The Piano Project – Part 1

It’s been almost eight years since I last blogged here about piano-playing (have we really been blogging for that long?!). A new home project started though that will likely see an emergence of new posts on this topic in the months to come, and starting with this one below.:)

There was a period of time here in Singapore – perhaps around the 1990s to early 2000s’ – when learning musical instruments was the ‘in’ thing for parents with young kids. Many families would put their children through formal lessons to, for example, learn the piano and obtain the various ABRSM grades over what would normally be around 10 years of training. I remember hearing anecdotally that occasionally, learning the instrument was the expectation of parents than any real, sustained interest in the child, leading to the result that many kids would give up midway, or find formally learning the instrument so much a chore that they end up disliking the instrument.

I reckon I’m one of those oddballs. I didn’t need cajoling to learn a musical instrument. In fact, I made a conscious effort to parents hinting that I wanted to learn – e.g. creating a huge din with the Melodica in front of the TV while my dad watched Big League Soccer when I was six – that they got the message! I began formal lessons to learn the piano in April 1978, and took about ten years to finish all my Piano practical and theory up to ABRSM Grade 8. I had only two teachers during that long stretch. Both teachers were sisters too, with the younger taking me through Grades 1 to 5, and her older sister – Mdm. Ler Hui Siam – taking me through the rest. There were long periods where the training was so intense and preparing for exams so stressful that I hated lessons one particular year, and I vividly recall my mom having to drag me to lessons even. I don’t think my first teacher did much to make me love the instrument either! Both teachers must be in their 70s now and long retired, though I’ve been trying to get in touch with my old final teacher, Mdm. Ler, for years now.

The real change came when I started listening to classical music – at about the mid 80s – and I started doing much better in lessons, and finished the practical and theory with merit and distinction awards respectively.

The piano that I trained on – alongside my two brothers who also completed their ABRSM grades up to a point – was a Squire & Longson that I remembered my parents paid a princely $3,950 for in 1978. That’s a huge sum of money, even more so for its time. I haven’t been able to find much information about this model, apart from bits of information in a Piano encyclopedia that write that Squire & Longson was a highly respected English manufacturer of pianos, and were already making them in the 19th century. Our family piano though has not fared well, due totally to the lack of care for it in the last 20 years now. The keys are badly out of tune, and one or two of them no longer work even. And there are possibly entire colonies of roaches somewhere inside the piano cabinet even!

Which brings us to our new home project. Hannah has also been interested in learning to play an instrument, and I reckon she should credit both her parents’ genes here haha. We were debating for the last two years what instrument to get her started on, since she didn’t mind either the violin or the piano then. We were initially decided on the violin, on account that it’s portable, a less costly investment, and won’t occupy the same space that a piano would in the house. That line of thinking was largely the reason why we gave away Ling’s old piano when we moved from The Rivervale to Minton – a decision that still breaks her heart every time she thinks about it.

It was only a few months ago when we started reconsidering her starting instrument, and Hannah also showed a stronger inclination towards a keyboard instrument. So, a piano it was. More on this in the next post!