The Spirit

I burst into a rage of tears at last when my piano teacher asked me to play CDEFG again and again. I still didn’t know how to place my fingers properly on the keyboard. I still didn’t know how to grab the keyboard with an individual finger to produce a single proper sound. What happened to me?

I had brought a piano at home. I had practiced at least one hour a day. But my fingers didn’t follow orders and my brain didn’t know how to give orders. I brought along the music notes of G Major and F Major, but I couldn’t work on them. It was a moment of frustration, the last piano lesson of year 2009.

Who wouldn’t feel a little sentimental on the last day of the year? I began my last day of 2009 crying when I saw a big group of people singing Ode to Joy on Japanese satellite TV this morning. Maestro Kurt Masur at the age of 82 was full of passion conducting NHK Symphony Orchestra to perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. When I saw the joy of Maestro Kurt Masur, I seemed to see Beethoven singing along.

I was a little reluctant to go to the last piano lesson in the rain this afternoon. I didn’t make any improvement in the past week. My fingers were paralytic when they were on the keyboards. What would I say to my daughter if I had one? So I went to the class as planned.

Yi-hwa gave me a good pep talk when she saw tears in my eyes. She understood how difficult it was for a middle-aged woman to learn piano from scratch. She advised me to take one step at a time and gave me a children book of piano lessons as the new year gift to cheer me up. I burst into laughters at the end of the class.

I was full of excitements to see Yi-hwa. It has been one entire month since my last piano lesson with her. I wanted to impress Yi-hwa with my diligence in the past week since I owned a piano all to myself.

Yi-hwa instructed me to play the music notes I brought along, she noticed that the index finger of my right hand stuck-up subconsciously. The whole one hour piano lesson for me was to struggle with my index finger which I might have overused to point at people or give directions in the past.

From now on, I should keep a good eye on my index finger to make sure it is well placed humbly and gracefully on the keyboard. Of course, I shall distribute equal love to ten fingers. All of them are created equal, they should be powerful enough to produce the same volume of sound regardless their individual length and strength. I can’t help wondering if a massager can play piano better. Or a piano player can massage better. Who knows, one day when I play piano better, no doubt I shall add weight to my fingers touches.

Yi-hwa was not only a piano teacher, but also a cheerleader. In order to motivate me to continue the piano lessons, she gave me a children book full of famous songs as a gift. I opened the book immediately and Ode to Joy was on page one. Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven has uplifted thousands of thousands spirits around the world with Ode to Joy. He was completely deaf when he composed his ninth symphony.

I don’t know where the long and winding river of life journey would take me. I follow my heart and drift along. I wouldn’t have imagined a week ago that I would purchase a piano for myself.

Dana LaMon was the keynote speaker of District 67 Fall Conference 2009. He was the first Toastmaster to respond (in two hours) to District 67 Governor James Lin’s request for keynote speakers from the Toastmasters International. Dana won himself the chance to inspire Toastmasters in Taiwan for the first time.

Being a blind at age of four, Dana proves visually impaired persons can achieve just as much. Dana got mathematics degree from Yale University, and law degree from Southern California. Dana joined Toastmasters in 1989, won the world champion of public speaking in 1992, and aspired to be a professional speaker in Toastmasters.

In order to serve as an interpreter for Dana’s one-hour speech at Taipei School for Visually Impaired Thursday, December 3rd, I went to Taipei City Library for Visually Impaired a day before to get familiar with the jargon. By chance, I met a friendly lady at the Parents Association for Visually Impaired. She told me the various functions of the Association to help the visually impaired persons, including the training course of piano tuners.

I didn’t know that I left my camera at the Association till Thursday evening. I rushed to the Association first thing Friday morning, I found my camera, and I bought myself a second hand piano without a second thought (many kind people donate used pianos to the Association). I have no reason not to buy a piano, I can always donate it back to the Association when I lose interest in piano.

The piano was delivered to my brother Jimmy’s place Monday afternoon. Jimmy was excited about the new piece of toy. This afternoon, a young blind womandispatched by the Association came to Jimmy’s place to tune the piano for two hours. From then on, I shall make it a habit to play piano for one or two hours a day.

There is a river called THE RIVER OF NO RETURN
Sometimes it’s peaceful and sometimes wild and free!
Love is a trav’ler on THE RIVER OF NO RETURN
Swept on forever to be lost in the stormy sea
Wail-a-ree I can hear the river call
[ no return, no return ]

I didn’t learn playing much of piano today. As D67 Fallcon 2009 was approaching, I asked Yi-hwa to spend some time helping me articulate the alto voice part of “Amazing Grace”. In addition, Yi-hwa taught how to move my hands as a chorus conductor in case Taiwan Toastmasters Chorus needed to practice Amazing Grace and Akatonbo on our own.

