Strike a chord ? or hit the keys ?

Daily Prompt :

Do you play an instrument? Is there a musical instrument whose sound you find particularly pleasing? Tell us a story about your experience or relationship with an instrument of your choice .

 

Piano is THE musical instrument for me.

Although my musical taste is – shall I say eclectic -I tend to favor songs where you can distinguish the piano , those are my winners .

As an example you might have the band Keane for instance , do you happen to know them ? I don’t think I have shared them here yet .

I have piano players in my family , but I am not one of them …yet.

My mother and my aunt had private piano lessons at home , like they were supposed to at the time they were growing up . Apparently they did not like it very much or they got tired of getting their knuckles beaten and as soon as the obligatory lessons ended they never played again .

But they still loved classical music and would listen to it on the radio at night after dinner while my grandfather corrected his high school students work , and my grandmother did some knitting or crochet or something . They would go to the concerts but never tried to play the piano again.

On the other side (of my family) my grandmother did play the piano , and my grandfather played the violin. Their children were brought up in a musical environment and all six of them learned to play the piano with no knuckles harmed .

Only one of them went on to play it though , and for a few years after marrying she would have students come to her home to learn with her.  Unfortunately for me , by the time I started dreaming about learning to play she was already quite old and hadn’t been teaching for many many years .

Now in hindsight I believe this must have been another case of my  “very strong , instant,  and violent passions” that periodically hit like a tropical storm and then quickly vanish . This must have been when I was very much into ballet lessons and thus listening to a lot of good classical music , mostly piano pieces .

Enter a dear aunt , not the piano teacher one , who did not have any children of her own , and after hearing about my new passion decided to gift me her piano so that I could play and practice on it.

This was a big , solid wood good old-fashioned piano , so a special transportation crew had to be found and after much maneuvering it was finally settled into our study room upstairs in my parent’s house  ( I still remember the huffing and puffing those poor delivery men went through to get that monster up there ) .

I don’t remember why or how – studies got in the way , a suitable teacher wasn’t found , I lost interest ? – but I never got to learn how to play it .

Luckily it has not been sitting there idly all these years , because my father taught my kids and my nieces how to play those simple pieces children take to and they did enjoy it.

But it is still there waiting for me , as for now I am just striking my keyboard notes , the ebony and ivory ones will have to wait just a bit more .

And for your enjoyment one of the most known pieces for piano but still one of my favourites is the Piano Concert No 2 in C minor , Op 18 , played here for you by the great Van Cliburn

And now you have put me in the mood to go and listen to my beloved Tchaikovsky and then I’ll surely be swirling around but not “en pointe” for the rest of the night .

And I would love to know if you like the piano too , or what is your preferred musical instrument , if you would care to share it with me.

Turtle Hugs  ❤