...first you must learn to play by the rules, then you must forget the rules and play from your heart.
I have loved playing piano since I was a little girl. I spend hours at my mothers extremely out of tune piano, plunking along by ear and looking through music trying to decipher the strange symbols on the sheet. Eventually I figured it out with the help of my 9th grade Seminary teacher who asked me to decode a piano book and my Young Womens leaders who let me play the opening song, no matter how slow and poorly I did it.
Music has brought me joy my whole life.
A few years ago I started teaching piano and I absolutely love it. I love when the kids see what they have accomplished. It's fun to pick music with them and see their creative juices flow.
I always said my own kids would play piano. In my grown up years all I ever hear is how my friends and acquaintances wished they'd stuck with it or even got the chance to start. I don't want that for my kids. Tyler started when he was 6, his grandma Leslie taught him on and off for a few years. It was stressful to him to not be "perfect" every time he sat down to play. I taught him as he got older but we've let it slip too often.Sadly, I've let him off the hook and he doesn't play. He can, he just chooses to not practice enough to site read well.
Caely and Alexa are coming quite along. I love listening to them play and see them impressed when they can put together a familiar song.
After each lesson I give my students a treat on their way out the door. My kids always want the treat, it's usually a snack size airhead so it's nothing big. The other day Patch asked for one of my piano treats and I told him he had to have a lesson to get one. He said okay, so we sat down and played together.
Now all three of them are practicing each morning and they are all usually begging for a lesson. This time it's not for the treat but for the new song they will get to plunk out and practice.
I hope they continue to play piano and find their own love of music.
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