Baby Grand

My piano lessons continue each week, and I'm getting better and better. Better to the point that on some Wednesday mornings, my teacher K sits there speechless, with a big smile on her face.

She sits there speechless, I know, because it wasn't too long ago that I was struggling to learn all the notes on the keyboard. And struggle I did, until my dear friend Frankie said to me: "Must you learn them all at once, dear child? Just take them as you would play them-- one note at a time."

Well, didn't that make perfect sense? And why wasn't I doing that?

Once I got on the one-note-at-a-time method, everything has been just fine. It doesn't take me as long as it once did to learn a new song, and once I get the notes down, I can sail through it without trouble. Although, sometimes my mind is singing the words to the song and my eyes get ahead of the notes and then I lose my place in the measures which makes me skip over a crucial note. But K said that's a normal mistake, and I just need to concentrate on the music, not the lyrics.

Whatever song I play, it always sounds better on K's piano. She has a Concert Grand in her living room. Beautiful, huge, seven-foot-long Grand piano. It makes me sound like I've been taking lessons for much longer than I have been. So of course, now I'm looking at our living room and wondering... Can we fit a Baby Grand in here? (K says the Baby Grands are "only" five feet in length.)

I really don't think so. The only place a Baby Grand could go in our living room would be near the three windows by the fireplace. And therein lies the problem-- the fireplace. The heat from the burning logs would damage the soundboard and keep it out of tune.

The piano we have now is a Kimball upright.... very pretty piano with beautiful wood and wonderful carvings and graceful legs. It sounds lovely, and fits perfectly along the wall underneath my vintage cameo portraits of Victorian ladies.

Now that I can play.... really play.... my ear can distinguish between the rich sounds of my piano and the extraordinary lush fullness of K's Grand.

I found my music sheets to "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" and I was practicing that this morning. Seems appropriate to play that tonight before the Astros game. I guess it doesn't matter whether I'm playing on an upright or a Grand.... as long as I'm playing the correct notes.

One note at a time, as Frankie suggested.