Tickling the Ivory

Today I am longing to play the piano. A lot of people don’t know this about me, but I grew up playing the piano and was (am) quite good at it. I come from a family of musicians - Eric Clapton, Madonna, Stevie Nix and such….just kidding. In reality my Mom’s side of the family has quite the musical ear. Anything from guitar, singing, piano, harmonica and so on and I was lucky enough to get this gene.

My parents introduced me to piano lessons at a young age. My teacher, Nancy Walker, was probably a huge reason why I loved it so much. I would sit at her house every Saturday morning for 30 minutes or so and learn all about music. Some days we would play the piano, other days we would write music and some days we would play duets. She had a dog, a German Shepard named Cody, that would sit peacefully while you played at your feet or looking at you from the couch. He also kept me coming. Once a year we would have a recital, which I was more excited at the fact of eating her homemade ice cream floats than anything. The fear would build up inside of you and I would get all nervous but once you stroke one key it was completely gone.

I took lessons from her for over 10 years, I can’t even remember now exactly how long. I excelled in reading music, which a lot of people struggle with. I got really passionate about playing and would spend money buying new songs to perform. When Titanic came out I knew I just had to play “My Heart Will Go On,” by Celion Dion – and play I did at that years recital. My all time favorite songs to play, “Memory,” from Cats and Pachabel’s “Canon in D.” Even now when I sit down to tickle the ivory I merge the two songs together making sure to play those notes.

Moving out of my Mom’s house meant moving away from a piano. A keyboard doesn’t cut it, sorry keyboard cat. Some days, like today, I long to go sit down and play the piano for a few hours. One day, when I’m rich enough I will have my own piano, and teach my kids to play and tickle the ivory whenever I want.