First Prelude Grabs Ankles

I know you don't care, but I can now play two...TWO...whole pieces of classical music. Today I managed to get through Chopin's Prelude in B Minor more or less correctly.

It's a big deal to me. My instructor started by telling me I was going to end up learning about one piece this size per week, and it took me THREE weeks. I insisted on learning to play it without looking at the keys, which was a big change, and it really slowed things down.

Also, the pedaling is horrendous. There are places where you hit the pedal about six times in a measure. And no measure is spared. Compare that to my only other piece using the pedal--Rondo Alla Turca--where you have a few measures where you hit it once or twice.

I started working on the pedaling on Sunday, and I was convinced I would never get it. Then yesterday, it just started working for no apparent reason. I can't understand it. But now I'm doing it nearly almost correctly. I expected a week of suffering. My instructor gave me all these instructions about doing it while playing with just the left hand, and going over and over the hardest four measures. I don't know what I'll tell him at my lesson, because I didn't have to do any of that.

YEAH, baby. Watch my smoke.

This is so great. I cannot lie; I have not always followed through with learning music. I worked on the banjo for three years in my teens, and since then, it's been hit-and-[mostly]miss. I bought a flattop in college and twiddled around with it, but I didn't really learn to pick until I was in my late twenties. And then it was the banjo deal all over again. I followed that with the mandolin.

I have two electric guitars I have never been able to fall in love with. I started playing flamenco and loved it because it was so easy, but I could not stand having vampire nails on my right hand, so I had to stop.

But the piano is different. Instead of practicing less each month, I practice more. Good thing, too, considering what my piano cost. If I hadn't kept up with it, I would have died of embarrassment. It's one thing to put nine hundred bucks into a guitar and only play it occasionally. It's totally different when it's a half-ton monster that takes up a fourth of your living room.

When I really get good, I'm going to find myself an old concert grand! I swear I am! Six feet, seven inches is just not enough. I need NINE FEET OF NOISE.

Well, maybe not. But I'm going to check out some concert grands to see if I'm missing anything. Some day.

This is great. I wish I had a doughnut.