Piano Lesson: What Can Pippi Longstocking Teach You About Piano
Playing
Piano playing is an art with unlimited possibilites. Pippi
Longstocking made a remark in a film that can be used when you
try to learn to play piano.
Pippi Longstocking is a nine-year-old Swedish girl in a series
of children's books. Pippi has red braids and is very
unconventional, assertive, extraordinarily strong, and rich. She
lives alone with a monkey and a horse in an old funny house. Her
friends Tommy and Annika accompany her on her wild adventures.
One Christmas when she was alone in the house looking out
through the window feeling lonesome her lyoung friends and the
children from town came in a procession to her house surprising
her with a Christmas present.
She was very happy when she saw them and when she opened the
present she found a trumpet and immediately started to play on
it.
One of the children commented: "I did'nt know that you played
trumpet!". Pippi answered smilingly: "Well, it is easier when
you have a trumpet!"
Much wisdom there. It is easier to learn to play an instrument
if you have an instrument. It is easier to learn to play piano
if you have a piano. Do you have a piano?
What does it mean to have a piano. Let me explain...........
One of my cousins lived with her family in a small town in a
small house. In the house was a tall black piano bought from a
nearby amusement park. This piano was fascinating in one aspect.
It was fantastically out of tune!
When you played a melody on the piano it was like playing in
different keys at the same time. My cousin living there never
became a pianist. I don't know if the out of tune piano put her
off but it sure didn't help her.
She learned one funny piano song at least and I can still
remember the sound of it on that piano.
I think that you can say that a piano has to be tuned or it
isn't really a piano. All those beautiful and fantastic piano
compositions are intended to be played on a tuned instrument.
I would suggest the following....
1. Have a piano. Meaning a tuned instrument. Make it a priority
to have your piano tuned by a piano tuner or if you are
adventurous, try to tune it yourself! Read about piano tuning on
the net.
2. Buy a digital piano. It is always in tune but has other small
disadvantages. It should have weighted key action to imitate the
action of an acoustic piano.
When I was a child we always had our piano in tune but I guess
it is quite common to find pianos that is out of tune around the
globe.
I guess you can get used to playing on out of tune pianos but
this will limit your progress and the joy you deserve to
experience when you play piano.