Playing the Piano

I'm pretty sure I've told you before that I'm afraid to play the piano in front of people. There are several reasons for this and most of them are dumb. I won't share all of them because I think I might have already told you part of this story. (Since I couldn't take pictures of myself playing the piano, I put in these of Baby Doll.)

When I was getting ready to graduate from Jr. High, they decided to let the two students with the highest grade point averages share a talent at the graduation ceremony. For some reason I always have the distinction of being number 2. I had been playing the piano for 5 or 6 years then and I thought I was getting pretty good. So I chose my hardest recital piece, The Music Box Dancer, and began preparing for the big day.

The day finally arrived and all of our parents and friends congregated in our church to celebrate. (That would never happen now, but in small-town Utah, our churches were the biggest venues available.) When it was my time to play, I walked to the piano I had played on a hundred times, sat down, ignored the huge crowd and played my piece by memory.

It was the only time I ever performed that piece without a single mistake! When I was finished, I stood up from the piano and made my way back to the choir seats. By the time I got there, I was shaking so badly I thought I was going to pass out. That happens to me every time I play in front of people. (Except for the perfect part, that was different...usually I mess up!)

So one of my New Year's Resolutions that I didn't write down because I'm avoiding lists this year, is to relearn to play the piano. Since I quit taking lessons at age 16, I have not practiced regularly. That was over 30 years ago. As you can imagine, my fingers are extremely rusty! Just these past couple of weeks I have noticed that the songs are coming more easily and the mistakes less frequently.

Not that I really plan to play in front of anyone but the kids. It had just gotten so bad that I think some of them might not have even realized that I know how to play. Now I'm pretty sure they just want me to stop!