Like attracts like. I was lucky to make acquaintance with Yi-hwa, a very versatile graduate student in music. She taught me everything she knew about music. I gained much knowledge and passion from her about music. And I built confidence in myself and our debut performance at D67 Fallcon Dinner Party the coming weekend.

Before we called it a day, Yi-hwa encouraged me to play “Amazing Grace” at home on my own. She wrote down the finger movement of main melody of the right hand and taught me to use three fingers (small, middle, thumb) consonance of an octave of the left hand. What a challenge it was to play an octave left-handed, not to mention the changing of the keys of the right hand.

I don’t have a piano at home. I don’t intend to purchase one, either. But, I need to practice. Where can I practice? I play piano at a restaurant in my neighborhood twice a week! Don’t think high of me! I am not a pianist. I go to the restaurant to practice the piano. It’s good to enjoy delicious meals at the same time. In addition, I belong to a piano club where I can practice the piano on hourly basis. Being diligent, I don’t feel any progress nevertheless, maybe because of my age.

I decide not to find any reason for my fourth piano lesson. I love music, that’s it! I have time and I have energy, that’s it! But, just imagine one day, I can play the toy pat bells of music notes with the elderly at the nursing home, would it be wonderful?

The fourth piano lesson was full of music theory. After Yi-hwa instructed me to play the children song Lightly Row with one semitone higher, I learned to play with the black keys on the keyboard. The Key Transposition is to change the tone of music by transposing all accidentals. Transposing a song is like choosing different colors for the coloring page. It’s the same picture painted in a different shade of sounds. It’s a good training for the fingers as well as ears.

Then Yi-hwa lectured on music theory for most of the lesson, including baroque music, counterpoint, invention. Yi-hwa was so excited that she demonstrated many music pieces on the piano, but I could comprehend none, to be honest. She gave me another two CDs of Bach Six Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord by violinist Jaime Laredo and Pianist Glenn Gould. Hopefully if I listen hard at home, I could understand what Yi-hwa talked about eventually.

Look into the future. In a year from today, I could become a better piano player. Or even better, I could join a band as a keyboard player, or I could have a piano recital for family and friends. It’s going to be a dream-come-true.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m still very much into the piano lessons. But a fancy idea flashed over my mind on my way to the third piano lesson. I imagined myself becoming composer. If I could express my thoughts in music notes on a piece of paper, on a grand piano, bla bla bla, that would be simply awesome!

Writing and blogging makes me an active reader. If to read is to write, to play piano is to compose for piano, I believe. When I told Yi-hwa my driving force to learn piano, she gave me a CD of Pianist Glenn Gould’s interpretation of Bach’s Preludes and Fugues 17-24 for the homework. I listened to the CD as soon as I got home. I liked the music very much, but I had no ideas about fugues. I didn’t know how to report on my listening comprehension of Bach for my piano lesson next week.

During the third class, I was still struggling with the right posture and finger movements with the simple music notes. My index fingers stuck out, my wrists bent, my elbow protruded. And I still couldn’t feel the music with my fingertips.

But I am motivated just the same. I believe in the learning attitude. If I am neither a pianist nor a composer in the end, at least I won’t get Alzheimer Disease. I coordinate my limbs, I stimulate my brain by exercising my arms and legs, I infuse my body with melody and joy. I’m my own cheerleader. Go! Go! Go!

“If I could play piano, I could entertain little children at a remote village in any part of the world,” I thought. It was the driving force to begin my second piano lesson this afternoon.

My wish was answered. Yi-hwa taught me how to play “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, one of the most popular English nursery rhymes, the melody popular belief holds that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the original composer.

I was taught to play the song with five fingers on the piano keys, stretch the index finger (left hand) and the ring finger (right hand) to play G, followed by thumb (left hand) and little finger (right hand) to play A, then return to the original position to play F with the index finger (left hand) and the ring finger (right hand).

For one hour class, Yi-hwa corrected my fingers movement and sitting posture by placing a heavy stainless steel watch on my right wrist to make sure the watch didn’t drop from my wrist. Yi-hwa also adjusted my protruded left elbow to my body constantly. Gosh, I don’t know how long it will take before I can embed the right arms, elbows, wrists, fingers postions in my mind.

Now I’m excited to play and sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” at any occasions around the world to have fun with the grown-ups as well as the little kids.

Out of an impulse, I decide to learn piano. It’s not only about acquiring a new hobby, but it also adds a new dimension to life, my wishful thinking. My instructor is a young graduate student. I met her three weeks ago at our chorus. She was our accompanying pianist.

