Learning the piano – with cats

I am resuming my efforts to learn the piano. I doubt I will ever achieve my ideal of playing Bach with fluency, but it would be nice to be good enough to play simple pieces for my own pleasure. Also, having reached an age when an alarming number of my friends are developing dementia, I hope it will help to preserve my brain power. Studies have shown that playing the piano improves memory, mental speed, concentration, and eye-hand coordination, as well as decreasing anxiety and boosting happiness and self-esteem.

As a child I had a few lessons which I didn’t enjoy, though I was glad of them when I started playing again after a gap of several decades and found I still remembered some basics which might have been hard to learn later on. I know it is important to have a teacher to encourage regular practice and progress along the right lines, but it can be hard to find a good one. I have had a couple who were mediocre, and one who verged on the sadistic – I imagine it must be frustrating for skilled musicians to have to earn a living by giving lessons to slow learners like myself. My most recent teacher was excellent but he is no longer available and will be hard to replace.

I have some excuses for failing to practise as much as I should. A major setback was breaking my wrist and being unable to play at all for almost a year. Movement of my right hand is permanently restricted, and it becomes painful if I use it for too long. The other main impediment is the presence of cats. When Daisy (pictured) was alive, she delighted in jumping onto the keyboard and marching up and down, with a preference for the bass. I sometimes wish I could have trained her to play proper duets with me, after the fashion of Nora the Piano Cat whose YouTube videos have brought her worldwide fame. Nora is a grey tabby, adopted as a kitten from a rescue centre and now almost 18 years old – a feline example of the health benefits of playing the piano? One of our present cats, Leo, distracts me by scratching rhythmically on some nearby piece of furniture whenever I start to play. Our other cat, Magic, has no interest in music at all.