I've Heard There Was a Secret Chord

"Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life."  -Ludwig van Beethoven

When I was six-years-old, I started piano lessons.  My teacher -- Irena -- trained at the conservatory in Moscow in the Soviet Union and was an incredibly talented pianist.  I was trained not only how to play notes, but how to love and understand music.  I was trained in theory.  I was trained on the classics.  

It came almost naturally.  My wrists were straight, not floppy.  Memorization was easy.  I felt the waves of the music, and I guess it showed.  I won superior ratings at every competition I attended.

When I was ten-years-old, Irena decided to go back to school for her doctorate degree and only planned to retain four (out of her many) students.  I was one she wanted to keep.  She thought I could be a pianist, a great one.

I, however, declined because I knew -- by the grace of God at ten-years-old -- that I was not born to be a classical pianist.  I think after having worked so hard for four years at the piano and having been trained so well, I was a little overwhelmed by the time I was ten.  I quit piano cold and did not touch the beautiful baby grand in my parents' living room for two full years.  I probably didn't even go into the living room.

But one day when I was twelve I decided to sit at the piano.  The music I was learning when I quit two years earlier was sitting at the piano.  I looked at it with my fingers on the keys, and then I had one of the biggest surprises of my life -- I could not read the notes.  I couldn't read music!  From almost as early as I could remember, reading music was a part of daily life.  It was like reading letters.

Over the next years, I re-taught myself how to read music and could pluck out some basic songs.  After my freshman year of college, however, I wanted something more.  Perhaps after spending a year in Music City, U.S.A. I fully realized how silly it had been to cold-turkey-quit the piano when I was ten.  That summer, I was lucky enough -- through a connection from Irena -- to find a University of Miami professor to take me on as a student for the summer.  It was enough to reignite my deeper understand of music and my love for it.

I still don't practice piano as much as I should, but at least I have the tools to play for real again.  My next musical goal?  The guitar.

"The pause is as important as the note."  -Truman Fisher