So, I have a bit of an old soul. Of course, I enjoy most modern day things as well. But there’s just something about old music, movies, and shows that I just love. It just makes me feel nostalgic. I get all warm and fuzzy inside in association with anything from the sixties to the eighties.
When I was younger, around thirteen years old, I didn’t care much for stuff like that. I was just living my life, being in the present and minding my own business. Eventually, I decided that I wanted to learn how to play the piano. So, my parents set me up with a piano teacher. He was probably in his sixties and a bit of a hipster, but he was a pretty cool guy. He began to teach me right away, beginning with simple songs like nursery rhymes. I was a pretty quick learner.
My teacher soon told me how impressed he was by how quickly I had adjusted to playing the piano. Then he said, “Soon, I’m going to teach you some Beatles songs.” I’m sure most of us have heard of The Beatles, a world-famous band way back in the sixties. I’d heard of them, but never really gave them much thought. But I shrugged it off and simply agreed with what my teacher had said. I mean, why not, right? I was down to try something new.
Once my teacher was convinced that I was ready to learn harder songs, he gave me this big song book, containing eighty songs by The Beatles. It was quite impressive; I didn’t realize that they wrote so many songs. I came to find out that what my teacher had given me wasn’t even half of what they produced!
This was when I started learning chords. Before, I was playing simple treble and bass. Learning to play chords was a bit of an adjustment issue for me. It was difficult. I moved from song to song with increasing difficulty, and I was getting pretty frustrated.
Later on, my teacher had me move on to one of The Beatles’ songs known as “Yesterday.” He told me to take my time with it as it would be harder than most of the songs that I’d already tried from the book. He definitely wasn’t wrong. Whenever I practiced at home, I just wanted to toss that book out into the backyard. I absolutely hated it. But I knew that the only way I’d make any progress was to practice. I thought that maybe if I just listened to the song itself I’d be able to get some sort of idea on how to play it as well as learn the tempo.
I found a performance on YouTube and gave it a listen. I’ve got to tell you, I was pretty blown away by how much I loved the song. It was just so beautiful. I probably listened to it a thousand times that day, and not even just for the sake of learning how to play it. I became intrigued and started listening to more of their songs, and I just fell in love. I started playing better and eventually perfected the song. My teacher was surprised at how fast I had learned the song.
Afterwards, I started discovering more bands and artists from the sixties, seventies, and eighties. I started listening to Queen, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Neil Diamond, and so many more. I even attended both a Neil Diamond and a Paul McCartney concert a few years back, and it was so much fun.
Nowadays, I listen to more modern-day artists, but the classic rock age holds a special place in my heart. I’ve got my piano teacher to thank for that! I guess he brought that “old soul” out of me, because it isn’t just old music that I enjoy. I mean seriously, who doesn’t love movies from the eighties? I know I do! But I found that this genre of music was especially wonderful for me, and I’m really glad to have discovered it.