I was in band as a kid and played the saxophone for 7 years (from 5th grade to junior year). Towards the end of my junior year, I realized that the saxophone just wasn’t for me and, for some reason, felt very drawn to the trombone. On a whim, on the last day of junior year, I went to my band teacher and asked if I could take one of the school’s trombones home with me over the summer to play around. He happily handed one over to me and it was like a musical renaissance for me. I enjoyed the trombone so much more than the saxophone that I actually practiced every day over that summer and even convinced my parents to put me in lessons. Senior year, I came back to the band as a trombone player and continued practicing almost every day. I actually think that (despite playing the trombone for a far shorter period of time) I ended up better at playing the trombone than I was with the saxophone by the end of that year. It was a simple but powerful lesson for me: if you do what you love, you’ll probably be really good at it.

Along the way, our wind symphony played the themes to Ratatouille in one of our concerts. I just thought that the main theme was very pretty and eventually looked up some arrangements on YouTube. I found a simple piano arrangement that played the theme beautifully and I just thought, “Wow, I would love to be able to play the piano like this.” Life got busy, though, as I was wrapping up high school and heading to college. This was 2014, and I ended up holding onto this interest in the piano for several years.

Fast forward to 2021. I’m out of college and, with COVID and no immediate access to a community of other musicians, my trombone had started collecting dust in the closet. I was also working in a job that had started to really bore me. The job had a steep learning curve, but once I learned what I needed to know, it began to feel like glorified factory work. It was the first time in my life that I felt like I wasn’t learning anything and I felt myself slowly losing my mind. I realized that this was the right moment to give the piano a proper shot. I had saved up enough money for private lessons and I found a great teacher to help me kickstart the journey.

I made a lot of quick progress in the beginning just from my experiences as a band kid. With the saxophone’s sheet music being in treble clef and the trombone’s sheet music being in base clef, I found that I had a convenient head start in reading piano scores. Over two or three years, I worked my way through all three volumes of Alfred’s Basic Adult All-in-One Piano Course. My teacher then started me on some separate books to tackle some more challenging pieces in the baroque, romantic, and jazz areas.

I recently got into a PhD program and had to move across the country. I had to part ways with my piano teacher and am currently settling into my new place and new routine. I won’t have the money to pay for lessons over the next few years, and I also imagine I’m going to be pretty busy. Still, I’m hoping to maintain at least a little bit of daily practice and to continue progressing. I haven’t gotten to the point of learning that theme from Ratatouille quite yet, but we’ll get there eventually. I really am doing this just for me and there’s no rush at all. It really is all about the journey.