Taking Lessons

As many of you know I have begun taking piano (or keyboard) lessons. I have employed an excellent teacher who has taught piano and vocal music at prestigious private schools in the DC area. He is in between school teaching gigs and so I'm lucky to have gotten him.

I've only had five lessons so far. I'm learning about scales, chords, intervals, harmonics and melodies. But mostly I learning to dive into this ocean known as music and to swim. Sometimes my feeble brain doesn't work and my hands don't seem connected to what my eyes are reading. Oh, that's right I'm learning to read music. It's a language all of its own.

I find this all very fascinating. And I'm in love with playing on my keyboard. My keyboard is no baby grand piano but she's perfect for me right now. She sits on a stand that Kathleen got for me and put together for me too. My keyboard is only a step or two away from my chair that I spend most of my time sitting in. So my keyboard is close to me and definitely within eyeshot.

The funny thing about taking music lessons is that all of a sudden you start hearing music differently. You start to get inside the music. And it becomes so much richer when you discover that there is something called music theory.

Right now I can barely tell you which note is which. But I'm learning and my brain is re-wiring itself too. I've got some rhythm but mostly the beat goes on without me. Tempo can be the hardest thing to learn and internalize.

But I love learning to play the piano. I can't remember why I ever stopped when I was young. I guess I didn't have to work that hard to get the lessons. This time around I convinced everyone in my life that taking lessons was what I wanted to do. Well, I think I convinced everyone else and myself too!!!