Sunday, April 23, 2017

Giddy about Gershwin

After years and YEARS of trying to wade my way through Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, I have finally GOT IT.  It's amazing, once things click and I understand all those frickin' accidentals, never-ending 7th chords, and (seemingly) sporadic key changes, just how much FUN  it is to play this piece.  My husband and I have been giving "out-of-the-practice-room" performances of the 2-piano arrangement Gershwin penned, and with each run-through I see new connections, new cool compositional techniques, while feeling the notes becoming more and more comfortable in my brain and therefore in my fingers.

We played it for some friends over Easter weekend.  The wife is a church pianist, a fabulous sight-reader, and an accomplished musician.  When she expressed how impressed she was that I played the piece by memory, I felt my usual reaction of gratitude mixed with frustration.  Everyone assumes that if you can memorize well, you can do everything else well.

I really wish that were true.

I could tell she didn't really believe me when I told her I can't read at the speed I can play, and that I can't do what she does every Sunday.  The disbelief in her expression said it all.

But this week I'm not letting it get me down.  I've got the Gershwin in my fingers, in the keyboard, and finally in my brain.  And I will start scheduling public performances soon, and maybe even get a performance with the wind ensemble arrangement.  It is a tremendously awesome work, cheerfully and whimsically scampering from one end of the keyboard to the other and back again.

And I fly on its whimsical journey when I sit down and play it.

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