Sunday Memories
Judy Wills
Still considering my piano playing, I guess one of my favorite pieces to play was “Clair de Lune” by Claude Debussy. A magnificent piece. I really loved that music. Unfortunately, so many of the Miss America contestants during those years played it for their talent, it sort of became “rote.” There was another piece by Debussy, “The Sunken Cathedral” that I attempted to learn to play, but it just seemed to be out of my range of capability. It’s quite complicated, but in the right hands, it, too is magnificent. Mrs. Larsen played it for me one time, and I was mesmerized.
! have mentioned in a previous posting, that after we joined our church here in Orlando, that our Minister of Music gathered six of us that played the piano and we had a concert for the church. We each played on a Clavinova (electronic pianos), which also meant they were all “tuned” together. In my post of September 30, 2012, I mentioned this concert. I mentioned that we practiced at the piano store, then they brought the instruments to the church and they were placed on the stage. I stated: We played two or three pieces all together – different parts of the song, like an orchestra. Then we each played a duet with one of the other pianists, then a solo. It was a great deal of fun, and we got to praise our Lord with the talent He gave each of us.
I never really thought I would be a piano teacher. I mean, I played the instrument, but that is quite a bit different than teaching someone else to play it. At different times, I have had several people ask me if I would teach their children, but I always declined. However, when we were in Heidelberg (1980-1983), I was given the opportunity to teach. I wasn’t too thrilled with the prospect, but the circumstances were different.
You see, there was a Canadian family in our church. They approached me about teaching their boys. I was quite interested to learn that Canada has a “conservatory” system of teaching piano. In other words, if you lived in one of the Eastern provinces and began taking piano lessons, but then had to move, perhaps to one of the Middle or Western provinces, you could find a teacher and pick up right where you left off! Neat! And these boys had been taking lessons for a number of years, and just needed someone to keep them up-to-date while they were in Germany. It was quite a program, and I thoroughly enjoyed the time we had together. One of the boys was in high school, and the other boy was in middle school, therefore – different levels.
Because of my time studying music at the Community College in Florida, I had learned a lot of theory that had just never occurred to me before. I was able to pass all that along to those boys I was teaching.
Another time that I taught piano, was still during the time we were in Heidelberg. We had a military doctor and his family living downstairs from us, and they had three little girls. The oldest was about eight years old, and eager to learn. And so they talked me into teaching her. She had some piano lessons behind her, so that helped. Well, as I’ve mentioned before, I was/am NOT a prodigy. But this little girl WAS a prodigy. I hardly had to teach her anything, and she was off and running with it. For instance: I have always had trouble doing transposition. When I mentioned it to her, she said, “oh you mean like this?” and proceeded to transpose the song she was playing from one key to the next – all the way through the octave! I’m sure my mouth was hanging open by that! She was amazing!!
To be Continued
Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .
Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.
After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.
Old Things R New 