Piano Lessons

Teegan came home from school cheerfully and when she remembered that it was piano lesson day, she instantly entered bad moodville and grumpy town. What is it about piano lessons that morph otherwise normal, happy children into little monsters? Why do we pay hundreds of dollars every year for these piano lessons? Children ranting and raving and gnashing their teeth. Begging and pleading to stop taking piano lessons as if taking piano lessons was the same as having their fingernails pulled off one by one. Teegan even offered to give me 50 dollars if I let her quit. “I hate it! It is the worse thing I have ever done!” she yells through the tears, then adds “you are just wasting your money. Why do you want to waste your money?” Doesn't she know that we love to waste our money, we love to torture her and make her scream and cry and holler?!

I don't have unrealistic expectations. I do not expect that they will become piano vertuosos playing at Carnegie Hall or attending the Julliard school of music. Is it too much to ask for them to just practice and enjoy it enough to be able to play for church, family home evening, or develop enough skill to teach piano lessons one day? How do other parents do it?

I remember being in her shoes. I did not love playing the piano as a child either. It only detained me from playing with friends or doing other activities I enjoyed. I had to practice for 30 minutes after school before I could play with friends. 30 minutes seems like forever to a kid. I would play songs that I already knew instead of the ones I was supposed to practice in order to appease my mother. My kids practice nowhere near 30 minutes a day. Maybe 10 on a good day.

We let Tori quit taking piano lessons when she turned 16. She has not looked back. Shortly thereafter she crushed her finger in a teeter totter. It required surgery and a long recovery. Call me crazy, but I have a hunch that if she had not stopped taking piano lessons, Heavenly Father would have prevented this accident from happening. We will never know. Maybe I will just tell my other 2 kids that if they stop taking lessons something similar may happen to them. Something tells me that they wouldn't believe me.

Why do we insist that our children take piano lessons? Because we have a piano? Because we want them to have some musical ability? Because it helps their brains? Because it cultivates talent? Because it gives them character? Yes! But mostly because my parents made me take piano lessons. And I am sure that they will make their children take piano lessons. And they will hate it just as much.