" Timing" on a Steinway

 

                   There is nothing like playing a Steinway.  Photo by The Pensacola Hippie

I got to practice on this gorgeous instrument today: 

My teacher has me working on time signatures.  She asked me to practice some familiar tunes, paying special attention to the values given in each note in every measure {in other words--- slow down, Sarah Beth! }  

As much as I love my little Yamaha piano keyboard, it does not have weighted keys. I noticed as I practiced time signatures that my fingers are literally not feeling the beat. Thinking that practicing on a weighted keyboard, I asked Brian to drive me the short distance to The University of West Florida so I could practice on some weighted keys {and on an instrument with real strings!!} for an hour. 

 

 Y'all: A Steinway piano is truly a piece of art.

  I almost felt as if I were entering a sacred space and I set my messenger bag down and sat at the piano. Carefully I opened the piano drawer to expose the keys. 

 

 At first the weights felt heavy to my fingers, as a ran through some simple warm-ups I did not try to play the scales on the Steinway-- as I still am entirely too clumsy with playing one-handed scales. Instead, I warmed up with some simple pentescales that I'd memorized-- using both hands. 

 When I felt that my fingers were warmed enough, I opened my bag and took out the workbook that is showing me how to read and play time signatures properly. After I worked in that book, I switched to my " fun " book of nursery songs and played _When the Saints Go Marching In_ on repeat, letting the music-- and the timing-- enter my body and reach my soul. 

 Music heals. 

 Playing a Steinway, in one of my " happy places" just added to the joy that playing the piano brings to my life. 

 I've felt broken as of late and am grateful that music is an outlet. I am also grateful for today's chance to play the piano at UWF. Somehow, today's " timing" was also one of my past aligning with my future. 

Amen. 

Sarah Beth McCarren