At three o’clock this afternoon, I arrived at Yi-hwa’s place. Our first lesson began with correct sitting posture and finger movements. Somehow it reminded me of the catwalk training I had a few years ago. Always keep in mind to Walk Tall & Walk Straight. Then I learned to place my fingers on the keyboard to grasp at the keys to make the sound in the most relaxed way. First, I laid ten fingers on ten different keys to make sound simultaneously. Then I worked on individual fingers, starting with the thumbs, followed by small fingers, index fingers. Small fingers were difficult. They became paralytic at once.

Index fingers were not obedient, because of the nerves between index fingers and middle fingers. It is important to play piano with only DIP( the distal inter-phalangeal joint between the distal phalanx and middle phalanx), not PIP (the proximal inter-phalangeal joint between the middle phalanx and proximal phalanx). It was the first time I realized how little I know of my fingers. It was the first time I realized how valuable my ten fingers were. Now I can tell if a person plays a piano by the way she or he holds the coffee cup.

Being a right-handed person, I thought my right hand could learn piano faster than left hand. It turned out the other way around. My left hand was more relaxed and more natural. My right hand was constantly waiting for the signal from the left brain. From the first piano lesson, I also knew my brain through my finger movement.

Learning piano will be a long journey. Before I get accustomed to playing piano with fingertips, I need to convert myself into a robot, just play without too much thinking of where and how to put my hands on the keyboard. In no time, I shuld be very good at caressing with my fingers. I can hear every sound at my fingertip.

I look into your eyes and find my soul mate. I hear your voice and never feel alone.

Date: 2009, 10, 11
Side A
1. San Francisco
2. Street of Philadelphia
3. Blowing in the Wind
4. Mrs. Robinson
5. Diana

Side B
1. Unchained Melody
2. You’re Always on My Mind
3. The Power of Love
4. I just Called to Say I Love You
5. The Wind Beneath my Wings

Rob Sheffield’ s “Love is a Mix Tape—Life and Loss, One Song at a Time” is a good reference book of rock music in the 90’s. It is also a superb book of romance. I was moved by the words between the lines, about the love and bond between the opposite two of them.

I pulled out all the old mix tapes and CDs on the shelves in the warehouse. I wiped out the dust, played the music to remember good old friends, to reminisce good old times. Thanks to Rob and Renee who prompted me to retrieve the old mixed tapes to reflect upon the music I grew up with. It’s healing to listen to the familiar melodies and lyrics of mixed tapes of my own and from my friends.

I don’t recall how long it has been since I last mixed a tape. I think I should do it again for various occasions, tapes for afternoon coffee with strangers , tapes for hiking, tapes for breaking up with lovers, tapes for inspiration, and tapes for biding farewell to beloved ones. Mixing a tape might be as fun as writing an article, if not more.

What I have in mind is that, if we could divide a day into different time slots according to working schedule, mix a tape for sewing, a tape for dancing, a tape for cooking, a tape for reading, a tape for writing, a tape for afternoon siesta, and a tape for contemplating. If time allows, maybe we can mix new tapes on seasonal basis. If we don’t have time to listen to the mix tapes ourselves, they would make splendid birthday presents for our beloved ones.

In the last tape of December 2002, Chapter 22 Via Vespucci, Rob mentioned he took all of Renee’s hats to the Central Park in Summer 2001, he walked around the Great Lawn, left a note on every hat he placed on a bench for people to take away for free. Being a hat aficionado, I wish my husband would give away all my hats like Rob did with Renee’s. Life goes on in a romantic way!

A Big Bowl of Noodles for Longevity

Wow, it’s my 54th birthday today! I owe myself a favor! I’ve got to jot down something on The Spirit to commemorate the significant day in my life.

Honestly speaking, were it not for my birthday, I probably would not write on The Spirit. So, for today, I had a big lunch at a French restaurant with friends. The chef and waitresses sang “Happy Birthday” for us. I had a big dinner with family, my husband and my brother didn’t sing, but they took a lot of photos of me with two big 5 & 4 candles in my hands.

Life is really full of wonders. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. I don’t know what will happen next year on my 55th birthday. And I wouldn’t have thought that I would charter a chorus two months ago? With drumming, singing, dancing, in addition to reading and writing, I am a busy housewife.

Being the editor-in-chie of Yangmingshan National Park Volunteers Group for one year, from July 2009 to June 2010, I spend a lot of time writing notices for 500 plus volunteers on daily basis. I guess it will be the Thanksgiving Day I write on The Spirit. Who knows what will happen in-between? I am curious!