Lovely Obsession

There's something beautiful about being in the grip of an obsession which normal, even-keeled people may never experience. I don't mean addictive-compulsive obsession--the type that destroys lives; I mean the kind of obsession that drives you to seek out a perfect ideal in whatever it is you do.

I was always a perfectionist in my performance of magic and related arts. In my youth I practiced for weeks and months to perfect the subtle nuances of moves that most people would never even see. That is, they would never see these moves if the moves were performed correctly. And I practiced these moves to the point that nobody saw them, even other magicians.

Obsession.

I've been told some musicians in the classical field search all their lives to play ONE perfect note. Apparently Isaac Stern was one of these musicians.

My current obsession is learning one or two piano pieces well enough to play them through from beginning to end. Being me, I picked pieces well beyond my current skill level. Of course this makes my lessons pieces easier by comparison, but I'm really wrestling with these pieces. I know someone with two or three years of piano experience could sit down and learn these pieces much easier, but for a chap like me, with little over nine months of lessons, it's a bit of a burn. But much fun. I'm never happier than when possessed by obsession.

A couple of months go, I began learning an Intermediate-level version of Scott Joplin's The Entertainer. I can play it fairly well now so decided to move to the much-more-difficult original piece. I've learned the first phrase of it to the point where I know both hand's parts, very clunkiliy, now I'm smoothing it out. Obsessively. The most difficult part, and the most important I think, is the swinging, syncopated rhythm between the left hand and right hand parts. I have that pretty much hammered in my skull at this point and I'm transposing bits and pieces of the original composition over my simpler transcription.

I recall, not that long ago, when I looked at the sheet music for this masterpiece and thought "Oh no." Now I think, "I can play this, in time."