Playing the Keys

I take piano lessons once a week, and once a week I royally embarrass myself in front of a well-accomplished pianist. When I try to play a piece that Mr. Parrini (puh-ree-knee) has assigned, I often sound like a toddler banging on a plinky toy piano. Parrini can play the exact same melody and it sounds like heaven. All I can do is grit my teeth, listen to his advice, and bang out the piece "a little bit better."

If I actually play something well, I glance at him with a sheepish smile, eager to see if he'll offer the compliment that I would so like to hear:

"Guud job. You did that well. But maybe try. . ." In his distinct Italian accent, he verbally pats me on the back and gives me a firm push to do a little bit better. 

In this week's lesson, I made one quick comment, and it received a reply that applies to much more than just piano. 

Me: "Funny thing is, my mind is telling me exactly what to do. My fingers just won't do it."

Parrini: "Don't assume that just by looking at a page, music will be played."

He explained that learning piano is about developing mechanical response in your fingers. Even for "prodigies," the fingers don't magically know what to do just because your mind knows what they should do. Every pianist has to train their fingers to work melodies, harmonies, dynamics, articulations, rhythms, and countless other factors together to produce music that is pleasing to the ears. According to Parrini, the key is to slow down and learn to respond correctly to the music you see on the page or hear in your mind.

Slow down and learn. . . . 

How often do I bulldoze through life without learning to respond correctly to what I know is right? There is learning to be done in everyday situations, from mistakes and accomplishments and observations that I make in the little things, yet I dash by with my mind set on the big things looming on the horizon. Listening to my teacher talk, I was reminded that, plain and simply, you must walk before you can run.

I'll never learn a piece of music without first playing it at a speed that I can handle ("No no no, Aaron, you can't just THROW notes together. Stop, play it SLOWER..."). The song of life tends to come at us at a ridiculous tempo. Sometimes, we just have to relax, slow down, and learn the small things for the music to sound best.