When you think you don't really have time for anything else in your daily schedule, and you are already falling apart from the commitments, you would be absolutely crazy to invent for yourself some additional tasks. Nobody would do that.
But, I just did it to myself 馃槅... to make things more complicated. And complicated is maybe not the right word. Let's see... it is more something like impossible. Possible not possible! {We will know if this thing you will learn about in this post was indeed impossible (or not) by the end of this year.}
Where should I start? Hmm... yes, from my summer break. It was a great one, with some hiccups here and there, but I would gladly live it once again if someone could offer me two and a half months of holidays. I definitely would. Even if I thought my pace for work-related aspects of my life was equivalent to the speed of a turtle.
Oh, turtle. There is a short interlude in this story with a turtle thingy. When I park in a new place, a parking lot where there are several floors, I sometimes take a photo of the letter or a sign that will help me later find my car easily. It happened this summer when we were in Italy that I parked in such a new place for me and I took a photo of the sign shown on the column next to where I left my vehicle. It was a turtle, but the funny thing is the word that was written there!!
That special word which is very familiar to me - PIANO.
Does it mean that:
a) the piano resembles a turtle?
b) all the pianists during the summer are slow and lazy as turtles?
c) one - 1 - piano is inferior to a turtle?
Fortunately, I know what piano means in Italian, so I could find later my parked car on the first floor, in the section where the turtles were drawn in the columns. But it indeed made me smile and think about how lazy these piano fingers are. No real practising is involved in their schedule.
Back to the matter. Lazy during the summer break vs too busy since work started. Too busy seemed not convincing and I made up a challenge for myself that I will maybe regret. (I already do, but I am also excited at the same time).
I challenged one of my advanced students to learn a piece, both of us, by the end of the year. Not any piece, that I could learn by practising it a few times days as then it would not be a really challenging thing. At my proposal, we agreed to learn the same piano prelude, in G Minor, composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The pianist in this video - not that I have anything in common with Yuja Wang... her talent, fame, look, and perfection are not approachable to us, common mortals. Except that I also (try to) play the piano.
What have I done?
When will I find time to study it?
Nothing will happen if I don't do my part, I am the teacher. The student will not judge me. Maybe he would even forget it hahaha, but it is a challenge for me. Until the end of the year, I will not interpret it at some extra high level, but I will be happy when I can play it decently. Not in a concert hall. Not for the public.
My opponent started with the first page, his fingers are already decoding the notes and keys of the piano. And me? I am here, writing these lines, in the middle of the night thinking about why I made it to myself 馃槀
Keep calm and learn Rachmaninoff by the end of the year!
I need a new footer! Until then I will try to keep calm and have peace of mind :)
