I have always been in-
trigued by the im=
portant role random chance plays in one's life. One such nice chance event that happened in my life was that when I was 7 my parents had bought their first home, a small row house in Allentown, Pa. The previous owner had left an upright piano.*
No immediate relatives in my family were particularly musical, but I showed an interest, picking out tunes. At the start of the next school year, I was sent over to the convent after school one day a week for lessons. We moved to Virginia the next year, and that piano moved with us and I still have it today. My favorite piano teacher was Mr. Donaher, who taught me from age 8 1/2 to 11. Mr. D. was as blind as a bat, but a terrific teacher. I think lessons cost all of a buck fifty for about 45 minutes. In addition to the standard John Thompson series, he encouraged playing "other things" that took the student's interest. Right when I was first learning to play, the Sound of Music had come out, and I started with easy versions of same. That sparked a life long interest in musical theatre for me.
My third teacher, whom I'd acquired after we moved to New Hampshire wasn't bad (a sister who taught at our parochial school) - but she would have been better for me when I was older, say 13-15 instead of 11-12. She was too Nazi like about fingering, which drove me nuts and it kind of sucked the fun out of playing. So I stopped lessons, but I always continued to play. I'm rusty now, but I'm going to start playing more, damn the carpal tunnel but I can suck it up. I learned enough and played for fun enough to pretty much be able to play any standard sheet music and my sight reading isn't bad. (What I was never good at was transposing music on sight.)
I often wonder if I would have come to the musical theatre interest via another route had we NOT had the piano. I like to think it was "meant to be."
*This particular piano is at least 100 years old and was made by the Milton Piano Company of New York. "Milton pianos were manufactured from 1892 until 1907 by the Milton Piano Company at 626-630 West 51st St., New York City. Milton pianos and player-pianos were handcrafted, beautiful instruments, designed for a class of discriminating music lovers." - from bluebookofpianos
6 comments:
Random chance: sitting, once, on a plane next to a woman I'd never met who turned out, when we got talking, to have been at grammar school with my mother.
Bigger random chance: That was one of the very few flights ever where I got an upgrade.
There was no random chance, however, about my learning to play the piano (unlike you, though, I had an awful piano teacher).
My maternal Grandpa was a piano-player, and what he lacked in skill (although he WAS pretty good) he made up with exuberance (he didn't know what pianissimo meant). Mom inherited his piano and I think it now sits in Digi's family room.
Is that Chucky sitting on top of the piano??
Great photo.
Hi all,
Stephen, thank God for my 1st teacher and the fabulous Mr. D. -- God knew how he made a living teaching us at pitance wage and mostly Catholic school kids. He was probably an organist and it wouldn't surprise me if he taught elsewhere and got music gigs now. I really would have appreciated teacher number 3 more had I been a little older and got to the harder stuff - at age 11 you don't see why they are quite so Nazilike in not wanting you to pick up bad habits, EVEN THOUGH it sounds perfectly fine. I was able to get away with a bit with Mr. D. simply because he WAS blind as a bat...well, he wore glasses that were as thick as the bottom of coke bottles anyway. I can remember age 9 or 10 pointing to a particular chord here and there at a really high or really low note "way off the map" so to speak and saying "what's THAT note Mr. Donaher" and he'd grab my John Thompson book two or whatever the other series was and lift that music up with in an inch of his eye and flip up those coke bottle glasses and pick it out on the piano for me. And if there was a tricky timing on something - he'd make up a little song for it, so I'd get it and remember. There was a "gypsy" type song in the 2nd book and there was a particular bar that gave trouble. So he sings "bah-bah-bah HIGHonAHell" in the right rhythm and I never forgot it. he taught me a few rudiments of music theory and for a few minutes every week he'd have me try to make up little songs and then write them down. He was the coolest.
