I Play Good music, but I Don't Play Music Good.

It's true. I select all these lovely pieces to learn and although I've come a long way for an old dude who never studied music before a year and a half ago, I still lack finesse. I would love to play any of the pieces I've learned all the way through--once--without making a single mistake.

I began this journey with a tour guide named Alfred. When I started learning about the lovely piano, my first teacher and I worked through Alfred's Piano Course for Adults, Book One. We sped through the first book rapidly, in eight months as I recall, and had begun Book Two when my teacher vanished. She had serious health issues and I couldn't find out anything about her once she went into the hospital for heart surgery, so all I can do is wish her the best and hope she made it through all right.

My new teacher doesn't use Alfred's instructional course. We jumped into learning actual pieces. Which I liked, because I felt like a "real" pianist. She says I'll learn what I need to know as we go along, and this seems to be working quite well. So far I've picked up quite a bit of musical theory from studying the four pieces on which I've focused.

Yet my Alfred Book Two forlornly stares at me. Almost accusatory. So it occurs to me that I could, at this point, work through Alfred II on my own while also working on my formal lessons. I will need to free up more time, but hey--sleep can wait.

In other news my NEW PIANO is out for delivery, according to UPS ( pronounced "oops") so I'm sticking close to home to wait on it. UPS has a habit of hiding behind the other building and waiting until the exact moment I run out on a brief errand to come by and stick a notice on my door saying "Ha ha--missed you again. Sorry."

I'm also waiting for the chap who bought my old digital Piano, the Privia, to drop by and line my palm with ducats. So it is a day celebrating the Circle of Life--if not the Circle of Fifths, as the Lord Giveth and takes away.

Speaking of the Circle of Fifths, this is a fascinating thing. In essence you begin at the Key Of C and then count up five tones, which brings you to G. From G it's five tones to D, etc.

So what good is this? the beginner asks. Why not do ABCDEFG, as God and the Board of Education intended? What you learn is that as you circumnavigate the Circle of Fifth, you add one sharp to each key as you go around. In other words, C has no sharps, G has one, D has two sharps, etc.

Now when you get to the keys of B-major and F-major, some of the rules change, but the Circle still applies. There is even an "Inner Circle" for Flat keys. And of course a series of nifty mnemonic acronyms, such as Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Bologna; or Fat Cops Get Doughnuts After Every Bust.

But if you practice and learn in a systematic fashion, you don't need mnemonics. I learned the Major Scales in the order of the Fifths and when I practice the scales I do it in the same order, so one day I woke up and realized I knew the Circle of Fifths. Hoorah.

Next, I hope one day soon to wake up and be a prodigy. Um, it could happen.