The semester I failed at 46
Harold opens the show with his own story: leaving the bank, the humiliation of a failed first semester, and what he changed about how he studied so the second one worked.
A piano exam at 61, with Margaret Oyelaran
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Show notes
Grade one at sixty one
Margaret Oyelaran delivered an estimated 4,000 babies across a 40-year career in Ibadan and never touched a piano until she retired. Harold talks to her about the first lesson, the teacher who treated her like an adult, and the exam room where she was the only candidate with grey hair.
- Choosing a teacher who does not talk to you like a child
- Fifteen minutes a day and why she refused to do more
- Practising with a six-year-old grandson who was learning the same piece
- What the examiner said afterwards
The next small step: book one lesson in anything, with no commitment to a second.
Transcript
Welcome back to The Late Bloomer Syllabus. I am Harold Nkemelu, and today's guest makes me feel like a slow starter. Margaret Oyelaran worked as a midwife in Ibadan for 40 years. She has delivered more babies than she can count. And at 61, retired, she walked into a music shop and asked about piano lessons. Last year she passed her grade one exam. We talk about the stiff fingers, the teacher who refused to patronise her, and the small matter of her six-year-old grandson learning the same piece at the same time and being rather competitive about it. Margaret is funny and very direct, and she has a clear answer for anyone who says it is too late. Stay for the next small step at the end. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.
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