This Blows My Mind--I Had Never Heard This!
I was listening to a really old talk in which they quoted this opinion story as follows from the Deseret News in 1988.
“To some it may seem strange to see ships of many nations loading and unloading cargo along the docks at Portland, Oregon. That city is 100 miles from the ocean. Getting there involves a difficult, often turbulent passage over the bar guarding the Columbia River and a long trip up the Columbia and Willamette Rivers.
“But ship captains like to tie up at Portland. They know that as their ships travel the seas, a curious salt water shellfish called a barnacle fastens itself to the hull and stays there for the rest of its life, surrounding itself with a rock-like shell. As more and more barnacles attach themselves, they increase the ship’s drag, slow its progress, decrease its efficiency.
“Periodically, the ship must go into dry dock, where with great effort the barnacles are chiseled or scraped off. It’s a difficult, expensive process that ties up the ship for days. But not if the captain can get his ship to Portland. Barnacles can’t live in fresh water. There, in the sweet, fresh waters of the Willamette or Columbia, the barnacles loosen and fall away, and the ship returns to its task lightened and renewed.”
This blew my mind–how cool is that? This can be related to taking piano lessons from just anybody or an app that just teaches you to push or hit the keys.
The development of bad technique is like the barnacles attaching themselves to the ship. If you don’t learn from the right teacher, you are bound to pick up some bad habits along your piano journey. They increase our drag, slow our progress, decrease our efficiency. They stop us from playing some of the songs we really want to learn.
Getting and starting with the right piano teacher and method is like entering the fresh waters of the Columbia River where the barnacles are not allowed to build up and/or bad habits start falling away. With the correct technique we can go efficiently on with our work of playing the piano. Bad technique eventually sinks us as we ultimately give up on songs that we want to learn because we literally don’t have the technique to play them.
Learn from a teacher that can start you off with the right technique and from method that is so gradual and easy to master, supplemented with chording tutorials.
Please click here to learn more about me and my approach and my piano course for adult beginners at notablepianolessons.com. Learn piano in the comfort of your own home but not alone! Please enjoy one of my free tutorials on how you can use 3 simple chords to play hundreds of songs.
