“champagne problems” & my story with piano
9-year old me performing at Weill Recital Hall-Carnegie Hall in NYC for the first time.
My story with piano goes a long way back, since I was five and a half to be exact. Lol yes, I was consistent with the stereotype of Asian Americans and piano, etc etc. For 13 years I would spend about an hour a day (or more if it’s right before an audition) for potentially the 5 so minutes at Carnegie Hall or some other concert hall in NYC. And clearly I was successful, I did reach Carnegie Hall (well, Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall) several times. And I clearly didn’t hate it to the point I stuck with all the way through graduating from high school. And I definitely dabbled a little bit (by that more like once a semester tops maybe I’ll find a solo practice room and just wing some pop music). And that gets to the heart of all this. I haven’t been very public about my time with piano as after 13 years under strict tutelage from a Russian teacher, I suck at sight reading for my life so without practicing music I felt embarassed to acknowledge that I played piano 😭 And believe me there’s sooo many sheet music of pop music that if I didn’t suck my feed I would’ve probably have posted more about / made my piano-playing known much earlier 😅
....until when I heard Taylor Swift’s “champagne problems” the day the Evermore album came out. The piano accompaniment instantly struck a chord with me (no pun intended). After a quick search online for the sheet music (and grateful for it being in the humble C major 🙂), it was easy to read without too much struggle. Of course it’s nothing like the music I once played. But you have to start somewhere, right?
Anyhow, it’s gotten me to wonder for bit about those 13 years and those tens of thousands of dollars (yes, I counted it was close to $30,000, enough for a year of a college tuition!) my parents spent on me, and that did all of that go to waste to help develop this “hobby” and pad my resume for college apps back then? While I didn’t hate it, did I like it enough/was it worth it to have pursued it? For instance, maybe I could’ve used that time to have found a deeper passion then, and maybe that would’ve made me a more decisive and confident person today? Especially looking back can’t help but find the correlation between the social awkwardness back then with my piano teacher and among other things too and my overthinking today. And it begs the question, “Have things not changed about me, and what does that make of me going forward?”
Hopefully this will not be the last time I touch the piano before another decade or so passes, and hopefully I can find the answer to the lingering questions soon. But in the meantime, I’ll just call it champagne problems…