Aug 18, 2010 00:02
I attended an amazing piano workshop today that got me all fired up. I've been "playing" the piano since I was about 3 years old but because I was strictly classically trained, I only know how to play a piece of music if it's all written out for me. (And even then, I need to put in some dedicated practice time). Because of that, I lost steam when I completed my Royal Conservatory exams in high school. The joy had been sucked out of it for me. So I quit playing. I went from 3 hours of practice per day to zilch, nada, nothing. And lately I've almost been embarrassed to tell people that I can play the piano because when I sit down in front of one, I feel lost. I don't remember any of my old pieces and I have no idea how to just improvise with chords. And I sound like an amateur with sheet music because I haven't practiced it. Oh... woe is me. :-P
This was the plight of many of the people at the workshop today. It was like an alcoholics anonymous gathering for shamed piano players. "Hi, my name is [insert name here] and I don't know how to play without sheet music." Or, "Hello, I confess that I have terrible performance anxiety." It was very freeing to meet several other people who felt just like I do. One woman even admitted that she practices on her keyboard in the basement instead of on her real piano in the living room because she's worried that her neighbours will hear her otherwise.
But.... A very wise person once told me that music is meant to be shared, not reserved for empty living rooms.
At one point the workshop leader was asking for volunteers to come improvise on a duet with him and the woman beside me kept pushing me to put up my hand. I reverted to the ol' "immediately avoid eye contact and maybe he won't see you" trick, but it didn't work very well. He looked straight down at me. "How about you?" he asked. *gulp* There were too many people there... too many people with years and years of experience playing. What if I made a mistake? Oh, the dreaded MISTAKE! But I knew I'd regret it later if I didn't at least try. So with trepidation, I sat down beside him at the bench. In my mind I imagined all of those recitals that I used to play at where my hands would shake so badly that my parents could see them trembling from the audience and it was all I could do just to get the fingers to land on the correct notes. And don't even get me started on trying to use the pedal with wobbly legs. But I took a deep breath and started into the duet with him. And... it worked! I don't know how, but I was actually improvising! So, so cool! It wasn't spectacular, but it was what it was and it was FUN! Now there's this whole new world of music that I can't wait to explore.