V Learns Piano

“I want to learn how to play piano,” my friend V tells me. We are talking about writing, which is a thing we both do, when she interjects this.

I think it’s SUCH a great idea. I think it’s a great idea for any human to learn to play an instrument. In no time, we find her a Yamaha digital piano that fits perfectly in her condo, which would not be a great location for a baby grand. V is 79. Some people think this is “old.” When it comes to learning, especially music, I believe that no age is “too old.” We’ve had students at the Center for Musical Arts who are in their 80s and 90s. They participate, they learn, they love the music that they’re making. They inspire me and teach me and have convinced me that learning doesn’t have to stop. Ever.

My audiologist (who is helping me with this tinnitus thing) told me that learning to play an instrument is a major way to stave off cognitive decline. The brain and the auditory system are intertwined in such an intricate way that stretching them with music keeps our cognition humming. And there is a ton of other evidence that learning to play an instrument (at any age, but particularly as an adult) is a good way to increase, enhance, or even just retain cognitive functioning. Making music enhances lives, gives us joy. There’s new research that hearing loss leads to cognitive decline. (The way to stave that off? Learn to play an instrument). V told me that wasn’t her motivation in learning to play piano, but that it was a nice added benefit.

It’s been about been three months since her Yamaha digital piano arrived. She’s practicing scales, beginning technical etudes, completing basic music theory worksheets, and: (drum roll…) enjoying all of it!

(So is Bella the Cat.)

V is already reading treble and bass clef. She talks about knowing that her brain is stretching in new directions. This is very cool to me, brain plasticity. It was formerly thought that our brains grew to a certain extent and then sort of stopped and hung out until we were done with our bodies. But no, the concept of “plasticity” means that our brains can evolve and change and learn new things as long as we’re on this planet.

I’m learning, too, even after all these years of teaching. I’m reaching back to the small me that learned piano from Miss Body (pronounced Bow-dee), who, unbeknownst to me, was a Juilliard grad. Her living room was her studio, full of pianos and stacks of music and pencils and a very tempting dish full of candy we could sample while waiting for our lesson. I practiced all the time, played in the Spring Musicale after six weeks of lessons (and fell off the stage, but that’s another story). I wonder how my learning piano then compares to V’s learning at this stage in her life. I don’t want to compare her to a kid student. She has told me that her brain just doesn’t want to go in a certain direction and I challenge her about that.

“Does your brain really not want to go there or is what you’re learning too challenging?” V thinks about this. I love how she is so open to learning and I can see her wanting to get it and then she does and then we laugh over zoom. “I think it’s new and hard and my brain says no but it might not be my actual brain saying that.”

Of course. Anyone learning to play will come up against roadblocks. Adults especially are sensitive to getting it right, wanting it to come easily and wanting to be able to play Ode to Joy at sight. (By the way, V is playing this already with ease.) We sometimes lose adult students after a few lessons because it’s not coming easily and they’re easily frustrated. One of the things that counteracts this is something V and I call the “regimen of repetition.” Being willing to repeat the first four bars or the G major scale many, many times (this is the essence of practice, actually) is a major step toward “getting it.”

I like to think of V happily practicing in her living room with Bella the Cat nearby. I wonder what she will teach me next week.