Music & Family

Kathy Prosser

My mothers first real dive into music was when she started taking piano lessons as a kid. She grew up in a small town at the time consisting of only 8000 people. There was only one option in the town for piano teachers and so when her mother said she had to have a hobby to do after school, because watching TV all day was not an option, my mum picked the piano. They already had a piano in the house and both of her sisters, Fiona and Robin, were also taking piano lessons. The teacher was very strict and would tap on her hands with a ruler any time there was a mistake. In Australia, any serious piano lessons would follow the AMEB (Australian Musical Examinations Board). This organisation created a standard model for teachers to follow to make sure that their students are learning at the correct pace. Pieces from Bach to more contemporary composers are found in these books. But, all of the music is classical. She also played the French horn from year 5 to 6 in primary school. As a kid she wanted to be a musician, but everyone around her told her that it was not possible. That she would have to pick something, anything else.

    At this point, she had moved to Cairns, Queensland (pronounced: "cans"). She got a new and better piano teacher who was classically trained in a conservatory. She was assigned classical music like Bach and Mozart, but she wanted to play more modern music. But, once she realised that modern music was very easy to play, she went back to learning classical. However, my mother was not always the best student and did not practise as much as she should have. At one point she tells me, that her piano teacher said she hadn't practiced enough. She picked up my mum's music off the piano and threw it outside and told her not to come back until she had practised.

    She said that one of her favourite artists when she was a teenager was Sting from the band, the Police. She told me that his lyrics were very educational to her and that he used many different instruments in his music she had never heard before. This made her realise that you could use music to teach people. 

My mum also told me that some time in the 1990s she went to the Glastonbury Music Festival in the UK and she heard so much music she had never before. The only band she could remember by name was Jamiroquai. She told me that they played psychedelic rock/acid jazz. She did not remember what songs they played, so I picked one of their most popular songs from their first album released in 1993. The title track: Emergency on Planet Earth. 

She said that going to that music festival made her realise that so many people out there were making a living as musicians and if they could do it, why couldn't she.

So, at the age of 26, she went back to her piano teacher in Cairns and spent 6 months studying to get ready for the AMEB examinations. She wanted to go to a conservatory and study classical music. She reports that she spent 4-8 hours a day practising for the exam. After 6 months of hard work, she passed the exam with high honours. A distinction she had never gotten before on any of her previous AMEB exams. However, when she went to apply for the conservatories after completing that requirement. She realised that she had taken the wrong exam. She took the exam one level below the one required for study at the college level. After that she decided that she did not want to keep on trying to become a classically trained musician. She had other passions and decided to take the mistake as a sign to pursue other careers. She was a hairdresser, lifeguard, and policeman before she decided to try music again. 

I asked her what some of the popular music she listened to at the time was. She said one of her favourite songs was Raining on the Rock by John Williamson. She wanted me to share this quote that John Williamson said to her when she asked his advice about becoming a musician: "Just write what's in your heart. If you like it, other people will like it too." She asked me to write that because it had such a profound effect on her. It was one of the most famous Australian musicians giving her permission to follow her dream.

Now the music that she listens to the most is the music that she plays on the piano. Her favourite pieces to play are Golliwog´s Cakewalk by Debussy, The Little White Donkey by Ibert, Stomp Time Rag by Scott Joplin and my personal favourite of hers: Jealousy by Jacob Gade. My favourite part starts at 1:00.