This video shows us 42 penguins playing the piano. That's it. It's rather odd but still pleasant. And it gives me an opportunity to tell a story.
When I was a kid, I took piano lessons with the express stipulation that I would not play any recitals. A few years in, my parents talked me into one. I practiced "Für Elise" for weeks. My fingers knew the song forward and backwards. I still didn't want to do the recital. I sat down and placed all my fingers on the wrong keys to start. It took a minute to realize what I had done, but instead of starting over, I kept going through the whole song, which sounded awful. When I stood up, the entire audience, which was only parents of piano students, were staring in stunned awe. I walked outside and waited for my parents, who had to stay to see my brother play. While I continued lessons for another couple of years after that, no one ever asked me to do a recital again.
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Für Elise
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6 comments:
You knew your destiny when you said you never wanted to do recitals, and destiny obliged.
If you don't want to do a job, really screw it up the first time, and you won't be asked to mess with it again.
Playing out of key takes skill! Comedian Les Dawson made a career out of it, and some other very notable musical comedians did it too. You are in elevated company.
You are the new she-ro to thousands of piano and dance kids everywhere!
Perfect. It's even better in my imagination, where as you walk out the door you look directly into the camera with the expression on your face that the little girl has in the meme with the house on fire behind her.
Nah, I was probably frowning. I was mad at myself for screwing up so badly, and mad also that I let myself be talked into that. Stage fright is a terrible thing that I overcame forever in 1982, but that's a story for another time.
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