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.
Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play resources at capotastomusicdotcom