I am bilingual. My second language is music, specifically piano. It has taught me life skills. To play or sing on an accomplished level requires a commitment to working daily, focusing only on the task at hand, setting daily practice goals, and sticking with it until it is right. It really is grunge work. Once the piece is learned it becomes “play”.
Practice is lonely. It is just you and the instrument. It is tedious. You have to do the passage right 3 times. It is rewarding. No one can understand unless they are a musician the feeling of hearing yourself ‘do it right’.
Commitment, goal setting, determination, learning to hear what I was doing and maintaining the standard of the music are just a few of the life skills I have learned and polished through my music. We’ll talk about the brain training in a later post.
All music is a language. Like any language if we can’t understand what is being said it just becomes gibberish to us. Those who love complex music are born with the ability to hear and understand it. We study music just like we study our native language to get a deeper understanding of its intricacies. The longer I study and teach piano the more I appreciate the miracle that any of us can play, hear and comprehend the beauty of complex music.
I knew at the age of 12 that I wanted to be a piano teacher. That is one of my core values. I have discovered on this journey that it is complex music that I enjoy. I am grateful that the gift of complex music was given to me and that the desire to use it, develop it and enjoy it were also given to me.
To all musicians of complex music thank you for contributing to global beauty.