Introducing: Davenport
The gang is all here. Me, a computer, and my piano. Unstoppable trio.
Fun fact: I took piano lessons for 11 years.
(TL;DR - watch the 90 second video at the end)
(if you don’t want to watch the video either, then I’ve got nothing for ya. move along)
My Piano Journey
I started playing piano sometime in the 1st grade, as I recall. My sister and I both took piano lessons in a one hour slot, split up into a 30 minute slot for me and one for my sister. My sister was pretty diligent about practicing and seemed to enjoy our lessons a good lot. I looked forward to lessons each week as well, but it was more for what I would get up to during the 30 minute slot when my sister was practicing piano and I was left to entertain myself. I usually passed the time playing with my piano teacher’s fluffy white dogs, Remy and Riley. Some days I would practice jumping over my piano teacher’s patio furniture. Suffice it to say I was still getting a lot out of lessons even if it didn’t show so much in my piano playing prowess.
Sometime around 3rd or 4th grade, I think it was, I decided I didn’t much like it and wanted to stop. I told my mom, to which she replied, “Alright, but I think you’ll make Mrs. Davenport really sad.”
I hadn’t thought of it that way yet, being a 4th grader. But even then, one thing was abundantly clear: making Mrs. Davenport sad was simply not an option.
Mrs. Davenport was my piano teacher. She’s also probably the cutest little lady you’ll ever meet. She was nearly a voice actor for the Care Bears. So however cute and kind you may think she is, you’re underestimating.
Naturally, I decided I would not quit piano in 4th grade. I would do the honorable thing and stick it out another 9 years until I left for college.
The following 9 years were formative for me. Mrs. Davenport was a great teacher; and as any great teacher knows, the lesson plan is just a starting point. I can’t say I finished my 11 years of piano knowing how to read notes. I can’t say I even know how to play piano today. I can say, however, that I know how to brine a turkey. That’s something I learned from Mrs. Davenport instead of playing piano. I wrote one of my college application essays about her and all she’s taught me. She is like family to me. At some point we started calling her Auntie Dianne.
A passion Revived
It’s been 6 years or so since I’ve taken piano lessons. I can comfortably say I don’t know how to piano. Not even a little bit. Whatever claim I had to it is certainly gone now. But I still love music, and I’ve wanted to get back into it for some time now. It’s hard to learn (or relearn, I suppose) an instrument without a teacher… so I made one!
Davenport is a program I wrote to help me learn to play piano again. More than learning how to play specific songs right now, I’d like to get really comfortable with note reading and basic music theory.
Curious how a computer program can help you learn piano? Check it out:
