Not being able to play piano anymore
Submitted by Mari. Story 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.
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