From kindergarten to 5th grade, I took piano lessons every week.  Mrs. Shiner, a lovely lady who lived a few blocks from our house, would teach me and the neighbors once a week in exchange for 10 dollars, payable by check.  From 4th grade to 6th grade, I played the trumpet in school.  At the time, I hated both.  I would whine all of the time, “Why do I have to practice?”.  I played solely because my Mom and Dad insisted.  I slowly got better, but never really embraced either instrument.  Only until recently do I realize A. how glad I am that my parents forced me to do these things and B. how stupid/naive I was for not understanding how much I loved music.

If nothing else, learning how to play the piano taught me how to read music, how to keep a beat (something I still struggle with), and most of all that music is not only for listening.  After I stopped taking lessons, I would occasionally beat out a song, or learn the hook of a popular song played on the radio, but never gave it much effort.  When my mom began preparing to sell our house, she wanted to unload the piano and put it up for sale on Craigslist.  Only after it sold did I really appreciate that piano, a Baldwin with a chipped key in the bass.  Between the time it sold and the time the buyers came and picked it up from our house, I did nothing but play it.  I was actually quite sad when it was gone.

I feel a lot differently about music now than I did when I was a little kid, as most people do, but I still can’t help to think how much better I could have been had I stuck with playing.  Nowadays, that musical gap has been filled with guitar.  I could go on and on about what playing the guitar does for me, but I’ll keep it short and say that any day I get to have a guitar in my hands is a good day.  When I’m grown I’m going to have a room in my house dedicated solely to music, with a big grand piano and guitars covering every wall.  I will be an overbearing parent who forces their children to practice, at least for a few years, just like mine did, and they better like it.