(Photo courtesy of Genevieve Schweitzer)
When quarantine hit and my piano lessons were no longer in person, I didn’t think it’d affect my playing. But I soon realized virtual lessons don’t work for me.
I’ve been learning piano from my teacher, Ms. Jones, since elementary school.
Over the years, I grew to love everything about the piano — the gentle ridges between the keys beneath my fingers, the smell of old sheet music, the sound of notes blurring together richly with a press of the pedal.
But during quarantine, it dawned on me that the instrument itself wasn’t why I loved playing — it was the connections that piano introduced me to. I miss playing duets with Ms. Jones, or chatting with her about music history as I pull out my sheet music.
While I feel lucky to continue playing through the pandemic, I’m also sad that after 13 years of lessons, my last one was spent entirely online. This fall, I’ll be going off to college. And I’ll likely never take another lesson with Ms. Jones again.
Music is important because it draws us together. And it’s hard to recreate those connections through a screen.