i taught myself to play

I can indeed say that I am a frustrated piano player. Playing an instrument has been a personal goal. There’s the drums, cello, bass but keyboards tops my list. I have no plans to be Mozart I just desire to enjoy and play a good piece of music from jazz, blues, and contemporary. I spent my childhood (aside from having conversations with myself) playing “chopsticks” with our old upright piano. I remember feeling proud about that.

I never took any formal lessons but my sisters did. I didn’t push to take any suggested tutorials but I curiously watch and observe my sisters. So it turned out to be independent, casual and non technical kind of learning. I’m more interested in learning by myself. I hate taking instructions parallel to my own way of learning. I started playing a little more serious a few years later. Eventually, John Thompson’s piano pieces, yes the orange book, has been my piano friend. So from the two-finger playing chopsticks, I started playing with both hands.

Anyway, someone came to fix our old piano yesterday. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, it has been out of tune for years and we have a week to let’s say know if it’ll live or not. It’s a 1984 upright piano with a varnish-like finish. I learned my first nursery piece from that old tool. It’s old but memory-filled. I promise to play that antique thing once in a while after we got it fixed.