what have I done?

Still working out the ramifications of my latest decision: Opie is going to start learning piano in addition to oboe. She’ll do a separate, shorter lesson with Teacher on a different day. The plan is for her to learn both piano and theory.

There are still a few details to work out, like, a piano(!).

Plus I’m realizing the practicalities will take some thought. How will we structure two separate practices each day? How can I help motivate her? Will she be willing to do the work? I’m glad we’re starting this during a summer when we are not very busy. Hopefully we’ll find a groove that works before September.

The decision to start piano was the end result of a lot of discussion Teacher and I have had recently about where to go with Opie over the next year. I knew she seemed to have a knack for the oboe — that’s why we started the private lessons. But in response to an off-hand question from me, Teacher made it clear that she is quite talented in many respects: her embouchure, breath support, etc. Like “might end up being a music major” talented. Or “could end up playing oboe for a living” talented.

I hadn’t quite realized that.

I trust his opinion. He has decades of oboe-playing experience both as a student and a professional, and has taught for quite a while too. Plus it syncs with the level of the music I see Opie playing now: the Corelli-Barbirolli Concerto ranks as “difficult” in some leveled repertoire lists.

It made me stop and try to get a sense of the big picture: are we doing everything now that she may need further down the road? So we had some more discussion and came up with a plan for the next year. I’ll discuss this in another post, but the first step is to start learning piano.

Step two will be obtaining a piano.