Song Was How It All Began

“I just need your last name and email address so I can send you the invoice first,” the piano salesman said.

It’s been six years of lessons and practice on a digital keyboard. RJ still loves playing — his skills growing day by day, his hands larger now, his fingers steadier. I finally decided it was time to upgrade.

“Song,” I replied. “My last name is Song.”

The salesman smiled, perhaps without realizing how fitting that sounded.

This piano wasn’t an impulse purchase. It was a decision that took time — years, really. Two years ago, RJ switched to a new teacher, Regina, after his previous instructor left the school. During his trial lesson, Regina asked him to play a couple of familiar songs. Later that evening, she called me and said, “I see something in him. He has some talent — real potential. I’d like to train him holistically to uncover it.”

I wasn’t sure what to believe at first. Maybe she was just trying to recruit another student. But after a few lessons that I sat through, I began to understand what she meant. Her teaching was different: intuitive, expressive, and deeply passionate. She spoke not only about notes and rhythms, but about the connection of brain, the body, and the soul, all working together in harmony.

And most of all, she cared.

One day, she told me how surprised she was that RJ could play with such nuance after practicing only on a digital keyboard. That’s when I knew — it was time to give him something real, something that could meet him where his music was headed.

So, we bought the piano.

And in that moment — as the salesman typed Song into his screen — it felt almost poetic. A name that was once just part of me, now written at the beginning of RJ’s next chapter.