For my enjoyment and because it was something I always wanted to do, I take piano lessons. I am not very disciplined and don’t always have the time to practice but I have kept up the process.
One day, my instructor said, “Today, we will write music.” Write music? Okay. He asked me to pick a cord with my left hand and I did. I choose a C cord. Then he asked me what notes went with a C cord for the right hand? I played them. He then asked to me vary the cadence and rhythm. I did. I felt like I was just playing around and didn’t realize that he was writing down the notes as I was playing them. Shortly, we went on to something else.
The next week I sit down to his piano and there in published form is my composition of the week before. I was stunned. My music on paper! I played with my right hand and recognized as I remembered “my song.” He played it for me, and my heart opened. I had a professional playing a song I wrote.
That week we worked on variations of the theme and I now have three pages of “my song.” One Easter Sunday, it was presented at the Church for Today and played by our pianist, Fred Harris. Again, I was astonished that something that beautiful came out of me.
The lesson in is to just do it. A lot of the time, when getting ready to ‘write,’ for example, I have to have clear and clean it up my desk, my pens need to be just so, my mind ready, my favorite coffee cup nearby and, then, maybe, I am… ready. Today, we will write music. Today, I will write. Today, I will exercise. Today, I will….
