A Piano Breakthrough

I have been taking piano lessons for seven months now. Each month I have to keep reminding myself that I have been playing piano for less than a year because I somehow think that I should be picking up the playing of this complicated instrument much more quickly than I am. I suppose the reason that I feel that way is that I have been playing the flute since I was ten years old, so I do have some background in music.

But let me tell you, playing one note at a time on the flute is a piece of cake when compared to playing chords and progressions and harmony with one hand and melody with the other. Add to that my dyslexic brain which thinks up when I see the notes going down on the page and foggettaboudit!!!!!

So, I plug away at the simple songs in my book and my amazingly compassionate teacher sits with me each week and tells me, "No dear you need to be using the third finger for that note," or "You should be playing a G there not an A." And I practice at my little keyboard and slowly the jumble of notes on the page begin to actually sound like songs!

Last week though I had a real breakthrough as I was practicing. Somewhere in the inner recesses of my mind, I realized that if I relaxed and let my fingers do what they were supposed to do because they are set up over the right notes when they are in the right position on the keyboard (something my teacher always stresses) then I really don't have to hunt and peck to play because if my hand is in the right place then my finger is on the right note.

Today at my lesson time I played a very slow, but not too mangled version of The Can Can and my hands knew exactly what to do when I had to change positions and my fingers were on the right notes most of the time.

I think I am gonna like playing the piano from now on.

Pax