Talents of Unknown Origin

My last post got me thinking about my mum in a round about way. Besides playing the trumpet I also played the piano, which I learnt a few years after trumpet so I had to learn how to read bass clef at the same time. Luckily it was just a simple case of transposition from the treble clef I already knew so it didn’t take me too long.

I was never great at piano or trumpet, probably through lack of discipline and practise (a common theme throughout my life). Playing the piano was fun for me because the trumpet isn’t a very good solo instrument and while I was a member of an orchestra and various ensembles it was obviously impossible to assemble everyone whenever the desire struck me to play trumpet.

I was fortunate to get a piano at home when I was in high school because the head of the history department wanted to get rid of hers and she’d happened to discover me playing once while walking by the classroom during lunch. I remember my mum took some convincing to let me get it and I had to call in some favours to move it but eventually we got it inside and settled and I started playing straight away because I was so excited to finally have one.

A few weeks later my dad, who had helped move the piano on the day, mentioned that my mum had told him how surprised she was upon hearing me play because she had never realised I could. It was ironic, because by that stage I’d already been playing for more than four years, but not surprising since no one else in my family had shown any interest in music beyond listening.

Though I played a lot while the piano was in the house I found that I hit a wall in my ability that I couldn’t seem to pass. There has been only a single time in my life in which I was able to relax and mentally distance myself enough to be able to overcome that mental block and play beyond my normal abilities but I never learnt how I did it, nor how to replicate it.

Maybe when we’re established in Sydney I will see about buying a new piano.