The Troubled Life of a Pianist
February 28th, 2005
For 14 years of my life, I lived as a pianist. It all began when I was 4, and just starting out trying to learn how to play the piano. Twinkle Twinkle was my song of choice, as not only can one play it, one can also sing along as well. But alas, this isn’t the story of a singer, but the story of a pianist. As the years went by, the lessons became more demanding. Practice time continued to increase as I had to practice the ever increasing difficult pieces. Recitals were now becoming common place as I had to also perform what I was learning! But alas, it came time for me to switch teachers. My infancy as a pianist had now come to an end, and it was time for me to begin learning how to “walk.”
However, despite the joys of growing up, I had hit a snag that ended up slowing my growth and even reversing what I had learned. For 3 years, at a place called East Man, my piano career stayed stagnant, and I stopped improving. What was even more troubling was the amount of time and money that was wasted during this transition. With no sign of improvement with this new teacher, it became necessary to switch teachers again. A disciplinarian was needed to get me back on track. With a switch to a third teacher, things looked promising. I began to get better, and was now leaving my stagnant years behind.
Yet despite all this apparent grown, I began to become more troubled in my piano career. In fact, things became so bad, that my teacher took my music from the piano, and threw it to the ground in disgust…causing my music to rip into pieces and scatter across the floor. I sat there staring foward, not saying a word while I was being told that I might as well just leave my life as a pianist behind and quit. Even though my teacher ripped me to pieces that day, and many other days as well, I continued to press on and was eventually able to succeed. Although this might’ve been mainly due to the fact that I had no other choice, since quitting wasn’t an option, I continued to play, and continued to practice.
My troubled life as a pianist slowly came to an end, after having endured so much during the previous 9-10 years. As I came to the end of my years in my piano career, I can happily say that I was able to go out on top. This is where the story of my piano career comes to an end, as I now can only look back and think of what I used to be able to play. Atleast I’ll always have Twinkle Twinkle….maybe I can start over on that singing career. 
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LOL!
I stopped taking lessons around high school when all the SAT prep started kicking in. Reading your entry reminded me of my recital days…
Comment by Annie — 2/28/05 @ 8:36 pm
Heh, as a side hobby nowadays I’ve been trying to re-learn how to play most of the Star Wars theme music on piano. Kind of amazing how much from fun songs I still remember, though I can’t really say the same for my piano skills in general.
Comment by Blindshot — 2/28/05 @ 9:20 pm
HAHAHAHA…sorry…I couldn’t help but laugh…your entry had APS written all over it…
APS (Asian Parents Syndrome) = a syndrome where chinese-american children have every aspect of their lives dominated by asian parents. Symptoms include, being forced to learn the violin or piano, going to chinese school, getting punished for losing that point on a test that you got a 99 on, being the ‘best son’ among all your cousins. Extreme symptoms include, having your future spouse picked out at the age of 12, not having sex till your 40 but yet having to produce a grandchild by the age of 28.
Comment by Amy — 2/28/05 @ 9:49 pm
dude… what crazy teachers did you take from? crazy! i tell you! i guess i was always lucky enough to have nice, but a little eccentric, mentors. my second teacher looked like the guy who played Amadeus. well, i’m glad to hear you were able to go out on top. i guess i have to keep at it until the day i get arthritis, parkinson’s, or die. you gotta heart eastman.
Comment by amy yeh — 2/28/05 @ 11:46 pm
haha well, at Eastman, i took from Mrs. Hanson, but she didn’t really teach me anything. After Eastman, I took lessons from Brian Preston.
Comment by Lawrence — 2/28/05 @ 11:59 pm
I will always remember the time my teacher told me this:
*strong Russian accent*
“eef you hit zee piah-noh….zee pian-noh vill hit you back!!!!”
I was scarred for life.
Comment by Lyris!!! — 3/1/05 @ 12:54 am
holy cow, dude… i didn’t know that he did that! i think that the hui brothers had their share of traumatic memories, but i think we were even more scared of our mom’s wrath after a bad piano lesson. haha
don’t give up! we still have to have our Griffes “duel/duet”!
Comment by Eric — 3/1/05 @ 10:19 am
haha definitely, i’ll need to practice up!
Comment by Lawrence — 3/1/05 @ 11:04 am
I wish I was Asian enough like you say… my parents were too CHEAP to pay for piano/violin lessons… oh wait, that DOES prove my upbringing was asian after all… now it all makes sense…:grin:
Comment by Sookie — 3/1/05 @ 4:58 pm
I remember when he broke your book binding, didn’t he wonder later how it happened? My highlight was being asked (and by asked i mean yelled at) how could I ever succeed in life if i couldn’t get the line right? and seeing my mom’s car pull out of the driveway. Oh… the weekly routine of staring straight ahead and seeing all the notes blur through my tears thinking “don’t let him see you cry!!” and of course, not properly seeing the notes does not improve your player powas.
Comment by Aileen — 3/2/05 @ 3:23 pm
Even though my grandmom was a piano/vocalist teacher and I could have gotten free lesson from her (and I was living with her for a while)….my parents were gracful enough that they didn’t force me to learn piano….maybe this is why I never picked up piano
Comment by Crystal — 3/2/05 @ 9:30 pm
Hm… does that mean my piano career is coming to an end also?? You have to hear about Dr. Mike’s piano career — his teacher actually made him quit because he “sucked.” Very good story. Ask him about it sometime.
Comment by Elaine — 3/6/05 @ 4:58 pm
haha your piano career will last as long as you want it to. Mine just happened to end after I graduated high school.
Comment by Lawrence — 3/7/05 @ 7:52 pm
piano sucks. i quit 1/2 year ago. too much time and practice.
Comment by michael — 8/15/05 @ 12:30 pm
Comment by emilie — 6/13/07 @ 4:47 am
well i hope you thought of punching that evil teacher in the face, >.>
EM!!!!!!!!!!!
DO IT! go back there and Punch
Comment by narutopoke — 8/30/07 @ 6:45 pm
Comment by ncsapianist — 11/28/07 @ 12:14 pm
I was learning to play at piano for 3 years, and then quit ( Now i prefer quitar.
Comment by serghei — 12/31/07 @ 4:20 am
o_o” i want to just drop out of highschool [there's only 6months left] and learn the piano, then enter tafe-learn music, then enter uni.
I can’t imagine myself working hard on paper. TT_TT” and i used to be a nerd… xD
a mate of mine says i can get into 4th grade easy now as i am [never having been taught properly..]. =.=’ though i wonder if that means much…
photography, piano, poetry, perhaps writings. blah. who knows if i could get by like that. but. there’s one way to find out.
having read your entry, o_o” i wonder….
i’ve no talent. i had the passion ..it’s probably nowadays that i feel a lil tired. ==’ and that i don’t have a piano myself.
i find (popular) piano pieces , eg. Fantasie Impromptu by Chopin very intriguing to listen to.
=.=’ hm….~
i wonder. x]
p.s-
it’d be cool if i could get your opinion on my decisions on my future. x.x
Comment by Albert N — 3/25/08 @ 11:47 pm
damn i sound really newb. D:
Comment by Albert N — 3/25/08 @ 11:49 pm