Learning Music

I first began to have a few lessons when I was 4 years old – but soon gave it up.  When I was 6 years old I began tinkering on the piano and making my own tunes up.  At this time, I also began accompanying my mother to collect my older brother from his piano lessons.  The music teacher lived in Bury St Edmunds and in the front of the garden she had a monkey tree with a toy stuffed monkey right at the top of the tree.  Her house was cramped but the lessons were interesting…

However, it wasn’t until I began having music lessons with Mrs B – that I began to take off musically-speaking.  Mrs B was sweet and patient.  Yes, scales had to be learned, but also she taught me a wonderful repertoire of pieces and very soon she encouraged me to take piano and violin exams at the ABRSM which consisted of playing three pieces, scales, sight reading and aural tests.  The ABRSM (Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music) was an institution which allowed qualified examiners to pass or fail a student based upon their exam performance.  I really couldn’t tell you anymore than this – weirdly enough, I don’t remember a single exam – but I have all the certificates to prove I attended and passed, sometimes with Merit or Distinction.

I was always better at playing by ear and improvising than reading music by sight, so found these aural tests a breeze.  As for the other stuff – it came with practice!

I would often play away my frustration from school when I returned home each day…  Teenage angst I guess.  Above the piano my father had hung a beautiful picture of two women playing music – it was a copy of a Pre-Raphaelite painting ‘When Apples Were Golden’ by Strudwick, and I fell in love with all artwork Pre-Raphaelite.  Let’s just say my improvised music was very ‘moody’ after school.  Rachmanioff would have been proud!

Mrs B, my music teacher, soon realized that my violin tutoring needed someone a little more experienced as I progressed through my exams.  She passed me on to Mrs L who was the first violinist of the local city/town orchestra.  Mrs L was stricter than Mrs B, but I did progress faster under her until I left school and began a slightly rebellious streak of wanting to play Irish music instead of classical.  But it turned out that the technique I used to play fast Irish music was exactly the technique needed to get my Grade 7 violin.  Despite my back issues, I acquired one more music grade after leaving school.

There is something so wonderfully liberating about fast Irish music.  It’s jolly – there is a beat – it’s folky ‘of the people’ and if your foot doesn’t start tapping by itself – then you probably have something wrong with you.  No, seriously…  Growing up in a repressive household environment, where my parents near-daily arguments echoed through the walls unless I drowned them out with music (more on this later), I craved the lightheartedness of Irish music.  And I made it a point to play as fast as I possibly could – because the music created a kind of motivation in my whole body for everything else I needed to accomplish at that age whilst also enabling much-needed escapism.