by Linda Silva
I see all kinds of piano students. Students who start when they’re young, old, and in the middle. Students who pick up reading music right away, and those who struggle to decipher one note from another. Those who have a knack for making even the simplest of pieces beautiful, and those who must be taught to pay attention to the arc and dynamics of a phrase. Some are intrigued with learning music right away, some resist it, and some start to like it once they can play. As Forrest Gump famously said about life and boxes of chocolate: You never know what you’re going to get.
Which is why I applaud parents who put their children in lessons to see what happens. It’s a commitment of time and effort and money for an uncertain result. There are many things that vie for a family’s attention: sports, school, sports, scouting, sports, religious school, sports. Finding the time and will to enforce a practice routine can be burdensome and is not always successful. Recitals inevitably fall on winter carnival, cheerleading camp, or playoff softball days and a choice must be made. Those things can mightily test a family’s dynamic.
But still a music family presses on. And here’s what sometimes comes of it: A middle-school student finds they’re not enjoying sports like they used to but that they’re the only one of their friends who can play the theme from Star Wars. An eight-year-old, having plodded sullenly through Book One for almost two years, looks up at the lines and spaces of the staff one day and realizes suddenly that they make sense; they then whizz through Book Two in no time at all. A high schooler gains enough skill to play at church or accompany a school musical. A student with autism shines for their peers at a school’s talent show.
And sure, in some instances things don’t conspire for success and a student stops lessons. But they may come back to it one day, or they may put their children in music, or they may enjoy a concert subscription to the LA Phil.
But you just don’t know until you try, so kudos for trying. And maybe, just maybe, it might turn out something like this: The Boy and the Piano.