October 2005: Pamela Joy Upton passed away in a tragic accident in September 2005. Her internet pages will be preserved online by her family, for the nearly 1,000 people who received her newsletters and visited her websites on a regular basis. Her sister has kindly given me permission to leave her article online, in loving memory of a soul taken away too soon.

I have long been a fan of Alaska Living, but I only recently discovered that the webmaster behind this wonderful site is also a musician and a piano teacher. With special permission from Pamela, the JEOW is proud to reprint her musings on techniques for teaching a "first piano lesson."

Kim says, "I can't play the piano."

"Kim, I'm glad you brought this up. It is my opinion that there is no such thing as a person who cannot play the piano."

After introductions are over, I will say, "Let's begin our first lesson. I would like you to play me a song."

Kim gives me a puzzled look.

"You can play anything you like."

"I don't know how to play the piano," Kims says and gives me a pained, embarrassed look.

I move the piano bench away from the piano and touch a few keys lightly with my right hand. "That's the rain." Then I touch a few bass notes with force. "That's the thunder. Now play me a song about the rain. You can play it however you want."

Kim gently strikes a few keys. She looks at me for reassurance.

"Keep playing. Use all your fingers," I smile.

When she realizes that it is okay to touch the keys and play them any way she wants, she delightfuly continues for a few minutes. She looks at me again.

"Take your bow," I tell her. I show Kim a sheet of music. "If I wrote down the notes you played like the notes on this music, then somebody else could play your song, too."

Kim smiles.

"Now I'm going to teach you to read this special language (music) so you can play anything anyone else can play on the piano," I tell her.

Sometimes during the first lesson, we just play notes with no structure. Other times I may introduce the beginning book. I want it to be a lesson of discovery and fun.

"Kim, I believe your first lesson went very well today! Good job!"