Make It Fun

Piano music, played by a thirteen-year-old, fills our recently remodeled great room. The notes echo into every corner of the house; if you're inside, you can't escape it, not even with headphones, trust me. The piano is such a pleasant respite from the clarinet. I enjoy when that instrument is left at school, as does our enormous gray cat who, from given her violent reaction to clarinet sounds, seems able to hear frequencies above and beyond that of humans.

I had my two weeks of lessons, like everybody else, but I did not have the patience nor the natural skill that my boy has. He has progressed to a point that I enjoy his practicing. I marvel at the beautiful sounds he has worked hard to produce from a hand-me-down piano that a school donated to the local thrift store and we picked up for a song.

My son’s piano teacher is a saint. Just at the point that I’m ready to rain down some hurt because he is hamming it up, dancing in place, being, in my opinion, a little too “creative” in his lesson, she encourages him by hooking him up to a microphone and grabbing her videocamera to amplify then capture his antics for eternity. His latest composition is called “Happyland Gets Destroyed.” In spite of this silliness, he is also about to do his first solo recital. I think we can all use her advice—to take our creative, spontaneous moments and apply that same feeling to everything we do in life

TANGENT 1: I used to hang out with a girl in high school just so I could sit in her living room and listen to her play the piano. I broke up with a different girl once because she liked the wrong version of a song on the radio.

TANGENT 2: Sophomore through senior years of high school, I acted in Oklahoma, Sound of Music, and played Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls.

TANGENT 3: I enjoyed more success on stage than I ever did on the football field. But that's a story for a different day.