How I Learned to Play the Piano

                      

This is the first story I have posted in several years so I am having to brush up on my typing skills.  I used to be a pretty fast typist when I was in high school.  I even competed in U.I.L. competition and I did pretty good. Mrs. Halley told me that I was the fastest typist she had ever taught.  But, that was fifty years ago.  I also have to confess that I have already posted most of my best and funniest stories.  So, it may be a little dull from here on.  But, here goes anyway.

     This is the story of how I learned to play the piano. We were living in Abilene, Texas and I was in the fourth grade.  My mother wanted me to start taking piano lessons.  I look back on it and I wonder how we managed to afford it. So, she talked to Mrs. Springer, who was the music teacher where I was going to school, and she said she would be glad to give me piano lessons.  So, I started taking lessons from Mrs. Springer I believe in January of 1961.  After my first 30 minute lesson, I saw reading music was  simply counting spaces and lines up and down from middle C.  I got back to the house and started playing songs out of the hymnal after the first lesson. I guess you could say I was a natural born note reader. When the school year ended Daddy decided to move back to Menard.  Vernon Bates had offered him a job working at Bates food store in the meat market.  I was excited to be moving back to Menard, but I was not excited to leave Mrs. Springer.  I older brother William Franklin had taken piano lessons from Mrs. Tisdale before we moved to Abilene.  He was doing pretty good but he lost interest in the piano.  We went to see Mrs. Tisdale and asked her if she would give me piano lessons.  She said she would. But, she told my mother that “She would be glad to teach me, but I would never be as good as my brother was”.  I proved her wrong.  So, that was when I was in the first grade.  I soon became her star pupil.  Mrs. Tisdale believed in recitals.  Seems like we had a recital for every holiday.  I remember playing for a Halloween recital one year in the old Christian church.  I remember it was at night so it would seem a little spooky.  My mother took an old sheet and cut out a place for my eyes and I went as casper the ghost.  No one knew who I was until the recital was over. I played a recital, at the Baptist Church in the fellowship hall, and it was the only time I played a two piano duet.  I played it with Cheryl Westphall, who was Dr. Westphall’s daughter.  I remember being so nervous because I knew if I messed up it would mess her up too.  Thank goodness it all went smoothly.  I played at the Menard Manor almost every Christmas.  The piano was on the second floor of the old hotel building.  This was before they built on the two wings.  I remember playing” O Holy Night” and they liked it so well I had to play it twice.  I did not realize at the time that Menard Manor would be a big part of my life and that I would work there for thirty one and a half years.  I remember playing for, I believe, the Rotary Club and Mrs. Tisdale wanted me to give a little speech telling about the song's origin.  I refused to do it because I was so shy and stubborn.  I look back on It and wonder why I was so stubborn.  Before  I move on I just want to say what a fine women Mrs. Tisdale was.  My dad and I were in an automobile accident and my dad was unable to work for a while and we were unable to pay Mrs. Tisdale.  But, she kept teaching me piano lessons without charging me until Daddy could get back on his feet financially. I loved Mrs. Tisdale and she will always have a special place in my heart.

     I did not take piano lessons my senior year in high school because Mrs. Tisdale said I would just be too busy.  She said I could already play as good as her.  I did not think I could play as good as her because she was a very gifted pianist.  So, when I got to college I decided to go with my passion and be a music major.  This was probably not a good career move. But I did it anyway.  I soon realized that this was not an easy major.  Not only did you have all of your basic subjects to study and pass, you had to make time to practice the piano.  Not only did you have to play really hard music, you had to learn to perform in very stressful situations.  I remember playing on a nine foot grand piano on stage with a spotlight on me, playing a hard song without any music.  I was so nervous, it was like I was in a trance.  I remember starting the song and ending the song but nothing in between.  Someway I got through the  song and everybody thought I did good. But, even though I was scared to death, I loved it because it was my passion. 

I stayed in college for two and a half years and when I quit I was working on “Moonlight Sonata” by Ludwig Van Beethoven.  This was to be my senior recital song.  The first movement is not really difficult. But, the rest of the song is extremely difficult and it is thirty three pages long.  It has to be memorized and performed before a music major senior recital.  It can be performed any time you are ready.  But it has to be done before you graduate.  I was driving back and forth to San Angelo five days a week and I wore out every old car I could get and I wore myself out.  I decided I would take a break from college and I never made it back.  But, I didn’t give up music.  I started playing mostly popular music and I loved Dan Coates arrangements.  I was still a very good note reader and excelled on the level of difficulty of the arrangements.  I never played with a band even though they had asked me to play piano for the Angelo State Band right before I quit. But, I have never played with a country and western band and that is where my passion is. I have played for a few different events in my life.  I played several years in a row for the Menard Chamber Of Commerce but they got new chamber members and never asked me again.  I have played two or three weddings.  I often thought if I lived in a big city I would place an ad to play for weddings. I have only been paid one time for playing the piano in my whole life and that was for a wedding here in Menard.  I won’t mention who the person was, but he gave me a fifty dollar bill.  I didn’t ask for any money. But  it only lasted three weeks and they had the marriage annulled. So, I guess he thought that was not money well spent.

     So, even though I could read notes very well and I could play beautiful difficult music. I began to notice something.  Nobody thinks you are a real musician unless you can play some by ear.  So, I decided I would learn to play by ear.  It was not easy for me.  But, I worked hard and it has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done.  I always loved Floyd 

Cramer's style of playing the piano.  So I set my goal to play like Floyd Cramer.  Floyd Cramer used the slip note to give piano playing that unique style.  So, anytime you hear me play the piano, you are going to hear some Floyd Cramer.  When I find a new song I want to learn, I first find out what key it is in and I try to learn it in the key it was originally sung in.  If it is a key I just don’t like, I will put it in a key I do like.  I try to learn a new song about every two weeks.  Some songs just come naturally and some songs I really have to work hard to learn.  Here I am at sixty eight years old and I still have that burning passion to become a better pianist.  But, I will never be as good as I want to be.  Well, that’s all for now.  Now that I am retired from the Manor, stay tuned for a lot of stories about my life in Menard.