I Cracked It

I finally played completely through, from beginning to end--for the first time, this piece of music which has taunted me for two weeks. It's a piece called "Beautiful Brown Eyes" which I jumped ahead and tried to learn a few weeks ahead of schedule because, well--I wasn't really challenged by the lessons we've been tackling so far. Teacher knew about this. She even played the piece for me. I yearned to play it. It's the first REAL piece of music yet. It has a 3/4 waltz/swing rhythm which changes chords several times on the bass line, and a lilting, pleasant melody.

I confess to you it's from the Alfred's Country Music Songbook. But it's an inoffensive little number. One of those country ballads from the old days before country music became merged with pop and electronics. And whatever the hell Charlie Daniels plays. My apologies to fans of Mr. Daniels, but as an aficionado of good violin music, to see him sawing at a violin like a lumberjack trying to fell an oak tree, I want to cry.

Anyway, I wasn't really supposed to tackle this piece until I masted the lessons comprising, apparently, of "Lavender's Blue" and the very jolly "Blow the Man Down" both of which I notice have very similar--but simpler--chord progression. Apparently, this salty old shanty was to prepare me for the rigors of the country ballad, should I choose to tackle the supplementary material (which, as you know, I did). Hoorah, when I attempt to Blow the Man Down later this week, it will child's play compared to the rubric I finished untangling this morning.

Now the good news is my new keyboard, the mighty Casio Privia (see below) has a built in USB MIDI hotplug interface. Which means all I have to do is plug it into my computer (along with some software I imagine) and I can record my stumblings amongst the black-and-white expanses. I want to do this as I'm unfortunately, one of those restless perfectionist sorts who, as soon as I learn something, am no longer satisfied with it and want to move on. It helps to keep some sort of record of my progress, or I'll always be stuck at the same level of frustrated grasping. I know this about me from everything I've ever done. If I ever reach the level where I'm playing from The Well-Tempered Clavier, I'll still be dissatisfied if I don't have some kind of series of touch-points to look back upon and say "Look--you really sucked back then."

Here's a picture of my new keyboard, which you have to admit is pretty butch: