Learning the Piano With a Broken Pinky

Wow, this quarantine is really sucking the life out of me. The first couple of weeks, it was kind of fun, but now that we are on week five of staying at home, I am going kind of crazy. There are only so many Tik Toks and YouTube videos that one can go through. Therefore, it is today, April 2, 2020, that I have decided to teach myself how to play piano. It will not be easy, but I am up for the challenge! Join me on this musical journey as I learn how to play this beautiful instrument. Now you may be wondering, why choose the piano out of all instruments to learn? Well, I actually took a keyboard class in eighth grade for a semester and I was pretty good at it, but I have not played since then. Therefore, I decided that this is the perfect time to relearn and sharpen up my skills. 

On the first day, I did not really practice that much because I spent most of the day cleaning the piano that was in our garage. It had not been touched in a really long time and gathered a lot of dust, so I cleaned it up really nicely. I also looked through my old middle school backpack and found some sheet music from when I was learning in eighth grade. The next day, I started out by reviewing how to read the sheet music and going over which note was where on the piano. I also played some basic beginner songs to get used to moving my fingers over the keys. I practiced the same songs over and over again until I either got it down perfectly or until my fingers would start to cramp and I could not play anymore. Finally, after a couple of hours, i had decided that I had practiced enough for the day and I decided to do something else. That night, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos on how to play the piano and saved some of my favorite tutorials to practice for the next day. 

The next morning, I woke up super early to play the piano. I started off with some practice songs to warm-up  and get a feel of the keys. I played along with the YouTube tutorials and actually shocked myself by how fast I was picking up and following along with the instructor. I decided to take a break and play basketball with my little brother, big mistake. We played for about 30 minutes and were having a blast, but then disaster struck. He threw the ball at me really hard and I caught it at an awkward angle, perfect recipe for a broken finger. At first, I did not feel a thing, but then all at once, it hit. It was the most painful thing I had ever felt in my whole entire life. My mom rushed me to the hospital where they did an x-ray and we learned that I did, in fact, break my right pinky. They fixed me up with a little cast around my pinky and sent us home. I was devastated because this meant that I would have to take a break from playing piano. 

The first couple of days after I had broken my pinky, I just moped around the house with no motivation to do anything at all. Day to day tasks had been super annoying to complete and it was really hard to learn how to type with one less finger. After this short period of time, I decided that I was not going to give up easily and I was still going to try to learn piano. 

It took a while getting used to playing without my right pinky, but I eventually got used to it. The biggest challenge was keeping my pinky lifted up because anytime I kept it resting down, I would accidentally hit a key I was not supposed to. I kept practicing the same song over and over again until I was finally able to play without my pinky accidentally hitting one of the other keys. Finally, after I was able to get through one whole song, I decided that it was enough for the day because my fingers were starting to cramp up. 

For the next few days, I kept practicing and practicing. I played all kinds of songs like the classics “Ode to Joy” and “Theme to Swan Lake”, and newer songs like “Someone Like You” by Adele and “All of Me” by John Legend. I even learned how to play “Happy Birthday” for my little sister’s birthday! After I got a little more confident in my skills, I decided to learn how to play an old Punjabi song that my grandpa really liked. This was one of the more challenging songs that I learned how to play, but I eventually got it and FaceTimed my grandpa to show him. It made him really happy and I was glad that I was able to put a smile on his face. It was then that I decided that I would learn how to play my family’s favorite songs so that I could bring some joy during these dark and difficult times. I loved learning a new song and playing it for my family because it made them feel super happy. I was just happy to see them smile for the first time in weeks. 

I have now been playing piano almost everyday for 5-6 hours for the past month and I confidently say that I have definitely improved! My goals for the future are to play more difficult songs and to learn some classical music to impress others. I have been working on this piece by Beethoven, but it is nowhere near being perfect. However, I am still proud of myself for taking on this challenge and teaching myself how to play this amazing and beautiful instrument that has taken over such a large part of my life.