The above piano lived in my parents house for many years until last July when Dear Son 1 arranged to have it moved to my house. The piano was an important part of our lives growing up. It was first purchased by my dear parents when my older sister was about 8 or 10 years old, and she began taking piano lessons. She became quite the accomplished pianist and currently teaches piano lessons on her own piano in her own home.
We gathered around the piano every week on Monday evenings during our Family Home Evenings, and sang a hymn or two. During the Christmas Season we would play Christmas Carols, and there were always music books of folk songs, popular music, and classical music in the piano bench waiting for us to play.
Music was always important to Mums (as mentioned in my "M" post) and she spent hours and hours driving us back and forth to piano lessons every week. Our piano teacher, Mae, would devote almost an entire afternoon to our family for piano lessons each week, right after school during the school year and first thing in the morning during summer vacations. I began taking piano lessons when I turned eight years old, and had a weekly half hour lesson almost every single week for the next ten years. The goal was for each child to practice the piano for a half hour every single day. Unfortunately, there were very few days when I actually practiced for my entire half hour. Most days I would quickly play through all of my assigned pieces one time (we usually had one assigned piece from each of four to six different piano lesson books, and as we progressed far enough, an assigned hymn also) and then I would run off to play outside or read or watch TV.
Mae was also the organist at our church, and she taught piano lessons to many of our friends, always watching for young people who were talented and dedicated enough to eventually help out with the music at church. I was asked to play the piano for the young Primary aged children at the Tuesday afternoon primary meetings for a few months when I was in High School, but was not the best piano accompanist due to the slothfulness of my practicing habits. But I did learn to play well enough to play most of the Hymns in a pinch, and enough to sit down and play a bit for my own enjoyment now and then.
I am truly blessed to have this piano in my home and the many lovely memories that it brings to me.
I also had a piano in my house growing up. We didn't gather around it and sing together, but my brother played all the time. My sister and I tinkered with lessons a little bit but never became anywhere near as talented as he is. It's really lovely to have live music in your house. My partner now has an keyboard but he doesn't play as much as I wish he would!
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