The Piano Lesson

The Piano Lesson
Henri Matisse, 1916. Oil on canvas. The Museum of Modern Arts, New York, NY.

The picture is a strange take on a piano lesson, with the teacher sitting well in the background (or maybe the mother watching?) and the student alone on the piano. But it is strangely reminiscent of my feelings about piano playing and piano lessons – the slightly desolate expression in the boys face; the inevitable dreaded metronome on the piano (which you can see in the photo, too…).

My photo is a more commonplace teaching situation, with my grandma right next to her student (there isn’t actually a photo that shows me together with her on the piano, even so we often played pieces “for four hands” and she always sat by me to watch and teach…). Mark my grandma’s chunky old piano, too – it had to have jars of water placed into the bottom of it to “temper it right”.

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Papers and alphas from Club Scrap "Musical Interlude", plus metronome 3D sticker from Jolee's Boutique; musical notes eyelet from Eyelet Outlet; and a piano charm from my needlecrafts stash.