Black & White - my journey with the piano

"I play the piano."

I don't like saying this phrase, because I think that one can never stop learning new things, from a new language to a sport and also an instrument. I feel uncomfortable also saying that I can speak English, because there're always some expressions, words or some grammatical rules I don't know - and I have started studying English since I was 7 years-old.

Anyway, today I would like to tell you my story about when/how/why I decided to begin to play the piano.

My electric piano

When I was young, I played volleyball, due to the fact that there was a gym where volleyball was taught near my home. I preferred fencing instead of volley, but I live in a little town and there weren't courses of fencing. So I began to play and I have played for five years, until I was 11. I used to listen to a J. S. Bach's piece, the ("Suite No.1 in C major, BWV 1066: Overture") before every volleyball match as a ritual to be lucky: my dad collected CDs of Classical music so I often listened to them.

One day I found another piece that stroke me, because of its solemnity and magnificence: the "Piano Concerto n. 1 in B flat minor opus 23" written by Tchaikovsky. By that moment, I began to love the piano, I looked for other CDs where the piano was the protagonist (I stopped playing volley) and I asked my parents if I could take piano lessons.

I had a little keyboard, the type of keyboard that relatives gave you when you are 2/3 years-old, with 8 coloured keys.

This was similar to my little keyboard

My mum challenged me, saying that I could take piano lessons if I managed to play something on it: the piece I played was the "Ode to joy" by Beethoven (an adaptation, of course, considering the dimension of the instrument and the limited number of keys). I already knew how to read the notes because, when I attended Middle School, we used to play the recorder, but in that case I learnt the piece by ear.

So I found a piano teacher and I've played for three years. I bought a keyboard first and then my granddad gave me, as a present, the electric piano (which I still play). Then, when the High School began, I stopped taking piano lessons because the type of school I chose was difficult and I wasn't able to organise my studies. Instead, I joined the acting company of my school and every year (for 5 years) we had a different stage show. I played the pieces I'd learnt, so that I wouldn't have forgotten them and I could have kept my fingers trained.

I began to attend other piano courses a few months ago, thanks to an initiative of my university and now I'm glad I signed up for that, because I've rediscovered my passion for music and for the piano.

Every single day I learn something new and I improve my skills: I'm very happy when my teacher, my friends and my family tell me that I played well, because it means that they've enjoyed my way of playing and I hope that I've managed to express and convey emotions to them.

Now I'm studying the Bach's "Invention n. 1 BWV 772" and the Mozart's K545 (the Andante part): I play each day  to get a better speed and dynamics (which is connected to the way of playing, louder or softer).

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”

Friedrich Nietzsche 

-----------------------------------------------------

See you soon

Yours, Silvia