You can’t take anything for granted in music; that’s what I’ve really learned after five years of piano lessons.
Case in point: I started working on a new piece today, a simple piece that takes only one page in my lesson book. It’s in the key of C too, so it doesn’t get more simple than that.
I looked at the notes and began to put my fingers on the corresponding keys. I ran through the entire piece once and thought it wasn’t very musical. But then one little detail caught my eye; the piece was musical, the pianist wasn’t. I had overlooked that both hands were playing in the treble clef, so I had the right hand in the proper position but the left hand was an octave too low. No wonder it sounded disconnected.
My piano teacher and I often laugh at how I overlook some detail like that in almost every piece. I call it the “Where’s Waldo” factor after a children’s book that is stuffed with illustrations and the reader must find Waldo, a chap with a red and white cap on his head, in every crowded picture. Sometimes it’s a note I misinterpret; other times it’s an entire chord. I’ve also been know to create my own tempo, rather than adhering to the composer’s preference, not because I’m creative but because I didn’t notice what the tempo should be in the first place.
My piano teacher thinks this idiosyncrasy is due to the fact that, as far as learning music is concerned, I’m only in the fourth or fifth grade. I wasn’t musical as a child and I didn’t have a lot of support for trying to become so. Which means that my current age is irrelevant, except that at my current age it doesn’t come easily. I’m motivated, however, so I’ll continue to plink along, forgetting that half-note here or ignoring that chord there and having a grand old time.
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