The holidays are family time. Coming home. Enjoying each
other’s campny. Remembering the joint memories. Tomoko contents: “Piano playing
is like a family.” Here is why.
A family is a long term commitment. It has its ups and
downs, but relationships are deep and impactful. This long-term dedication can
apply to can piano playing.
Think about raising a child. It requires regular attention.
It needs to learn the basic steps. Its communication is limited, and it can be
hard to express itself. It can be frustrated, and needs calming. So too the
beginning piano student needs to acquire the habits of regular practice. She
needs to learn the basic hand positions and touch, the scales, the musical
notation. The first pieces need to be easy in order to experience early
success, motivating the student to continue those basic skills. Even so, the
student may be frustrated because fingering is not natural yet; the sound
produced is not what is in the mind of the student.
Families grow and change week by week. You cannot leave the
members alone. They continue to have needs, though those needs may change, and
the way to address those members may also need to change. So too do piano
students constantly need to be challenged and supported. As they grow in
confidence and expertise, piano students need to be handled differently. As the
pieces become more complex and sophisticated, new skills are added. The piano
teacher knows the likely obstacles, and can advise ways to overcome those
obstacles.
With growth, family members gain more responsibility.
Likewise, the piano student takes more responsibility in analyzing a composition,
marking those sections that need more attention and care, for instance.
“Interaction with each other makes the family closer,” says
Tomoko. “So too as the piano player gets to know the piece, he becomes more
comfortable with it.”
And lastly, families build memories together, and look back
on those memories that continue to knit them together. The piano player’s
growing repertoire also elicits memories of the music, the composer, and the
experience of performance.
No wonder that pianists, such as Tomoko, build lifelong
meaningful musical relationships.
