How I Learned To Play The Piano

My Mom studied at Longy School Of Music and her teachers included Nadia Boulanger and E. Power Biggs. There was always music in the house. Dad loved Sinatra, Josh White, Don Shirley, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, ETAL and their LPs were constantly spinning on our old Garrard 'table. Mom played piano pretty well and sometimes I'd come home from elementary school to a Chopin Etude, a Liszt Prelude, or a Bach Variation she had transcribed. One of my favorite records at the time was an Antal Dorati recording of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" which featured real cannons and carillon. Can you say, "KLANG!"??? One day while Mom was puttering in the kitchen I walked to the piano and plucked out the 1812 ditty. You know, the one that goes, "DoDeeDaDaDoDeeDaaDoDo", in the correct key with the 1/2 step modulation. Mom freaked out, ran into the room and said, "You're going to have piano lessons!". Ugh. Piano lessons were quite instructive on many levels. I learned I did not care to take direction, that most of the literature for my performance level i.e. the John Thompson Reader(s) were inane like Dick & Jane, I have a temper, and authority figures outside the family were evil and to be feared. So, lessons were curtailed and I was allowed to happily listen to my muse. In the spring of '69 I was listening to the radio at my Mom's brother Ed's house, this tune came on that kicked my 16 year old ass and the singing was raw, passionate and ballsy. That tune was "Born On The Bayou" by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I bought the album, "Bayou Country", played it so often my parents gave in, caught the fever and gave CCR the stamp of approval. The last song on Side 1, "Graveyard Train" is a slow blues over a repeating riff and a vehicle for John Fogerty to stretch out on guitar and harmonica. I would spin this track and play along on piano. I picked out standard blues riffs, learned how to play them in different keys, and after a few weeks was able to answer Fogerty's solos with my own. What I learned through this process gave me the template on which to build my vocabulary and the flexibility to apply myself to newer musical formats including jazz fusion, electronic avant garde/minimalist, and straight up pop. That's how I learned to play piano. If anyone else has a similar story please share!