Be Quiet!

"Be Quiet!"
"Not that again!"
"Couldn't you have picked the flute?"

If you heard that in your home you would not be inclined to practise piano much.   We never heard that in our home from an adult.  Siblings...yes.  Parents...no.

The sound of music being practised is a little like having kids running around your house all the time.  You have to be okay with noise and mistakes and a cacophony of sorts.  Of course, some kids are quiet practisers.  They focus and play their tunes and it's enjoyable to listen to.  It brings a smile to your face.

After many years of quiet, focussed work a budding pianist is likely to play something with more intensity to it.  Maybe a little Beethoven.

Beethoven: Sonata No. 8, Op. 13 in C minor. (1st Movement) Performed by legendary pianist, Claudio Arrau.

I remember as a teenager playing this Beethoven piano sonata and loving it.  My sister would hear the opening chords and groan, "No...not that one again."  She would get as far away from the music as she could get.  She didn't like the angry, full sound of it all.  

Lucky for me my mother knew I needed the emotional release available through the playing of music of this intensity.