Shortly after the recital I graduated to the Third Grade Piano Book. That’s when all the little fingering numbers disappeared from the music. I was now forced to learn the names of the notes and be able to play the piano by touch. If I would have done it a year before, it would have been easy, but now that I was on harder music it was slow going.
One day I was at my piano lesson playing a song I was supposed to pass off’ that day to Francine. I had to pause as I figured out each note of each chord. One chord came along that I couldn’t figure out. Francine just sat there waiting for me to go on. Big tears swelled up in my eyes and then I couldn’t go on. That was one of my last lessons.
Mom came to me shortly afterward and we talked about piano lessons. She said, “Dad and I will keep paying for your lessons, if you still want to keep trying. But over the past year we have paid eighty dollars for lessons.” She really stressed the dollar amount. “Do think it is worth it?”
I had no idea that I was such a burden on the family’s finances. Here I was, half heartedly practicing the piano while my parents paid out eighty dollars for lessons. It might as well have been a million.
Well, I stopped taking piano lessons and shortly after that I began fourth grade where I would begin playing the drums. The inevitable
was finally happening.
Coming Tomorrow: The Music Composer
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