very personal basis.

There are some parallels to making ceramics but there are also big differences. The piano is indeed, a “large” instrument to take on.

Not only in size. The learning curve is steep and long.

Today, nearly 3 years into the learning process I am “on track” as my teacher says, but I would not dare play for you. Not yet.  But, my dear friends, if you ask me how my piano learning is coming along, I will answer: Loving it! I am totally in love with my piano!