Ellemental

I took many years of piano lessons.   I never really applied myself, so I don’t play particularly well.  It also doesn’t help that I really haven’t played much at all since high school (uhhhh, twenty years ago), since it’s not particularly convenient to move a piano from dorm room to apartment to apartment to apartment.  I own a little cheap keyboard now, and every once in a while I’ll pull it out, smooth out the sheet music or prop up the hymnal on the stand (I love four-part hymns…it’s one of those childhood nostalgia things for me).

The VIM, who never took music lessons and can’t read music, but still manages to be a great guitar player, has a lot of music equipment that he messes around with, and has decided to record some of his original songs.  He wants me to accompany him on the piano.

What a freakin’ fiasco.  Yes, I can play piano, but I need to play from the music.  I don’t understand this free-form make it up as you go crap.  Give Me Notes, people!  You can’t say “Play D here” and expect me to fill up the next 4 bars with chords and notes compatible with D.”  If you say “Play D here,” I will play D (or maybe the D chord if I’m feeling adventurous), then wait for the next instruction.   There is no musical freeform creativity in me.  It’s been beaten out by 10 years of strict adherence to sheet music.

So the VIM is working with me very slowly and patiently.  There are a lot of “That’s it…you’ve got it!”’s going on.  A lot of support as I wrap my head around

Breaking

Every

Rule

I

Learned.

It’s not that I don’t have the skills to make music up as I go along.  It’s that I was told over and over again that I wasn’t allowed to do that.  Now that I finally understand that it’s up to me, I have a new purpose.   To keep working at it.  Keep learning.

This morning, as I was thinking about how fun it is to sit there and hit chords until I get the one that sounds juuuuuust right, I realized that it’s not just musical creativity that’s up to me.

It’s ALL up to me, isn’t it?

What rules and routines can I challenge today?