It feels great when..

[Spatula]

Doesn't it feel great like the first week or even the first month after you have practiced what you could for a piece, and then you actually see yourself progressing (well of course you'd better progress or else somethings wrong).

But when you first sit down by your piano and ask, "Mr. Piano, what do we feel like playing now?" and you search and search in your music books and find something particularily interesting, or maybe perhaps you've heard on the radio, for those of you who listen to Classical on the radio.

When you open up the score, you see notes flying here and there and hands leaps from A to B to F# to whatever.  And doesn’t it look intimidating?  You say to yourself, well…maybe something a bit easier, but then there’s that nagging feeling in your heart that says, “let’s rock”.

So you open it up, put your hand down the crease of the book and smoothen it.  You take a few moments to look over it and run the melody in your head.  Then your fingers touch the notes..they touch the keys.  Isn’t it magical? (yo dudes I’m not on drugs, right now at least)

But it becomes hard a wobbly and you shake your head.  Your heart keeps saying “persevere, persevere, conquer this piece!”.  You keep trying…hands apart, hands together, hands apart… the cycle goes on and on for what seems like infinity, but really the minute hand only moved seven dots the last time you saw the face of the clock.

You sigh, taking a deep breath and continuing….A, D#, B, chord, A,D#, E..jump with RH over…, over and over and over again.  You start to have thoughts of why the hell did you start this in the first place.  Suddenly, the image of Mr. Miyagi pops in your head, “Spatula-San, you do piano or you do not piano.  You must concentrate!”

Oh God…you think to yourself, and you keep on going and going and going, almost like you’re in a race with the energizer bunny to see who can go farther.  

Soon enough, half an hour passes by and again a few hours tick by, but what seems like eternity.  

You’re done your practice for today.

And you think to yourself…man I gotta do this EVERYDAY for the next couple of months to even years!  But what is the reward?  But what is the prize? But what is the accomplishment? Then you even ask what were you really thinking.  Your stomach growls and is being a nuisance.  

Days go by and by now it’s a week. That first few bars are coming nicely, but all a-sudden it drops off..because you still have to smooth those parts out.  You think to yourself, “This is a work in progress”, and you give yourself a proud grin.  You know that now you’re starting to sort out all that mumbo-jumbo that your eyes scanned across the first time. You know that your hands go here, and 3 quarter notes later, they go there. You know your fingers are doing their job the best they can, even though sometimes they might stumble.  But you grin.

A month passes by, and you grin even more, despite only reaching the middle of the second page, but you did it.  You grin to yourself, and say. “I can do it”.
There is the pouring of self-satisfaction, that YES! You once had the worlds most impossible time to put the hands to work for you and to go here and there and where they need be, but now your hands are dancing, well for 1 and a half pages…and then.. STOP!
…this is more work in progress.

But you start to appreciate and to be grateful that you’ve invested your own time in this… you feel good about yourself that you aren’t busy doping up, but practicing the piece with all your heart.  Isn’t that warm feeling that you know you are a person…you are a somebody, that can take initiative and change your own perspective with positive results?  Sure the work was tedious and boring, but it paid off five fold.  

You aren’t done.
You still have seven pages to go, and you sigh.  But wait!  What if you were to fast forward to a few months later?  Where would you be?  What would you think?  What would you have accomplished for 2 hours a day everyday (well almost).  

This is where I feel I am right now with 2 of my pieces.  I know that I’ll pull them through, ie Prelude in G, #5, Op 23 and Fantasie Impromptu.  My next personal challenge is Chopin Sonata Number 1, Presto.

It looks bloody complicated and scary.  Especially all those 8Vas all flying around, they are intimidating, but they are the reason I do piano.  I want to grin so wide and big my face is shining so happily.  I want to be happy! And I am.

I feel so rewarded in my ability not to play the piano, but my ability to stick to it.  It feels so warm.

I know I’m a slow learner and its been already 5 months, and I’m just starting to learn the middle section of Fantasie Impromptu.  And I’ve got to the end of the Rach prelude, but of course a lot of the sections needs smoothing out.  But I am satisfied.

Most of all, I take most of the pride because I’ve taught myself one thing:

Teachers don’t make you learn, they help you learn.  Doing the piece is entirely in your hands (mind the pun).  

Hey...by the way where's Faulty Damper?

[dj]

dude! i would never learn a piece that it took me over a month 2 get half way through the second page! i suppose if u got that much patience and that much time, y not?....but really, at that rate, it wouldn't take you much more time to actually work your way up to the level of the pieces u want 2 play....just something 2 think about....o yeah and u haven't gotten sick of fantasie impromptu yet? seriously! chopin wrote a bunch more interesting music!

[Spatula]

But again, I did this without a teacher, and I only put in maybe 1 solid hour a day, many times skipping.

If I know the first few pages, the second part repeats itself so a majority of the battle is already won.

Now for the largo moderato section and the ending

[Spatula]

And also you gotta realize that when I quit piano after doing the grade 8 RCM level exam, the most difficult piece back then that I accomplished was probably Beethovens Sonata Op 49 number 1, one of his easiest, if not the easiest sonatas, and it was only the first movement.

For me to work myself up from that stage to doing ARCT pieces is a great step for me (and my motivation), so that's why I'm smiling.

[chopiabin]

I know how you feel man. It feels so good to be working on a piece that you never thought you'd get to.

[xenon]

Heh, I can relate to that.  I remember many years ago recieving a CD of piano pieces, and I heard the Revolutionary Etude, and I was just awestruck.  I dug in my music library to see if I have a copy of it (I had quite an extensive music library as a kid thanks to my dad), and lo and behold, I did.  I looked at it (compressed into 4 pages, so it looks really...black ), and I thought that I would never play it.  But when I needed to choose a concert etude for an ARCT requirement, I thought back, and that etude popped in my mind and I actually had the priviledge of learning it.  Man, that was awesome.

[Spatula]

WEll....

right now just LOOKING at that score for Chopin sonata 1 presto is just daunting...

[janice]

Spatula,
You asked where Faulty Damper is.  I talk to him sometimes, and he said that his internet service only allows him a certain number of hours per month.  So he is on the forum during the first half of the month, or so.  I'll tell him to post more!

[maxy]

hum... I remember saying to myself:  "the day you will be able to play Mazeppa, you'll be good".

Played it... can't say I am good yet.