Answer to the Mystery Piece

As if you lost any sleep over it. Under the heading "Tackling a Tough One," I posted the first page of a piece of music I actually purchased from an on-line store (for the outrageous fee of $5) because I couldn't find an arrangement pretty enough to suit me in my beginner's book or online for free download. This piece of music is "Over the Rainbow" by Harold Arlen. Of course, there are a million arrangements of this hoary old chestnut for solo piano, but I had to find one that didn't require the chops of Rubinstein to play yet was challenging enough to push me to learn the skills necessary.

Today, I finished learning the entire first page melody for the right hand and the harmony for the left hand up to the end of the first phrase. I don't think this is too bad for someone who has just hit his third month of lessons. Tomorrow is officially my third month of piano lessons and I'll get some pointers from Teacher on smoothing out my stumbling blocks on this first passage. I don't play it well; in fact it's kind of pitiful. But I can play it recognizably. Which is more than I began this year being able to do.

I think this is very cool.

Addenda:

After my lesson tonight, teacher gave me some tips which helped me finish the first page. She told me she usually didn't like people to attempt pieces beyond their skill level because they became frustrated and quit practicing. I assured her this wasn't going to happen to me. The thing is, I have a lifelong history of learning very difficult material, usually by myself (some sleight-of-hand material literally took me years to finally master) and to have someone available to actually help me with something is a novelty.

So I stayed up late working on this item and memorized the rest of the first page, and can play it, rather slowly but reasonably smoothly. I think I'll work on it for a coulpe of days to burn in the fingering and move on to the second page.

Oh yeah--I have lessons to work on too. Dang it.