Has anyone heard the phrase...

[allthumbs]

Greetings

Has anyone heard the phrase...  "If you quit, one day you'll regret it!"

Well I did... from my mother who was my first piano teacher.

I was 12, learning Fur Elise, or so I remember. Kids out playing baseball, me practicing the piano, sunny day. I'm outa here!

You know at the time, I thought "Ya right, whatever?" (to borrow from today's teens.)

Now that I'm in my 50's, I'm lamenting that my mother was 100% correct!

Why are we too old early and too late smart?

Anyone have similar regrets?



Cheers

allthumbs

I coulda been a contender!

[kghayesh]

Yeah.
My parents continuously kept telling me to start learning the piano when i was a young kid. I kept saying no and that i am bored with it. I only like to improvise and play some known tunes by ear, although i was pretty good at this.

And then, when i was 16, i finally agreed to start. I moved on pretty well and in three years i got up to the level of the Revolutionary Etude and Chopin's Ballade.

But, i always say that if i only started a couple of years earlier, I could have made it to much higher levels and could have had the chance to be a respectable performing artist.

[quantum]

Or there's the other side.  I actually listened to my mom.  I never quit piano (although I hated practicing at times). 

Well now my mom has to listen to Boulez sonatas and all sorts of wierd avant garde music at the dinner table.  And after church on Sundays, I tune in to my favourite new music program on the radio. 

A note to parents out there: be careful what you teach your kids, they just might listen (maybe a bit too well).   

[will]

No I don't really look at things in the same way. What if you had been forced to continue your piano playing and turned against your mother for being so unreasonable? Obviously you played basbeball instead and had a happy childhood.

[alzado]

Well, I'm not sure it is so black and white.

My parents always said that if I learned the piano I would be "the life of the party."

I guess in the days before TV, that maybe was true.  I'm 64, and began piano in about 1949.  Perhaps in those days, you might become actually "the life of the party."  Everyone liked to gather around the piano and sing, but very few could play the background.

After three years of lessons, I quit.  I whined and complained so much, my parents allowed me to drop piano.

Over my life on several occasions I went back to piano.  Then we would move to a different state, following my work, and no piano would be available for a few years.  Then I would start again.  And so on.

Now I have a nice grand and play a lot.  Classical, but also various popular pieces.  About "late intermediate" or "early advanced."

Recently I have been playing sheet music I discovered in an antique store.

"Born to Lose" (country western standard) and "Full Moon and Empty Arms."  Pops version of the famous Rachmaninoff theme.  The big bands really used to love "Full Moon and Empty Arms."  They couldn't hardly play a concerto score now, could they?

Also, I play some fairly challenging classical material.

Thanks mom.  I may not be the life of the party, but I love to play!

[allthumbs]

Greetings

Thanks to everyone who posted a response.

Thanks mom.  I may not be the life of the party, but I love to play!

Alzado, your last line struck a chord with me (no pun intended). The very fact that I'm back playing the piano and taking lessons is a direct result of the gift my mom gave to me as a child, the gift of music. I was remiss in not mentioning that fact and thanking her in my initial post. Thanks for sharing that sentiment.

Cheers

allthumbs