The Piano Bench Disaster

~ One day, when I was around 12 years old, it was time for me to practice the piano. I sat down and played through my first piece and was about to move to the second one when I heard my mother call out from the next room that I needed to go back and work on the first one again. Reluctantly, I repeated the piece once and hoped again to move on. The next thing I knew, there was my mom standing right behind me, pointing to the music, and telling me something I needed to fix. I was so upset with my mom for bugging me I jumped up quickly and ran out of the room. Unfortunately I jumped up so quick that the piano bench fell backwards and landed right on the top of mom's foot. Although we laugh about this now, it was certainly not a laughing matter then, when her foot swelled to twice the size and she ended up needing surgery to repair the damage. We never argued about practicing after that day.

~ I learned a lot from this incident, the first thing being, do not stuff your piano bench with family photos and heavy music books. :)

~ When parents ask me about their role in motivating students to practice, I always think of the piano bench. You must value your child's music education enough to be willing to invest not only money, but your commitment to helping your child succeed. Sometimes this causes friction between you and your child. The question only you can answer is, how much is too much. I am thankful that my mom sustained a serious injury and still continued to drive me to piano lessons, pay for them, and attend my recitals and competitions.