Settling In
Although the school year has begun, the weather still says summer. Actually, until this past week it has screamed SUMMER, blanketing us in a relentless heat wave. Outside, dozens of goldfinches chatter at the feeders while a hummingbird zips nervously across the courtyard. My laundry hangs on the clothesline like prayer flags waving in the wind; the late summer sunflowers and geraniums in the garden bleach pale in the harsh desert light. Inside, the windows are propped wide to let in the breeze; the ceiling fans whirl above us; the screen door slams in response to each student coming into the house. One after another the kids pass in the sunroom, seamlessly handing off the lesson baton and casually picking up the identity of piano student as they sprint from activity to activity. Hot and sweaty, the kids grumble about homework and teachers, tell me about soccer games and ballet, lament over upcoming homecoming dances and marching band tournaments. After those dark, lonely, isolated months of the pandemic, I take nothing for granted. To be able to deeply settle into another school year, with all its mundane annoyances and small pleasures, feels magical.
“How are those new Little Ones doing?” a kid stopped his chord progressions long enough to ask me. He is nine and oh-so-worldly wise.
“Just fine,” I said.
“That’s good,” he said. “It’s hard to learn to play the piano. I remember.”
He’s right, and every hour I remember this same thing as I coax tiny fumbling fingers and squirmy bodies into submission: It’s hard to learn to play the piano.
Recently I wrote two blog posts for Alfred Publishing on this topic, or a variation thereof. These were generated from my long habit of keeping teaching notes on all sorts of things—composition ideas, practice strategies, repertoire lists, technique exercises. One blog post is practice ideas to combat the dangers of state-dependent learning (or as I like to call it “I played this better at home.”). The other is a list of performance preparation strategies inspired by Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto, which is a brilliant book. Put it on your reading list.
Writing these posts, I was reminded for at least the ten thousandth time that if one learns to practice, the piano teaches itself.