STRUCTURED ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL
Piano Lessons
Taking piano lessons was another cultural experience. I
gained way more than I realized at the time. Learning to play the piano takes a
lot of discipline and I was actually pretty good at it. My piano teacher, Mrs. Connor, would
eventually become one of my greatest mentors. She was a no nonsense person, but
she had a definite passion to teach us well about how to read music and play to
the best of our abilities. She made us attend Music Theory Lessons once a week
during our first couple of years, along with our once a week private
lesson. She expected us to practice and
could definitely tell when we had not done so. We brought our spiral notebook
each week with our practice log and she would document our progress and write
down the goals for the next week. It was a little scary when she became
frustrated as she would take out her red pencil and begin to mark heavily on
our music sheet of what we should be noticing. It was a tremendous learning
experience and also a test of true discipline as we prepared each year for a
public recital at the auditorium and also for National Auditions where ten
pieces were played by memory for scrutiny in front of a judge. We would be dismissed from school in order to
participate in auditions. It was always a relief to have that behind me. In
high school, I grew interested in other activities, though I still loved piano,
I was not keeping up with practice. Mrs. Connor finally approached Mother about
how it was wasting everyone’s time to continue. I was a little sad to not be around
Mrs. Connor any longer, but it was for the best. I look back at her fondly as
someone who enriched my life, helping me to set better standards.
