Two years ago, Sara requested for piano lessons. As she was too young for individual lessons, we enrolled her into a music exploratory class, where she was in a group of similar aged kids, tinkering with all kinds of musical instruments. She enjoyed the classes. But now, she's too old for those classes and has to move to the next level of individual lessons.
Her cousin, who is the same age as her, also went through the exploratory class and is also now going through individual lessons. But that's where the similarities end.
Cute cousin can play some basic pieces while Sara is still struggling with remembering finger positions and note-reading. While we were over at her cousin's place, the two girls were sitting in front of the piano while cousin hammers out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She was then invited to play the same piece. My dear Sara felt embarrassed and ran into my arms, with the look of envy and sadness in her eyes.
Envy because she wished she could have risen to the occasion and played a song. Sadness because she can't yet.
I told her it's okay. And if she practised more, she would soon be able to play too. But for now, she should feel free to bang away at the keyboard to create her own brand of music.
2 comments:
Of course, as a child, she's going to feel embarrassed because she can't duplicate the feats of others, but just because that's the case now doesn't mean that it'll always be that way or that she won't have special skills of her own. One of my sisters is extremely good at the piano; I'm lucky to use just my right hand. (I'm pretty left-brained. :) ) I learned how to read sheet music as a kid, but have difficulty doing so now because I don't do it all that often. However, due to being taught music by rote through much of my teenage years and my habit of playing music over and over, I probably have dozens (hundreds?) of melodies memorized. I don't need sheet music when I (try to) play the piano because I already know the songs. I once read that Lionel Richie "wrote" his songs by singing into a tape recorder. He said that he told his manager he wanted to learn how to read sheet music but the manager, recognizing that this might interfere with the creative process, told him to wait till after his career began to fade. So most of us have different musical talents. Sara will find hers in time, insha'allah, which may be on a completely different instrument altogether. So, chin up and, like you said, keep on banging on the keyboard in the meantime.
Totally agree with everything you said, JD. I'm sure she'll find her thing insha Allah and if it's not the piano or even music, it's not going to devastate me.
Hope Eid was great for you and family!
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