Confessions of a Closet Piano Student

I confess, I am learning to play the piano. It's one of my bucket list items and a friend of mine needed more students so I took her up on the offer. To be honest, learning something as an adult that most people learn as children makes me rather self-conscious so I was waiting for the right opportunity to present itself, or maybe I was just making up excuses to put off learning the piano.

In January, our ward was split into two wards and Michael and I were asked to be the caretakers of the church building. Our official title is "Physical Facilities Specialists" and we are responsible for making sure the building is secure each night, scheduling activities and use of the building, and ensuring that those in charge of cleaning the building do so. I also found out that we are responsible for repairs. Anyway, this responsibility isn't very interactive and I felt like I wasn't going to have much of an opportunity for growth in this calling. However, receiving this responsibility pushed me to find other areas for growth and so when the opportunity to learn to play the piano presented itself I was pleased to have the support of my husband in pursuing this goal.

I am so grateful to my friend, Dawn, for teaching me to play the piano! She is patient and kind with all of my questions and the weeks when I don't practice enough to learn all of my lessons. I couldn't ask for a better teacher!

I feel like my hands can't keep up with all of the things I am learning and processing in my mind. My most recent lesson has been a little challenging because about half the songs require me to move my hands to unfamiliar positions which is something new. After spending a good half hour becoming more and more frustrated at my (perceived) continued stumblings, I opened up my lesson book to the first set of songs written on a staff and proceeded to play through the first half of my book. This simple exercise helped remind me how much I have learned in the last six weeks, and that is a LOT.

I now know both the treble and bass clef notes (I use to be able to plunk away at the treble clef only.) I better understand time and key signatures. I am improving my sight reading and maintaining my rhythm while playing. I can't play hymns out of the hymnbook yet, but I am more able to recognize the actual notes while singing in church and I have a couple of songs in the "Simplified Hymns" book that I can play with what I have learned so far.

At times I find it so challenging to squeeze in enough practice time that I want to quit. Thankfully, my wonderful husband reminds me of how much I have learned and how important it is that I take this time for myself and developing my talents. With this reminder, I find it easier to find time to practice and continue with what I have started to do. It is definitely challenging to find time to learn something new with three precious children, but it is worth taking time to care for myself and develop as a person not just as a mom.