My Musical Inclinations… don’t ask me to sing!

I’ve decided to relegate my amateur piano playing abilities to this realm.

Like dancing in my panties to early Beatles, it’s a secretive habit that no one in my mainstream life really knows about. I don’t like playing for others, so I never see the need to point out that I know how to use that deserted, forgotten, instrument in their parlours.

Like many young Americans from respectable homes, I was coerced and compelled for many years by my parents as a child to take lessons. Grounded to reading books in my bedroom when I refused to practice (which is how I read Homer, and parts of the encyclopedia- when I finished reading my own books, there was that dusty collection of classics in the guest room). I was so put off by hours of scales, stupid Latin abbreviations, the math and coordination involved (how long to hold a quarter note in 3/4 time vs 1/3 time, playing a triplet with my right hand and an eighth note with my left) …  that I rebelled as a teenager and stayed far away from pianos for many years.

Like spinach, piano playing is something that’s good for me that I didn’t like growing up, but actually find rather wholesome and delicious as an adult. Like riding a bike, it’s something I learned at a young enough age that I can easily pick it up again after years of not doing.

With the purchase of a piano this week, I’m now on a mission to obtain sheet music. Lots of it. I was never very spectacular at playing piano, because I would want to explore the next piece as soon as I was able to play something “okay”. My musical ADHD did lend itsself to being able to read music, though. I would stay grounded in my room reading The Odyssey for a month rather than memorize something to perfection. Not like learning Vivaldi passes or fails your ability to graduate 6th grade

When I recently resigned my day job, one of my goals was to get back to this lapsed form of stress relief and musical meditation. I also thought that I’d start practicing yoga and become amazingly limber … but now you know where my priorities are (I can’t do the splits, but I have graceful, strong, hands)