Use It or Lose It

Today I sat down at the piano for the first time in over a year. And though my history with the piano is somewhat chequered, I began to work on the Beethoven piece sitting on the music stand above the keyboard. It was awkward at first, with a lot of mistakes, fingers searching for familiarity with the now-estranged keyboard. Of course, I was also trying to play the piece at the same tempo as the last time I did, when I was still in the habit of practicing, and quickly realized that wasn’t possible, as my fingers were not able to react as they once had when they were more used to this type of movement. But I slowed down the process, and definitely the speed at which I attempted to play, and then broke down the piece into eight-bar segments I practiced over and again until I could play through most of the piece as a whole. And it felt great! To reconnect with Beethoven’s beautiful music, by allowing myself to break it down, slow it down, and let my body remember how ‘playing the piano’ is done, I was able to let myself enjoy the ritual I used to enjoy so much. And please understand: I was not some child prodigy destined for competitions and concert stages. While we flirted throughout my childhood, when the violin and tennis were my passions, I came to study the piano as an adult, finally finding the time for lessons and practice on this instrument I’d long admired. 

This small example proves, as so many will point out, that it’s never too late in life to do anything. The list of people who have begun new things in later life are myriad; people who have scaled Everest, taken up painting, a new musical instrument, begun singing or acting careers, began exploring the world on foot or bicycle, and so forth. Proving also, that the adventurous, artistic life is not just for the young, and the viewpoint an older participant brings to the endeavor is rich in experience. To begin a new undertaking, the most important thing required is courage. Not the courage to even begin, but the courage not to be perfect. We don’t expect perfection of children learning something new, so why do we expect it of ourselves? Because we don’t want to look silly, somehow ‘less-than,’ or we don’t want to give others an excuse to tease us about our nascent skills. Mostly, though, we don’t want to look foolish, because we care what others think about us, and we have a certain idea of who we are and how we need to move through the world to maintain that image. Comedians are admired because of their ability to look or sound foolish as they entertain us with their unique view of the world, and of how funny humans really are. Their ability to ‘let go’ is a Master Class in how we need to approach these new activities, because allowing ourselves the luxury of thinking like a child again is vital in developing new skills and learning how to do something in a completely different fashion.

So as I pick up the piano again, with the scales and arpeggios, chord progressions, and finger exercises ahead of me on a daily (I hope!) basis, I’ll try to remember to take the attitude of ‘sing like no one is listening, and dance like no one is looking!’ There is no shorter path to living life to its fullest.