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How stupid of me not to think to learn to play the melody of The Ashokan Farewell with my left hand, in order to figure out which notes in the left hand melody might support The Ashokan Farewell melody I simultaneously play (or aim to) with my right hand.
I've never understood how I have to use both hands simultaneously to play the guitar or the classical flute and get along fine with a little practice, but not the piano. I've not had a strategy or abstract approach to playing this instrument. The possible combinations of keys and notes seemed endless. I didn't get it.
Using the piano to impress potential friends and lovers became one more activity I wanted to perform with aplomb, but never even got close to what most first-year students play at their first recital playing the piano. I knew it had something to do with me not knowing how to play the major and minor scales on an 88-key piano. I just didn't know what learning to play the scales would do to resolve my piano issues.
When I did figure it out I realized that the reason I needed to know how to play the various scales on the piano was the same reason I needed to know how to play the same scales on any musical instrument I picked up to play. What playing the same scales on the various instruments I've played by heart would do for me was to teach me about the particular instrument I picked up to play.
I bought the 88-key digital piano in order to teach myself to play the scales from the resources I found online. Where I found the patience to hang in there and teach myself to play the scales proficiently still surprises me.
I not only had to memorize where the various keys that played the specific note, but I had to learn how it related to any specific key it was a part of, and I had to learn from what I read online which finger to use to play each note in each scale.
It seems like I started this project 2-3 years ago. Time really does fly when I am is having fun. The technical problems of which notes to play in each key, and which finger to use to strike them is not so problematic for me anymore. Sitting down each day to practice is somewhat of a problem, but when I finally sit down to it I get happy I did.
Practicing the scales on a daily basis now for at least a couple of years are beginning to pay off for me. I can't rightly say that I'm ripping through them with aplomb, but I seem to be able to play through the Circle of Fifths arrangement of the scales without getting too lost such that I can't find my way back on track fairly quick.
Sometime I push to go faster than usual. I can speed up a little bit for a little while, but then I find myself falling back into my acquired pace and feeling easier about it. It's apparent to me that I'll get faster and more sure of myself as time goes by.
The realization that by learning to play the melody I want to play with both hands first may just provide me with an approach to using both hands to play the piano that I've needed. It's true that practicing the scales has taken away the intimidation that's held sway over me when I've been asked to play songs in some weird minor key I've never heard of.
The feat of being able to transpose from any one key to any other key has seemed impossible for me. Not being able to do that is the excuse I've used, in the past, to avoid playing with other musicians. It's not their fault. If I keep on keeping on this fear and intimidation might disappear.
Of course, by that time I'll probably be so old and forgetful it won't be much different than the the way it's always been. Presently, that inevitable, fatal prospect doesn't matter to me so much. I'm very aware of how silly it may seem to some people, but the depth of my musical understanding is one of the attributes of having had a series of human bodies that I can take with me to my next one.
The musical understanding I've gained or not may not be very much during this lifetime compared to a Mozart, but it's more than what I had when I bartered for this particular body when it was fourteen years old. Poor boy. He felt so shamed by what happened he wanted to die. Good thing I am was out and about co-me-ing here and there that fateful day.
Good bodies can be hard to come by in pretty much the same way used cars can be full of unknown and unknowable surprises. Having any body for any amount of time in any condition is mo' bettah than having no body at all, and yet, not having a body with which the grand quest can be made has its positive quirks that can lead to remorse if I am is suddenly drafted into duty.
I hate for other people to witness me practicing anything. I don't be bringing nothing out into the public eye unless what it is can be done competently enough to attract attention without creating a demand for more. I like being able to turn it on and/or turn it off like a flashlight when I think it'll do the most good.
Even though I've been learning and practicing the major and minor scales for a couple of years or more, only one person has accidentally heard me practicing because I didn't hear them drive up. Sometime I think it's deliberate that I never really get good enough at anything to make a living on prime time. Occasionally I've made a pittance. Welding was the only craft I ever mastered, and I welded with the best there was at the time. Otherwise I'm just storing up treasures in heaven so they'll be there the next ti-me around. '-)
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I do not attempt to tell the God's own truth here because I don't know what the truth is or hardly ever. I try to capture the drifting thoughts that randomly appear in my imagination for reasons I may not understand. I don't know if the content I capture with these words is true or false. The Comments settings are turned off to prevent me from having to defend what amounts to little more than fanciful, sometime crude speculation. Great moments in our lives never return.
