Switching Teachers

Sorry I haven’t written in a while. It’s just so hard to get anything done once school starts. Today, for example, I had my second piano lesson with a new teacher. I hadn’t practiced all week (the story of my life, but I am working on practicing more often), and I practically sight read a Chopin Prelude (okay, that’s a bit of stretch; I played it for the first time in a week). This summer, unfortunately, I had to switch piano teachers because my former teacher could no longer teach me for some unknown reason. It makes me wonder what he did, or what the music department did. He was the greatest teacher. A crazy and creative eccentric Japanese middle-aged man, every lesson he would give me a new way to think of expressing myself through the music. He would tell stories of his childhood in Japan. One of my mom and my particular favorites is his story about how he first got interested in classical music. One day, when my teacher was about 12 or 13, he was sent by his mother to pay his tuition for cram-school. He walked into a record store, and decided to wander farther into the back of the store and he happened to find the classical music room. He went into the soundproof room and listened to the record that was on the record player, and fell in love with it. He proceeded to buy the record with his tuition money. He was (and is) such a great person. I’m not sure what could have happened. Was he fired? Did he quit? Whatever the case may be, I’m glad I got a chance to work with him for 2 to 3 years. But it’s not like my new teacher is horrible in comparison. My new teacher is also fantastic, fortunately. He’s a lively, artistic 20-something who has taught me a ton of new things in the two lessons I’ve had with him. Each new teacher I get seems to “re-jumpstart” my interest in piano. I play violin at school and in private lessons, and sometimes it’s difficult not to be partial to playing it and not piano. But I think that with this new teacher I may like both instruments equally (**knock on wood**). That’s all for now.