Day Twenty Nine
Remember how I said that I wanted to learn "What a Wonderful World" well enough to sing along with it by Christmas? Well, the day of reckoning came, and I sat down to the piano with my husband to bear witness. I can do it! (Sort of.) To tell the truth, I didn't really think I would reach this goal by Christmas, so I was pleasantly surprised with myself.
The timing is not perfect, (I need to stop being a brat about using a metronome) and I still lose my place and hit a bad note now and then, but I've come a lot farther on piano that I expected I could. I find my biggest challenge is concentration. If I think about singing, I play badly, if I think about playing, I sing badly. And if I add my second hand to the mix, well, it goes a lot slower. But progress is progress, and I'll take what I can get. After four months of lessons, this is where I'm at (under pressure).
I must have taken this video 1,000 times since Christmas. Every time I hit the record button my mind would go blank, my fingers would refuse to behave, and my voice would go all froggy and crickety. It sounds much nicer without a camera on, and I'm even learning to use my left hand and the pedals, which also helps make it sound a lot better.
I can be a bit of a baby when it comes to things that I don't show an immediate talent for. Piano is one of those things. Every bit of progress has come with moaning, groaning, hard work, practice, and sometimes tears. For the longest time my fingers just wouldn't go where I told them to. While they are far from completely under control, they are STARTING to finally behave. What's more, my brain is finally beginning to recognize the scribbled jargon of letters and notes on my sheet music as a sort of language.
The last four months have been very frustrating, but DH continues to egg me on, pushing me not to give up, and chiding me for shying away from the challenge. I don't always appreciate his method of encouraging me, but it gets the job done. I don't want to feel like a wimp any more than he wants to feel like he's married to one. So that keeps me going.
I guess the question now is what song to learn next? Scott has been dying for me to start learning our own songs so that I can play along with him. Maybe Why Do You Bother will be the next one I tackle. Are there any other piano players reading this? If so, do you have a favorite song to play and sing? I'd love some suggestions for where to go next.