IT'S NEVER TOO LATE

How the global pandemic provided an unexpected opportunity for a grandmother to take up piano lessons

Last June, Anne Jones, a Welsh immigrant and grandmother to two current Carolina Friends students, arrived in the United States after a period of time working as a nurse in Africa. She had plans to drive all across America, but those plans were cut short as COVID-19 began to spread across the globe. Our interview with Anne explains how a confluence of circumstances led her to learning the piano for the first time, through our Extended Learning virtual music lessons.

Can you tell us how you came to be enrolled in our music lessons?

In the spring, I found myself marooned with my grandchildren and their parents. What was supposed to be a few weeks’ stay has morphed into a year. My grandson Tryfan had been taking piano lessons at Carolina Friends School for a couple of years. He needed encouragement to stick with it, as most kids do. Then when school closed and everything was on a screen, I think it all got too much for him. He really missed the one-on-one. His parents, Wenny and Kevin, first suggested I pick up the lessons for the rest of the semester. To which I replied, “Me..... play the piano?!” The last time I had any contact with an instrument, I was eleven years old. Still, I had no excuse for not trying, and to be able to bring music into my life was something I had always wanted to do. So I started in September.

What have you enjoyed the most? Has anything really surprised you?

Realizing that it is really not beyond my abilities to learn, contrary to my beliefs all these years that it was just too late. I am slow for sure, and I am sure I could practice more. I am so blessed that my teacher Raj has a good sense of humor and lots of patience. We do laugh a lot, which is a tremendous help and decreases my self-imposed stress for not being a prodigy!

What would your advice be to other adults interested in learning or returning to an instrument?

Drop the inhibitions, be vulnerable and humble. Realize that you will probably never make any money from it, but that it will give you an appreciation of life’s holding more surprises every day.

I have a friend whom I worked with in Africa, and I was so in awe of her for learning to play Cajun violin in her late 40s. She plays for herself, for relaxation, and can sit in and share tunes with other musicians, coming away with a multitude of new friends. She is the first to tell you she is no virtuoso, but that’s not important. She sounded like one when I first heard her play on a verandah in Zanzibar overlooking the Indian Ocean. The fun she has with it, and the satisfaction she gets from knowing she just did it, has made such a difference to her life.

When I was Tryfan’s age, I remember my uncle playing the accordion on a Sunday afternoon when the family got together. It was so much fun. So that is my next stop!

Learn more about music lessons for children and adults at www.cfsnc.org/musiclessons!