AA: I didn't have any immediate family members who were particularly musical...but when my dad died and I went back east for the funeral, my dad's mom was showing me some pictures in HER family album, her dad (who was a miner) and his brothers were all pictured a few times with their mandolins! So who knows. That she had a heritage 1/2 German 1/2 British Isles -- Irritatingly she never asked HER grandmother exactly WHERE in England the Walkers were from -- and there are also some Hughes, Dawson and last surname X I don't know about -- I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little bit of Welsh with those Dawsons and Hughes - I speculate that the Walkers were perhaps from Lancashire or some other coal mining part of England, given the profession my gramdmother's father and great granddad (and probably further back) were in. I don't think farmers up and decide to be coal-miners. For what it's worth I can't stand total darkness! So, who knows, I'm told I got wavy hair from GGGGGwhatevergranddad Dawson and who knows the latent musical "gifts?" ;-D from that side of the family too.
Adrienne, nope, not chuckie but she talked. I was not a doll kid, but ones that spoke and teddy bear types were appreciated!
Leutgeb, glad you got a kick out of the photo. I quite frequently sat that way until I was about 12 or so. They called it "double jointed" all though there isn't any such thing. Let's just say I was pretty flexible! I'm wearing my brownie scout uniform and I can tell I'm still early in the lessons -- the pics on the piano the various Christmas photos with Santa, and by the lesson in the book! It was pretty early in my formal lesson days. I never had to be nagged to practice. My first piano teacher was a sweet older nun. It irritates that I don't remember her name, but she taught the older kids in grade school and I only had her for the 1/2 year and a bit before we moved.
Hi all,
Stephen, thank God for my 1st teacher and the fabulous Mr. D. -- God knew how he made a living teaching us at pitance wage and mostly Catholic school kids. He was probably an organist and it wouldn't surprise me if he taught elsewhere and got music gigs now. I really would have appreciated teacher number 3 more had I been a little older and got to the harder stuff - at age 11 you don't see why they are quite so Nazilike in not wanting you to pick up bad habits, EVEN THOUGH it sounds perfectly fine. I was able to get away with a bit with Mr. D. simply because he WAS blind as a bat...well, he wore glasses that were as thick as the bottom of coke bottles anyway. I can remember age 9 or 10 pointing to a particular chord here and there at a really high or really low note "way off the map" so to speak and saying "what's THAT note Mr. Donaher" and he'd grab my John Thompson book two or whatever the other series was and lift that music up with in an inch of his eye and flip up those coke bottle glasses and pick it out on the piano for me. And if there was a tricky timing on something - he'd make up a little song for it, so I'd get it and remember. There was a "gypsy" type song in the 2nd book and there was a particular bar that gave trouble. So he sings "bah-bah-bah HIGHonAHell" in the right rhythm and I never forgot it. he taught me a few rudiments of music theory and for a few minutes every week he'd have me try to make up little songs and then write them down. He was the coolest.
AA: I didn't have any immediate family members who were particularly musical...but when my dad died and I went back east for the funeral, my dad's mom was showing me some pictures in HER family album, her dad (who was a miner) and his brothers were all pictured a few times with their mandolins! So who knows. That she had a heritage 1/2 German 1/2 British Isles -- Irritatingly she never asked HER grandmother exactly WHERE in England the Walkers were from -- and there are also some Hughes, Dawson and last surname X I don't know about -- I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little bit of Welsh with those Dawsons and Hughes - I speculate that the Walkers were perhaps from Lancashire or some other coal mining part of England, given the profession my gramdmother's father and great granddad (and probably further back) were in. I don't think farmers up and decide to be coal-miners. For what it's worth I can't stand total darkness! So, who knows, I'm told I got wavy hair from GGGGGwhatevergranddad Dawson and who knows the latent musical "gifts?" ;-D from that side of the family too.
Adrienne, nope, not chuckie but she talked. I was not a doll kid, but ones that spoke and teddy bear types were appreciated!
Leutgeb, glad you got a kick out of the photo. I quite frequently sat that way until I was about 12 or so. They called it "double jointed" all though there isn't any such thing. Let's just say I was pretty flexible! I'm wearing my brownie scout uniform and I can tell I'm still early in the lessons -- the pics on the piano the various Christmas photos with Santa, and by the lesson in the book! It was pretty early in my formal lesson days. I never had to be nagged to practice. My first piano teacher was a sweet older nun. It irritates that I don't remember her name, but she taught the older kids in grade school and I only had her for the 1/2 year and a bit before we moved.
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