Why Asians Are Good at Piano
And how it changes our lives.
Let me start off by saying that you are kidding yourself if you think Asians are somehow predisposed to more musical talent than the rest of the world. Racial jokes aside, the stereotype has some truth to it. It’s just for a different reason than you think.
I started taking piano lessons in Kindergarten. I don’t remember knowing what a piano was before that day, or being asked if I wanted to learn, but it happened anyway. I took lessons through high school, and fifteen years later, I’m working on Lizst’s “Un Sonpsiro” on my own.
But here’s the crazy thing: for the first five years, I hated it.
I hated playing so much my mom had to set a fifteen-minute timer every day for me to practice. There are even videos on my computer of me crying and screaming while laying face-up on my mahogany piano bench.
But while I was practically held down to the bench every night at 7:30, why didn’t I just quit?
My mom, like plenty of other Asian parents, said “no,” leaving me to wonder why.
My parents struggled. I hear about them having to share a single bowl of pho with their siblings when all my life, I was able to order a large bowl for myself with whatever appetizer and drink I wanted.
In order to get to a place where you can afford lots of pho for your bratty kids, you have to work really freakin’ hard. I can’t even imagine what that was like. Or do I?
In the beginning, my mom probably signed me up because playing an instrument sounds nice, is a lifelong skill, and will gain some street cred from the other Asian parents.
But whether she realized it or not, forcing me to learn piano taught me more than a few Bach pieces. It taught me discipline.
Everyone in my household knows by now that learning a new song doesn’t sound pretty. It’s tedious, repetitive, and, sometimes, it will make you want to quit. Playing single-measure passages over and over at Prius-like speed sucks.
But sometimes in life, you have to do things you don’t like to do in order to be where you want to be. Actually, let me rephrase that: all throughout your life, you have to do things you don’t like to do in order to be where you want to be.
But when the storm finally passes and the arpeggios are perfected, you can enjoy the fleeting reward of a single two-minute masterpiece. Then, just like in life, you find a harder song to learn.