What does a freezer have to do with piano chords you ask?
I opened my freezer the other day and with dismay discovered it had died and the contents had melted. I signed on to Craigslist and a freezer the exact size I needed had just been listed. I called the lady selling it, went to see it and bought it. The lady selling the freezer was amazing! She was 90. A vibrant, healthy 90, and she was leaving her home of 48 years and downsizing to a condo (not a nursing home!). In her living room was a beautiful walnut-coloured spinet. I asked her if she played her piano and she said, “not anymore, I’m giving it to my daughter”. You see, she had taken up the piano when she retired in her 60s but became bored with it and gave it up. What she said next was the most interesting, “ I hear that now-a-days they teach you the songs you grew up with, songs that are familiar to you. In my day they didn't do that. I couldn't relate to the music I was learning”.
I opened my freezer the other day and with dismay discovered it had died and the contents had melted. I signed on to Craigslist and a freezer the exact size I needed had just been listed. I called the lady selling it, went to see it and bought it. The lady selling the freezer was amazing! She was 90. A vibrant, healthy 90, and she was leaving her home of 48 years and downsizing to a condo (not a nursing home!). In her living room was a beautiful walnut-coloured spinet. I asked her if she played her piano and she said, “not anymore, I’m giving it to my daughter”. You see, she had taken up the piano when she retired in her 60s but became bored with it and gave it up. What she said next was the most interesting, “ I hear that now-a-days they teach you the songs you grew up with, songs that are familiar to you. In my day they didn't do that. I couldn't relate to the music I was learning”.
What she wanted to be able to do was sit at her piano and
play familiar tunes and reminisce about happy times. Isn't this what playing piano chords is all
about? Yes! It doesn't take months to learn a song and
you can play it the way you remember it.
Did I tell her not to give away her piano and sign up for piano chording
lessons? Well her move was in motion and
she didn't need a monkey-wrench thrown into her life BUT I did mention that
once she was settled in her new home, if she still had her piano dream, to call
me and she could happily play the songs she wanted to in her new condo on a
digital piano with headphones. She gave
me a sparkly smile like she just may think about that.
Students – keep your enthusiasm for the piano alive by
including songs you LOVE, LOVE, LOVE into your daily playing. Teachers – it’s great to teach good technique
and expand a student’s knowledge of the piano literature, but are all your
students playing something that is dear
to them? If so, Bravo! If not… you know what to do!
By the way, the freezer lady's daughter had taken piano
lessons to grade 10 as a child but never played any more. She was reluctantly taking the piano. Hopefully she will contact a teacher in the
area she lives, discover piano chords and enter retirement playing the songs
she loves with her grandchildren singing along.
Very interesting and inspiring. And how serendipitous! Her comments relate to the book I'm using in my flute lessons. No modern music because of copyright issues, but folk songs, spirituals, classical pieces, songs from my grandparents' day and so on, all of which I learned in school or at the piano. Re-connecting with old favourites but in a wholly new way is wonderful!
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