The Music in My Life

A good way to make yourself do something you don't feel like doing, or keep forgetting to do, is put it right in front of you so you don't have a choice. I practice this all the time at work. I'm very organized and hate to lose things so I make nice little piles of my "to do items". Whether I want to do it or not, I don't have a choice in looking at it. It's always more rewarding to complete those not-so-desirable tasks first anyway.

I do it at work, so why don't I do it at home? Growing up, I learned to play various musical instruments. First was the piano, starting at age seven or eight. Then in junior high I took on the clarinet, followed by the bass clarinet and then the baritone in my final band year in grade ten. I also played the keyboard for a few years in the junior jazz and took up the bass guitar on my own for a bit. Since then though, I've had a hard time with commitment to my musical abilities.

It doesn't help that I don't work in the music industry, nor do I play piano well enough to do it at church (I never learned chords). I do, however, still enjoy playing the piano very much. I also attempted to relearn the baritone after my family generously purchased me one a few years ago. It was going well and then we up and moved to Regina. *sigh* I've had way too many other things to keep me busy in the last 18 months.

I know what I need to do: bring the darn thing upstairs and put it next to my piano. Ironically, my television sits on the piano, so it's not like I don't look at it often enough. If I do that, maybe I'll be able to get back into it. I should also set a goal, like learning a particular song or getting my mouth used to the embouchere again to play the really high or low notes. And I should play a song on the piano every few days. Just one, to keep the fingers nimble.

The worst part about not keeping in touch with my musical side isn't that I feel guilty for not doing it. After so long, you can forget what you know, and then it's much, much harder to pick it up again. Even after all the piano lessons I took, I have a little trouble with certain things now. It's kinda the same as my French language skills, except they are much worse than my piano-playing ability!

I think either way it's important to keep hobbies going that you enjoy and that enrich your life in some way. After I post this, I'm going downstairs to get my baritone. I may not actually play it tonight, but at least I've made the first step.


Tomorrow is Pi Day (March 14 = 3.14)! 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971