When COVID broke out in 2019, everything was temporarily halted. No sports, no movies and all the other stuff you would normally do when all is well with the world.
Being confined at home, I had to find a way to occupy my time. I was looking to do some reading when I came across an old piano book called Piano Pieces for Children. I picked it up, sat in front of my piano and began scouring the pages. I looked at popular compositions by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann and many others. I always felt, being in my 60s, there's no way I can play any of the music in the book.
I learned to play the piano at a young age of seven or eight. The classic 'Fur Elise' by Beethoven, which seems to be a must-learn by any budding pianist, was the only piece from the great composers that I learned how to play. I quit learning classical music and the piano all together at the age of 11.
It wasn't until I was 21 I decided to hone my piano skills again but focusing more on the standards and old tunes. I played mostly by ear and learned chord progressions and other methods. This led to a side job for me as I worked as a journalist in the daytime, then at happy hour, I masqueraded as a lounge pianist at some of the nicer hotels in Hong Kong.
Having moved here to Canada, I focused more on journalism and no longer play piano professionally. I now use my piano skills accompanying church choirs in Parksville and Nanaimo.
I can say COVID did me a favour. That was when I decided to challenge myself. I began learning one classical piece from the Piano Pieces for Children book. I chose Schumann's 'Traumerei.' I have heard this before and since it only has one page, I thought it was easy. It wasn't. I struggled because my note reading skills are only at a Grade 2 level.
It was a slow process and that one page took me three to four months to learn. I was proud to have learned it and that inspired me to look at other pieces from the book.
I found 'Tarantella' by Pieczonka. The book said it's a Grade 4 level piece and no teacher would ever recommend it to me as I have not even reached that level in piano. It wasn't an easy piece but I persevered, playing it slow at first. It took me six months to complete and I patted myself on the back for achieving it. I was gleaming with pride when I first played the piece to my mother, who was stunned and impressed, as she has never heard me play classical piece before.
It motivated me learn to try other musical pieces like 'The Dream of Olwen' by Charles Williams, 'Blumenlied' by Gustav Lange and 'Madrilena' by Paul Wach.
Having learned them is one thing but memorizing them is another. I never memorized them by heart and my mother, being the longtime piano teacher that she is, scolded me for failing to embed these beautiful compositions deeply in my head. Alas, I am relearning all of them again.
Lately I have fallen in love with sonatas. My sister gave me a book that had sonatinas and sonatas by Mozart, Bach, Clementi and Friedrich Kuhlau. I looked at Kuhlau's work in the book because I have never heard him before. I went to YouTube to find out and found 'Sonatina Op. 20, No. 1.' I decided to learn this and was able to complete it last year.
All the music I have earned since COVID, I did on my own without the aid of a qualified piano teacher. I was proud of that but it might not have been wise.
When I finally got Kuhlau's piece figured out, I played it to my mom and I had to endure a myriad of corrections. It has instilled some doubt in my mind whether I should continue learning classical music on my own or should I hire a teacher.
I started another Kuhlau piece just last December 'Sonatina Op. 55.' I have managed to learn all three movements. I have been trying to polish but have found it a bit frustrating. I am not sure now if I am playing it correctly.
I have been leaning towards hiring a piano teacher but I am still undecided. At my age, I have bad playing habits and do things differently, to more suit my own playing abilities.
Most often I don't follow the proper piano fingering and I remembered in the olden days, you get smacked in the hands with a ruler for failing to do that (I am sure teachers don't do that anymore).
My concern is, if I do get a piano teacher, I might be told to change the way I play and start from scratch. At this point and in my senior years, I feel it might be too late in the game for me to play by the rules.
I have mixed feelings. Is it beneficial to get a qualified teacher to help me with learning new pieces, or should I just continue on my own?
Michael Briones is a longtime reporter for the PQB News. He can be reached via email at michael.briones@pqbnews.com
