When I was a little Vance, I was forced to take piano lessons from the cruel woman shown here, and whenever I hit the wrong note, she would SLAM the piano lid down on my fingers, until I cried and cried and …
Wait, I have the wrong person. That dreadful experience happened when I was taking trombone lessons. And the teacher didn’t use a piano lid, he used a sledge hammer. And now he is in prison.
So just let me start over. The woman pictured here was Susie DeShazo, one of the best and most talented piano teachers this city ever had. Countless musicians were influenced by her music school, which she opened in 1925 with her sister, Jenny, at 1264 Linden, just across the street from Central High School.
Miss Susie, as everyone called her, was the youngest in the family and probably the most musically gifted. An old Memphis Press-Scimitar article noted that she was “born with that sense of absolute pitch, which enabled her to recognize and produce any tone correctly.”
Just as I myself was able to do on my harmonica!
A talented violinist at a very early age, she turned to the piano when she “rebelled against the squeaky sounds produced on the violin by beginners” and very quickly became “one of the South’s most outstanding artists.” One reviewer commented that “she possesses a superb technique. Her playing is characterized by great tonal beauty and a warmth of style that make her programs never-to-be-forgotten events.”
Much like my harmonica and oboe recitals at the Lauderdale Mansion!
