CORRECT AGE FOR PIANO STUDY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 385, 8 November 1946, Page 5

CORRECT AGE FOR PIANO STUDY

| $ir-Paul Von Sturmers’ article "Don’t learn the piano till you’re 21" strikes an answering chord in my own experience. I don’t think for one moment he meant us to accept the above statement literally, but he does succeed in conveying that a musical education need never finish, and can start, or continue at any age. My own experience was as follows: In childhood I learnt the piano indifferently from indifferent teachers for about five years, and cannot remember finding the learning any hardship. The classics were entirely foreign to me, and I thumped and banged with a fair amount of success and a great deal of zeal, for the "silent" movies, 20 years ago. But a Training College education introduced me to an appreciation of good music. It was like an awakening, Consequently, a deep desire urged me. to continue my piano lessons. This I did for three years (until I was married) and held down a teaching job too. (Please note, Miss "Practice Can Be Fun," who, thinks earning a living prevents a continuance of musical education.) Having bought my own piano before matriage, I have kept up practice intermittently while bringing up three children, and running a farm home, Now I have a dream. It is this: In a year or two, when the children are away at secondary school, it is my intention to continue with my piano lessons, and study the history of music, There is so much to. learn, and a life is so short, I’m over 40, but that is no deterrent. It is: my opinion though, that the mechanics of piano-playing should be learnt in childhood, It saves tedious time later. The discipline of application, in moderation, does not hurt any child who has some musical sense. But true application, and true appreciation, develop only as one grows older, when a love of accomplishment urges one on, primarily because the inner life becomes ever more | enriched through a-love of good music.

R.V.

C.

(Auckland).