Time on my hands

I'm a hobby person. I always have too many hobbies in the works. But what can I say, it's how I relax and how I enjoy life. I love to learn to do new things and love to move on to even newer things when I get tired of the hobby at hand. I'm not sure all I do would be considered hobbies, but I'm using the word in the sense that I love to find new things to do...be they a hobby, an activity, a sport, a pasttime, or whatever you want to call it!

When I get bored, I get out one of my latest hobbies and go to town. Today I decided to get out a very very old hobby and try my hand again. Let me start by telling a story about my Kindergarten days...

When I was in Kindergarten in around 1953, I was very shy when school first started in September, as are many brand new Kindergarteners. But when my teacher, Mrs. Joseph, asked us if any of us wanted to take piano lessons, I was bold enough to sign up. The teacher was so pleased and I was as excited as could be. I took the books home and my mom, who could be very down-to-earth said, "We don't have a piano, you can't take piano lessons." I was devastated! I really wanted to play the piano. Even at that young age, I truly wanted to do that. Mom let me take the clarinet when I was in 3rd grade, but I always hated that damned reed!! I don't think I ever forgave her for not letting me take piano lessons. Who cared if we didn't have a piano?

Anyway, fast-forward about 39 years to 1992.

I still had the desire to learn to play the piano, even after all those years. A friend of my sis's had a piano they didn't want, and much to my husband and son's chagrin, I took it. I paid $10 for it! My dear husband and son paid with backaches and sore muscles for days. Piano's are heavy and we lived in a split foyer home (still do) and they got it up here with pure brute strength...no dolly, no help! I called a piano tuner and after a lot of head-shaking and mumbling under his breath, he told me he could get it playing okay but it needed about $400 worth of work to get it good. I told him to just make it playable. I wasn't going to invest a lot of money in a $10 piano. I just wanted to try to learn to play. I found a neighbor, her name was Monica, who taught piano lessons and began to take lessons from her. I warned her beforehand that I wasn't going to do any recitals or programs, I was just someone who wanted to play for my own enjoyment. She was okay with that. She was very flexible and did a great job of teaching me just what I wanted to learn.

I would spend a lot of time at home practicing. The piano was in the living room and when I'd practice, my husband, son and even the dog would all hurry out of the room and go find other things to do, in other areas of the house, or even outdoors if the weather was okay. I tried not to take it to heart, but I know they were just leaving so they wouldn't laugh in front of me or groan from the ear-pain I know I must have been causing them. It became quite a family joke. But I was enjoying it so much, and even tho they weren't, they were understanding and supportive.

Once I had mastered some of the basic chords and had been playing for quite a few months, I discovered Easy Play books and that was all she wrote. We worked out of those books for a while and once I was comfortable with them, I bid Monica adieu. Easy Play was just what I needed once I had the groundwork laid. From my choir days in high school, I already had a very basic knowledge of music. I don't read it the best, but I knew enough. Easy Play books are written so the melody is very simple and the chord needed with each particular note is noted above the music lines. The melody is played with the right hand and the chord with the left. It's as easy as piano playing gets. When I went on my own, I invested in a Casio 49-key electric keyboard. It didn't cost a lot and it was perfect because I could use headphones so the rest of my family didn't have to suffer my music!

I continued to play for myself quite a few years. But never really did much else with my piano playing "talents".

I've been wanting to try to play again for a while now. But I didn't want to subject Andy to an attempt at playing. Not that he would have laughed or done anything inappropriate, but I love him too much to make him sit thru my trying to see if I can play anything anymore. Saturday Andy was going to be gone for a couple hours, so I decided to get my keyboard out. I found the plug and a couple of the music books, one was Christmas music and one was hymns. I plugged it in and tried to play a couple of the songs I had practiced a lot back in the day, in fact they were my warm up songs when I would practice everyday, so back then I knew these songs the very best. My mind was totally blank, as happens when an old mind like mine tries to do something it hasn't done in over 10 years. I couldn't remember even one chord and could barely find middle C! I was kind of sad, but persevered and before the two hours was up I had managed to refresh my memory enough to play 3 or 4 songs! It was weird, and like it was back in the day...if I thought about it too much, I couldn't do it, but if I just let it happen and relaxed into it, I could play. I guess you can teach an old dog old tricks. Or maybe it's that an old dog never really forgets it's old tricks? Anyway, I enjoyed my alone time and felt good that I did it!

If you notice, brave little Rosie toughed out the entire session. She did give me a couple of looks that I took to be a critique of sorts. But all-in-all, she's such a loyal dog!



I forgot to tell you what happened to the old piano. (Thanks Sally!) When Andy moved in with me, his niece, her big strapping husband and her three huge boys were helping him move his furniture in and when his niece saw the piano, she said how nice it was and kind of got all mooney eyed over it. I asked her if she wanted it and she was so thrilled. It was the perfect opportunity to get rid of it. Those 4 big guys moved it out to their empty truck without one whimper! Maybe someday I'll get another one...but it will be an electric/digital one...maybe a Clavinova!