C-D-E & C-B-A – Or, whatever my first two piano pieces were called…

I remember my parents agreeing that for most children (they believed that) before seven (7) years-old was “too early” to begin musical instruction. I vaguely recollect being about three (3) years old—and, banging, i.e., exuberantly-playing (i.e. having fun) on our piano when we lived on Oakwood Ave. (Huntsville, AL) and having been kindly corrected (i.e., stopped from banging) by Mother or Daddy. I don’t remember touching the piano or its keys again until (then, already having moved to Green Mountain (Huntsville, AL, USA) in 1959) when I was seven (7), my father had a fatherly discussion with me during which, he convinced me that I now had a wonderful opportunity to learn to play the piano from my mother. He was absolutely correct. I will write more on that, in follow-up posts.

When I began writing this, I believed that my first two piano piece had been: (#1) “C-D-E” and (#2) “C-B-A.” I thought that these pieces were in the John W. Schaum piano series. However, as I researched, it became clear that these songs were in another piano method. I believe that I found them in the the Leila Fletcher Piano Course, Book 1. And, they are not the first pieces in the book, either… An online version of Book 1 is here.

My memory of the piece itself, also, was not exact—my version of the pieces added a couple of extra notes to the end of each piece. My tendency to do that (adding notes or omitting them) drove one of my piano teachers, Mrs. Edwin Jones, crazy (not literally). I recall a story related to Mrs. Jones and my improvisation, that I’ll also save for another post.

The audio recording I have produced to accompany this post introduces my recollection of “C-D-E” and then, “C-B-A,” followed by three “intended-to-be-original” variations of each. I hope that you enjoy them.