A Life in Piano Music.

I'm not sure how old I was when my mother decided I would learn to play the piano. I was quite young & at Primary school. Miss Sparks, my teacher lived quite a walk away, maybe half an hour at my childs pace. After I knew the way I went alone. I could take a short cut down an alley & over The Cut which flowed through waste ground at the backs of  houses & shops. It involved climbing down a sloping wall to a trickle of water & back up again, so I only did it in daylight, when I was late, or feeling intrepid. It was a place of  some fear frequented by prowling cats. In winter when it was dark I was quite nervous walking the streets, despite the fact there were lights all the way. I didn't want to meet any children I knew carrying my smart, shiny, leather sheet music satchel.

I loved scales & arpeggios. I went for years & got to be quite good, passing exams with the London College of Music from 1954 to the last one, Senior Grade, in 1958. I was aiming for my ALCM, but Grammar school homework became too much. Nowadays I can't play because I don't have a piano & have hurt both hands in bad falls.

My love of music has been lifelong. I now find it hard to believe that I could play Grieg's Piano Concerto, Chopin's Polonnaise, & Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 among many others. I went for loud when I was angry or troubled & Adagios, Fur Elise or the Moonlight Sonata when I was sad. Playing the piano was a release from growing up. Music has a great capacity to distract & to change the mood. Classical music, more than anything else, feeds the soul.

Having said that, my music tastes are very eclectic. I have always enjoyed pop music and dancing. I also like world music and Jazz, particularly the Blues. My passion is opera. It releases all the emotions & is really quite sublime.

I feel sad that so few children discover the joys of playing an instrument or really listening to music. It has become a constant background noise to 21st century life. It seems devalued by it's prevalence. We are lucky today that there are so many ways to experience music & so many wonderful performers. 

My hope is that whatever music children enjoy today will lead them to also enjoy our heritage of great composers. It would be really good if there were more time put aside in the curriculum throughout education for music.

"Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast" - William Congreve.