First year at university, the curriculum required students to take an elective subject outside of the discipline we were studying. As my degree was in Aeronautical Engineering, I had a vast choice of subjects to elect from such as sociology, music, languages, archeology, and so on.
I chose the Piano. The lesson was to last an hour long but, I lasted only 25 minutes. The teacher and I agreed that I sucked at it and would probably always suck at it.
The problem was my expectations; unreasonable expectations. I genuinely thought I would be able to play something by the end of the first lesson and would form my own band by Christmas. When the teacher began by showing me the scales, I asked: when will I be able to play a tune? He laughed thinking I was kidding and then frowned when I didn’t laugh back. I was told it would be weeks before I could produce anything remotely resembling music to the human ear.
For the next 15 minutes or so, he asked me to repeat phrases over and over again and the more I repeated them, the less he was happy with my output. The final 10 or so minutes were just tense and argumentative. The only thing we agreed on was to go find another elective I might have an aptitude for.
Years later, I saw a documentary which put forward the theory that people with mathematical competence are naturally good at music in general and playing the piano in particular. What complete and utter crap! All my life I was very competent at all branches of mathematics and I ought to have been a brilliant musician. In contrast, my wife admits to only having basic competence in mathematics and she taught herself to play the piano to the level where she can sustainably play recognizable tunes.
All our children took piano lessons for many years so, between them and their mother, they more than make up for my piano-free soul.
Two more suckies to go and your torture will be over.
