I'd like to address parents for a moment, because I want you to know what an important thing you are doing for your children by providing them with piano lessons. You make several sacrifices in order to give your child a private music education. Some of you have to scrimp and save to pay the tuition. Some of you have to juggle the crazy schedules of several children and work magic to provide reliable transportation to lessons. Some of you sit with your young children by the piano at home to assist with practicing. Some of you pick up your children early from school in order to make it to a 2:30 lesson slot or arrive late at lacrosse practice because you don't want to miss piano. There are myriad ways that you put your child's needs ahead of your own in order to make sure piano lessons are in the picture.
To you fabulous parents I want to say, "Bravo!" You are investing your time, money, and energy in an pursuit that will, very likely, yield dividends for years to come. I'm not just saying that because I'm the piano teacher. It is a well-documented fact that children who take piano lessons do better in school. It has also been discovered that these children are less susceptible to the effects of dementia and perhaps even Alzheimer's by the time they reach old age! Can you imagine? I don't claim to understand why this is true, but I will tell you a story to illustrate.
My childhood piano teacher, Mrs. Todenhoft, suffered five strokes several years ago when she was in her 80's. It was shortly after her husband had passed away, and she was in a state of utter confusion. Initially, she had a hard time remembering or doing much of anything. But gradually things came back to her. Do you know what was the first thing to return? Her music. She remembered how to play hundreds of pieces on the piano long before she was able to remember what year it was or what state she was living in! I went to visit her a few times in the retirement home where she lived, and she was still playing piano like a pro even though she needed assistance with other things. Well, one day in 2008, I learned that she had agreed to play piano at the local mall for the Thursday Morning Music Club's National Day of Music. I was a little worried that she might forget the date of the event, so on my way to the mall to see her play, I gave her a call. Sure enough, no one had reminded her about the engagement, and no one had offered to drive her to the venue. Most 83-year-old ladies would have simply bowed out (or not agreed to play in the first place), but she said, "I can be ready in five minutes if you'll pick me up." When I walked into the lobby, she was coming toward me, cane in hand, with a list of songs she planned to play. No songbooks or sheet music, just a list. When we got to the mall, she walked right up to the piano and began to play. At first she forgot to take the spiral key bracelet off of her wrist, and she didn't quite know what to do with her cane, but she started in on her "set" like an absolute authority. She played so well, that passersby started to give her requests, and she obliged them! It was a moment that I'll never forget. Here is a video clip from that day. Notice the cane, the purse, and the list I mentioned.
After her gig in the mall, my piano teacher was beaming. She had great fun sharing her music with the people strolling by, and she was, I'm sure, happy to have been able to do what she did given her recent difficulties. What a valuable skill piano-playing has became to her during her senior years. By the way, when shopping for a suitable retirement home, her family made one stipulation. The facility had to allow her big Yamaha grand piano to move in with her. There aren't many homes that can accommodate that sort of request, but one was found, and I'm so thankful that it was. Here is a little video of my teacher in her room at the same Yamaha piano I took lessons on in the 1970's and 1980's. She was playing "There Will Never Be Another You" for me, and it chokes me up every time I watch. Because the truth is, there will never be another Mrs. Todenhoft.
On another note, if I can make half the impression on your child that Mrs. Todenhoft made (and still makes) on me, I will be very honored indeed. The thing about piano lessons is that we all remember them. Good or bad, we remember our time as a piano student, right? But piano-playing is a long tradition that I have the privilege of passing down to your child and which my teacher(s) passed down to me. This legacy can be traced back many generations to great historical teachers like Chopin, Liszt, and even Bach. It will continue to be spread (re-gifted, if you will) into the future as long as parents like you keep seeing that learning to play the piano is much more than plunking out right and wrong notes and keeping a steady tempo. It's a legacy from our ancestors and a mode of communication that survives when our human mind starts to fail. What a gift we send into the future when we keep this tradition alive.
Betcha didn't know you were doing all of that!
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