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MS Create: playing the piano

Hannah Smith

Hello there, my name is Hannah and I was diagnosed with relapsing remitting MS in December 2014. Recently I’ve got back into a hobby that I’ve learnt to love again: playing the piano.

I’ve always been able to play the piano from an early age. My aunt is a music teacher and she has taught me over the years.

However, once I’d moved in with my partner I drifted further and further away from the piano. My partner has always loved hearing me play and always encouraged me to play in the house, but life just takes over sometimes, right?

Finding the right time

When I was diagnosed with MS my step mum (who also has MS) encouraged me to start playing the piano again, to help relax me and take me away from the rest of the world and MS. But I wasn’t ready to play at that time. Instead I was focused on my other hobbies: making YouTube videos, and my bullet journal that I loved to write in every day.

The more people told me to play the piano, the more I pushed the thought away – I just didn’t want to and I was ‘too busy’ living and managing life with MS. It was when I had my most recent relapse and I went to stay with my aunt for a few days that I started playing the piano again and fell in love with it! I felt that I really could drift away and forget all about my MS troubles.

Lost in music

My aunt is teaching me a piece at the moment over FaceTime or Skype (we call it ‘over the airways!’) and I’ve almost finished it! It’s by my favourite composer, Ludivico Einaudi, and the piece is called I Giorni. I’ve been playing it for years and I’ve never actually finished it, so I made it my mission while I was off work with this relapse to learn the whole piece and guess what, I have! You can watch me play it on my YouTube channel.

Whenever I feel stressed or low I sit at the piano and play whatever I feel like, even if that’s making something up! It’s the one hobby where I can just totally relax and enjoy without having to think about anything else - it’s just me and the music.

About Hannah: Hannah is 27 and loves blogging and doing makeup. You can visit her blog or follow her on Twitter (@HannahEliza1) and Instagram (@Hannaheliza_1990).