Stories about people's Für Elise experiences
Not being able to play piano anymore
This story was submitted by Mari and was added around June 2007.
Hi. My name is Mari, and the first time I heard the story was when I was about three years old.
I started attending a piano academy, and the first time I went, my teacher was late, so the desk lady had told my mother and I to wait in the waiting room. This was in Korea, and in Korea, the waiting room was just a bench in a hallway full of rooms with teachers teaching students the piano. I don't remember clearly, but I am assuming it was a rather quiet day, because I could only hear one person playing the piano. It was at that time that I heard Fur Elise, and I fell in love with it.
I didn't know anything about the piano, so I was embarrassed to ask what the song was. I progressed really quickly; it was about five or six months along that my teacher presented me with the song Fur Elise.
As soon as she played it for me, I knew it was that song. I practiced and practiced, and my teacher signed me up for a district competition for juniors, and I chose to play Fur Elise. I ended up in second place at the age of four, but to this day, I believe that if it were any other song, I wouldn't have gotten so far along as a pianist.
After a few years, I grew out of that song, but still played it once every while. I graduated from piano lessons when I was six and a half years old. I taught my friends how to play piano for fun, and my mother's acquaintances asked me to teach their children as well. I enjoyed the piano, so it was no big deal. But, when I was ten years old, I broke my fingers when I tried to stop a soccer ball from hitting my face. My fingers never made a full recovery, and although I could do everyday stuff with ease, it seemed that I couldn't play the piano again, for it required extra effort from my fingers. I became depressed after that for a while.
Then, during a talent show about a year after that in elementary school, a boy three years older than me was in front of the entire school on a piano and in baggy jeans, playing. He played Fur Elise. And also made many mistakes that I easily overcame in a day or two. I scoffed at him at first, but when I saw that he wasn't frustrated, but was having fun, I grew sad that I couldn't play the piano like him. I remembered my first performance with Fur Elise, and the first time I heard it. I realized then at a young age that I would give anything to be able to play the piano, even if I didn't have the ability to play as well anymore; and I still do wish that I could play the piano, even if I had to practice for many years to get to the level I was before.
And every time I listen to Fur Elise, it reminds me of that boy to sat in front of a piano in front of an entire school, and bothered to play a song which he didn't perfect. It was far different from my own performance which was full of emotion. His was technical and stiff, but I think the smile on his face while he played the song made all the difference. Fur Elise has been with me since I was a child, a teen, and now a young adult.