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What are the cons to piano technical exercises?

When I was five and started first grade, my parents were told to get me something to do to occupy my time. At the time we lived in the middle of a huge sugar-cane field in central Oahu. I thought rambling around on my bike with my best friend Randy, stealing mangoes and papaya from the ubiquitous trees fit the bill pretty well. My parents had another idea, and the piano miraculously showed up in our house.

My first piano teacher was a little old lady (probably about 30, you know, ancient) who would reward me with a Hershey Kiss every time I got something right. My goal was to have the entire piano lined with them by the end of the thirty-minute lesson. Immediately after she left, the fight to defend the kisses from my vulture-brothers began, and usually ended with my parents getting tired of the sounds of little kids fighting (I was the oldest) and throwing the whole mess away. Oh, I never practiced.

We moved between first and second grade and the little old lady couldn't teach me anymore. Somehow, someone figured out I had a little talent for the ivories and referred me to some university type instructor who had to "interview" me before he would accept me as a paying student. This guy stayed with me when we moved into base housing on Hickam AFB. He was funny. No one but he and I could be in the house during a lesson, so all my brothers and mom would wait outside the house. Still never practiced, which infuriated him so much one day he ripped up a perfectly good Mozart chart and threw it into the air. Priceless.

Eventually, we came back to the mainland and my mom began to trot me out to all the relatives, expecting me to show off. I did the only thing a self-respecting fourth-grader could do: I quit the piano.

There is a short story in the preceding paragraphs. I called it "The Piano."

I started playing whatever band instrument the school would provide (my parents apparently shot the wad on the piano and were not going to spring for another instrument for me) French horn, baritone, sousaphone/tuba, and string bass, whatever. I would learn the fingerings and play. I was all-district one year and while prepping for the next level (regionals I think), the band director was working with me to get ready and asked me to play a scale in a certain key. I couldn't. Didn't know it; didn't know any at all. Still don't. You have to practice to learn them, don't ya know? I can still see him shaking his head.

The movie "Love Story"

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