Prepare to be amazed...

I can play the piano.

I'm not a concert pianist, but I can play the hymns at church and I can play some of the fun things I hear on the radio, too.

For the record...everything your mom told you about practicing is true: You WILL be glad she forced you to sit at the piano practicing scales while your friends ride their bikes past your window. It IS a life skill that you will be grateful for. And GUARANTEED, you WILL regret it if you give it up. THANKS, MOM for not letting me get away with it when I called you after you had baby #3 at the hospital on medication and tried to quit piano lessons!

As a college student, I continued to study piano with Lu Jennings (bless her soul in heaven, she was a wonderful and patient teacher), I still wasn't convinced that I would eventually be grateful for this talent. Then I had a nightmare/dream that I was attending an Air Supply Concert (I just gave away  my age) and the pianist died onstage, but as they say in show business, "The Show Must Go On" ...so in my dream concert, they asked if anyone could play the piano: I raised my hand and was called up to play for remainder of the concert. The nightmare started when I looked at the music and there were 6 flats AND 7 sharps! For non-musical types, that wouldn't happen...unless you are Debussy, whose music I only tried to tackle ONCE.

Once in a while, I'll be playing the piano and think to myself, "This is really incredible that I can look at black dots on the paper and my right hand can play one thing while my left hand is playing different notes!" And then I usually mess up whatever I'm playing because I'm over-thinking it. Which is why I admire the talents of those who CAN play the piano beautifully, and this is a young man you will want to watch for: Josh Wright.



Remember the name.

And if you can read this, thank a music teacher: