Toy Piano

From the time I was very young, I loved to watch my mother play piano. Although she wasn't professional, to my ears she was one of the best musicians in the world. My dad had a great voice, and together they would sing and play together all the time. That is why one of the first things I ever asked for was a toy piano. They were overjoyed to hear me say that, and they got me one right away. It was one of those very simple toy pianos. I think it was made by Fisher-Price, and it had about an octave and a half of keys. When I got it, however, I thought it was the greatest thing ever. I would bang on the piano toy for hours every day, content to sit there and listen to the sounds that I made.

Although the noise must have been painful for my parents to hear, they let me get it out of my system. The toy piano was new to me, and they felt that, before they started to seriously instruct me, they should let me get a chance to experiment with it. That was philosophy of education that both of them had. They always believed in allowing kids to play around before telling them how to do something. That way, once I started to learn to play the piano, I was ready to be serious about it.

My parents had an excellent collection of piano books, and most of them were simple enough for me to play on a toy piano. I was only five years old at the time, so even learning to play a few simple scales was quite an accomplishment. At first, I was a little bit disappointed with practicing. It was such hard work, and it felt like I was getting nowhere fast. When I finally started to make some progress, however, it made me pretty happy. Soon, I could play a few basic songs on the toy piano, and I was quickly learning more.

It wasn't long before I outgrew my first piano. My parents got me a toy baby grand piano, although in retrospect I suppose I could have used their concert piano. I guess they were being pretty protective of it. I would still bang on the keys a little bit from time to time, and they took very good care of their own keyboard. Anyway, it suited me just fine. It was nice to have a toy piano that was all mine.