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6 Things Everyone Who Took Piano Lessons Knows To Be True

Practice, practice, practice!

1. You can never be too careful around the Dangerous Hot Key: Weeks and weeks of practice, and then, when you least expect it, yeowch! You tap the one boiling-hot key.

2. Your teacher would slap your wrist if she caught you sucking on a bean: It didn’t matter if it helped you focus. Sucking on beans—even a simple garbanzo—was strictly forbidden at the piano.

3. The middle foot pedal runs the garbage disposal: Gotta be careful with this one.

4. You chained your piano to the bike rack outside your recital as a precaution, only to get so nervous that you forgot the combination when it was your turn to perform: Oops.

5. Opening for Billy Joel was always a big hassle: Ugh. You had to dress up in your nice slacks, arrange your music neatly in a black binder, and haul ass all the way to Madison Square Garden. At least it made your parents happy.

6. The piano teacher always smelled like guitars: He should have smelled like pianos.