I played the piano today!
That's pretty much it. Well, not really.
It was more of I played the piano today and wow, did I suck at it. It's incredible how much skills deteriorate when we don't use them. I played basketball last week and I barely did anything and I sucked and the next day, my whole body ached. Anyway, back to the piano story.
On Billy's last night here (yes, I have the house to myself, more on that next time), I met one of his friends who happened to be a music student. Strangely, she was the first artistic/musically inclined person I've met here in my 3 years in New Zealand, not counting Devin's ex who was a dancer (ballroom, the other kind). Especially strange considering half of my friends back in Manila are artists (or at least they think they are). So it was very surreal talking music technically again to someone. Anyway, long story short, I got her to book a room in her school so I can tinker with a piano.
So when we got there, it was pretty obvious that I didn't have it anymore. I played some broadway songs for her and it was just terrible, especially embarrassing because Billy told her I had perfect pitch (which is like telling someone I had an IQ of 200). Actually, I have relative pitch (a slightly more common gift, like saying I'm gifted instead of I'm a genius) but because of a lack of practice, I barely showed it today. She was the better pianist, especially since she's been playing a lot and she's a music student obviously, but I think I had the better ear. Anyway, it just goes to show how much I took my skills for granted.
Back to basketball, in high school, I played summer ball for 5 hours everyday. When there were classes, after the bell rang, we all ran to the courts so that we'd get first dibs or at least get a quick game in before the varsity took over the courts (damn varsity, oh wait I was one too). In college, I could run with the best of them and took over the game everytime. And then it got to a point where I paced myself so I can take over at the end. And then, I stopped taking over. And then, Wilson started posting me up and getting away with it (which I should have taken as a sign). And then I couldnt run with everyone anymore. And now, I can't run without getting dizzy and aching the next day.
I guess the lesson here is that we all have skills that were inborn (music and performing for me) and some that we worked for (basketball and knowing when Jeco is bluffing, although that isnt hard... oooh SNAP!) and much is expected to whom much is given. The comic book version for that is with great power comes great responsibility. So in that note, I'm going to shape up my powers, I plan to start playing ball again maybe once or twice a week and definitely take a crack at the piano once a week. And maybe one day, it'll all come back to me (especially abs, sigh I remember when I had abs).
1 comment:
Here's a little glossary if you didnt get the terms above. Taken from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Absolute Pitch (or perfect pitch) - "the ability to attach labels to isolated auditory stimuli on the basis of pitch alone" without external reference.
This means that if I tell them to sing happy birthday in the key of A, they can do it without a piano or any musical device. It also means that if they hear a song two days ago, they can sing the song in the exact key it was played in without hearing it again.
Active absolute pitch (those who can sing it as opposed to just determining it like those who have passive absolute pitch) can be found in 1 in 10,000 people. Famous perfect pitch singers include Julie Andrews, Michelle Branch (what?), Mariah Carey, Jimi Hendrix, Yo yo ma, Paul Shaffer, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Yanni and of course your composers like mozart, chopin, etc...
Relative Pitch - a musician's ability to identify the intervals between given tones.
It's more common to musicians who play by ear.
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