Sunday, February 28, 2010
MS AND MR K
Today is "teary day" in the pages of the NYTimes.
Try this one.
This is about a bunch of kids that were herded, cajoled and even terrorized into playing their best for their high school music teacher. Mr. K.
They had a reunion because Mr. K succumbed to old age and Parkinson's disease.
There was a giant reunion of players who came from far and wide to have the privilege of playing a memorial concert.
These are not people who normally play out or, for that matter, play in.
When I read of Mr. K. I thought of Miss Kern. My first piano teacher. I would not have dared to call her Miss K.
She was a stern and forbidding presence. Not averse to grabbing my wrist to make a point.
I was terrified of her. I loved her.
I remember once when I was lagging behind that she told me "we are about to come to the parting of the ways".
I went cold inside. And reengaged with great vigor.
I never became a professional or anything. I did have a lot of fun with the piano. For years, I played out at churches pounding the organ and leading choirs.
Miss Kern didn't think much of the organ. She thought it an unnecessary embellishment on a perfectly acceptable instrument, the piano.
Miss Kern retired after about 5 or 6 years of working with me. I think also that I had gone as far as I could go with her. I had two teachers, after her, before I left high school. I even took lessons again later in life. Once, in my thirties, when my kids were taking lessons. Bach Sonatas. It didn't go well. I was too busy with other stuff, really.
Then I took lessons again, in my forties, from a sort of well known young jazz pianist on improvization. Very good. Still, too much else to do.
But that last effort stood with me for years until I moved here and gave up the piano for an electronic keyboard.
It was never the same really. Miss Kern was right. The piano is the piano. There is no other instrument that approaches it. Period.
I haven't really touched it in a long time and, when I do, I keep the earphones firmly in place so only I can hear the outcome.
There is a coda to my life with Miss Kern.
She retired to the Theodore Presser Home for Retired Teachers. Presser was the publisher of the mainline piano lesson literature. They had a lot they owed the teacher. In fact, he made the bequest specifically on that point. Presser Publishing is still huge. And philanthropic.
This was at the same time that I moved to Germantown (northern Philadelphia). It was near the home and I went to visit with her a number of times. I remember that she borrowed my army fatigues for a Halloween Party. One of her favorite lesson tunes was, I remember, "Something About a Soldier".
Then, I moved out of the city and into the suburbs then on back to Boston and we lost touch. Miss Kern died.
I would play for her again if we could get her students together for it.
Here is the main thing. I had a lot of fun and even made money with the piano playing but I mostly got a lifelong love of music which came directly from the work with her. The best way to appreciate music is to be able to play it and I still can.
Another thing. I learned from her and others, even when I was in middle age, to take direction from a master player. A life lesson.
And, what is more, I learned that practice is never over. Progress is our most important product. And keep your wrists elevated!
