Describe a song or piece of music you like

The music I want to talk about is not a song, it's a piano music called Clair de Lune. It was written by Debussy, a French composer, and it is very slow and soft, so it is good for relaxing.

I heard it first time when I was fifteen. At that time I was preparing for the university exam, and every night I could hear a piano from my neighbour's flat. Her name is Señora Elena and she was a piano teacher before. She played this same music every night, but I didn't know the name of it. After some months I sing it to my music teacher at school and he told me it is Clair de Lune.

Now I listen it almost every night when I am studying, and always before an exam, because it makes me more calm.

And why it means something to me... it's because that year was very stressful for me, I had too much pressure from the exam, and this music was helping me to relax. One day I decided to go to her flat to say thank you. She was very happy and she taught me to play the first part of it. Now she moved to Valparaíso to live near her daughter, but when I listen this music I always remember her kindness.

I'd like to talk about a piece of classical music rather than a song. It's called Clair de Lune, by the French composer Debussy, and it's a fairly short piano piece, very gentle and slow, the kind of music you'd put on to unwind.

I first heard it when I was about fifteen, in a slightly strange way. I was revising for the university entrance exam at the time, and every night I could hear someone playing the piano through the wall of my room. It was our neighbour, Señora Elena, who used to be a piano teacher, and she played this piece again and again. I didn't know its name for ages, until I hummed it to my music teacher and he told me what it was.

Nowadays I listen to it most evenings while I'm studying, and I always play it the night before an exam, almost like a superstition.

The reason it means so much to me is that it's connected with a really difficult period of my life. That year I was under a lot of pressure, and the music was the only thing that calmed me down. In the end I went to next door to thank her, and she was so pleased that she offered to teach me the beginning of it, which I can still play, more or less. She moved away a couple of years ago, but every time I listen to it I think of her and how much she helped me without even knowing.

The piece I'd like to talk about isn't a song at all, actually. It's Clair de Lune by Debussy, a slow, rather dreamy piano piece that lasts about five minutes and starts so quietly you almost have to lean in to hear it.

The way I first came across it is a bit unusual. When I was fifteen, I was studying for the university entrance exam, and every evening at around nine, music would start drifting through my bedroom wall. It turned out to be our neighbour, a retired piano teacher called Señora Elena, practising the same piece night after night. For months I had no idea what it was, until I hummed it, very badly, to the music teacher at school, and he recognised it straight away.

These days I listen to it most nights, usually through headphones while I'm working, and without fail on the night before an exam. It's become a kind of ritual.

As for why it matters to me, I think it's that it's completely bound up with that year. It was the most stressful time of my life, and that piece was the one thing that reliably slowed my heart rate down. Eventually I plucked up the courage to knock on Señora Elena's door and thank her, and she was so touched that she sat me down at her piano and taught me the opening page. She's since moved to Valparaíso to be near her daughter, but whenever I hear those first few notes, I'm reminded that you can make a difference to someone without ever realising you're doing it.