Maybe it's not so bad I can't play Piano.

Part of me almost wishes I was one of these girls, only because I cannot play the piano, my piano skills are really rather abysmal. I have always secretly wished my parents had made me take piano lessons and forced me to practice so that today I could have some piano skills beyond ‘piano 214’ my sophomore year of college. However, reading many of these accounts I’m grateful my parents never forced me to play an instrument I had no interest in. Many of the accounts in this chapter of the Solie book, “”Girling” at the Parlor Piano,” are quite sad.

These young women seem aware of their musical responsibilities but disheartened by the fact that that is all they are allowed to do. They wake up, go to school, come home for dinner and then practice (every day). I can’t imagine being forced to practice something every day, I feel like that would suck the joy out of any activity. But the extraordinary amount of pressure that these young women were under is crazy to me, it’s as if all of the joy of the family unit, and especially that of the father, is wrapped up in the young women’s ability to play piano and entertain. Wow, life before TV, who knew?

I did however enjoy all of the diary entries that were included in this chapter. I think it’s fascinating to read actual accounts of life from any time period, but this one especially. There were so many well known women mentioned, all of whom were made to learn the piano, and it really drives home how prominent and revered this skill was.

I totally disliked the segments that listed all of the ways in which boys and girls, men and women were believed to be different. Men were daring, had good reasoning skills, strong, and powerful. But women were soft, weak, loving, caring, blah blah blah. That’s only because that was all they were allowed to be, (in my opinion). Today men and women are much closer to equality than they were 150 years ago, but it still really bugs me to read things like this. It’s just very interesting to discover how sexism crept its way into so many aspects of society back in the day.