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I don't play the piano any more, but if you have nothing better to do, read on to see how I started learning the piano and what led me to stop playing it.
I took my first piano lesson on July 22, 1986, i.e. at age 9 and a half, at Collin Studio, Tin Kwong Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The assignment included the first four pieces from the John Thompsons book "Teaching Little Fingers to Play", and the first two exercises from "A Dozen a Day - Book I". Right after the lesson, I practiced them for about 15 minutes at my cousin's home. When I went back 7 days later for the second lesson and played for the teacher, she said I didn't know how to count. "You are rather dumb," she said, "but it's okay, because you are not the only one: my colleague has a student who is as dumb as you." So, I was discouraged. I pretended to be ill the following two weeks, and after that, no more lessons for 3 months. I remember what I did on July 29. At that time, I thought I could hold the half note (or "minim" in Hong Kong and Europe) for as long as I liked. I could count the quarter notes (or "crotchets") correctly, but I would hold the half notes for 4 to 5 beats. In the second lesson, she assigned to me two more pieces from the John Tompsons book. The second one was a famous one, the "Song of the Volga Boatmen"
Then Mom encouraged (in fact, pushed) me to resume piano lessons. On November 3, I had my third lesson, this time with a new teacher. Before that lesson, in order to prevent a similar catastrophe from happening again, I practiced all of the pieces I had learned to date (i.e. my entire repertoire!!) on a "keyboard" that I had drawn on a sheet of paper. (I didn't have a piano at home then.) This second teacher of mine was much more friendly. As I had expected, she made me play everything I had learned. I counted accurately this time, and she told Mom that I had talent. Of course, she was just being nice, because there's no way she could assess my potential just by hearing me play those simple pieces!
So that's how my study of the instrument began. For three years, my progress was rather slow. I hated practicing. I practiced for no more than 20 minutes per week. Then, in the winter of 1989 (I cannot find the exact date in my record, probably in the month of December), my cousin referred me to a teacher, Teacher Chan (or "Chan lo see" in Cantonese) who had graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory. She was much better qualified than all the techers I had had previously. And she taught me fun pieces, including my beloved Sonatinas by Clementi, Kuhlau and Haydn. I became interested in playing the piano, and I would walk to the piano and practice everyday. I had lessons with Teacher Chan every week, for three years. In either the winter of 1992 or the spring of 1993, I had my last lesson, and thereafter, I became my own teacher. I quit because I wanted to have more flexibility. I didn't like being made to practice certain pieces. In fact, when I was supposed to be practicing for the Grade 8 examination of the Royal School of Music (works by Bach, Mozart and Granados), I spent 90% of the time practicing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 instead!
Since I became my own teacher, I have played tons of pieces. Actually, many of these I just sight-read, played a couple more times, and never played again. I would get seriously bored if I had to play a work I didn't like too much for 500 times! And because I have been a good sight-reader all along, I picked up new pieces rather quickly. A list of more or less all pieces I have played/attempted to date is found here.
