Many women I know post about their children and grandchildren This is fine, but since I do not have either, I cannot join in the mom and grandma brag posts. Before anyone gets in my Kool-Aid and calls me " hateful", I admire parents-- and good parents are blessings. I have nothing against parents. {However, the over-commercialization of Mothers' Day is fodder for another essay} Mothers and fathers are essential for the survival of our species, because we cannot {yet} grow a complete human from one undifferentiated cell. No matter what people might say about me, I am not anti-mother.
I have my own brag posts: I call them #Pianonotes . I'm sure people are already tired of them, and that is fine: Scroll on.
Please understand that I came into this world with the aid of forceps', a tool that resembles kitchen tongs.
My mom's doctor somehow thought that yanking a fragile human neonate from her mother's womb by her skull was a brilliant idea. Really-- I know the 1970's were a different time, but whomever dreamed up the idea of delivering human infants with kitchen tongs should have at least lost their medical license.
I am one of the more fortunate people who entered this life in these circumstances, but my birth trauma did leave some permanent damage.
I've been taking piano lessons for several months, and in doing so am realizing a lifelong dream of learning to play the piano.
Piano study has been good for me. My biggest challenge with studying piano is not learning the music. Since my hands are " clumsy" and my right and left body hemispheres do not communicate well {I do not drive nor ride a bicycle for this reason, it is not safe} physical coordination is hard for me.
Anyway, back to music. Piano study is not only very good for me physically-- for the first time I WANT to do an activity that serves as " physical therapy" of sorts. Actually, the fact that I was born with clumsy hands would have been more of a reason to enroll me in piano lessons as a child. But again, the brain science that was available to parents, teachers and doctors was in its infancy.
As an adult music student, I am at a disadvantage, as adult brains are less " plastic" than the brains of young people. I overcome this with being naturally.... persistent {some say " stubborn," and they are not wrong} I need to work harder than a beginning piano student whose brain is still forming-- and deal with a neurodiverse brain.
I think that my dedication and drive come from the fact that I am doing something-- making music-- that no one thought I could do.
Will I be a virtuoso? No. I know this fact, my husband knows, and my teacher knows. Music study for the sake of making music should be the norm: not every person is made to be a concert musician-- no matter how early they start their musical journey.
Will music improve some neural pathways that have been damaged? Absolutely.
Another aspect of music study that I did not count on is my increased self-confidence. Learning a new thing-- especially as an adult with some neurological challenges-- is empowering. One of the reasons that I chose to self-teach the ukulele is the confidence I have with learning to play the piano. Fretted instruments are entirely different than the piano, but I can apply the same basic music theory to improve those neural pathways by using my hands and fingers in a different music-making way. I bought a beginning ukulele instruction book that has lessons with several popular tunes.
I'm teaching myself, so the uke progress is slower. This is fine with me: I'm doing this for the sheer joy of making music.
Piano is my first musical love, but I am also enjoying teaching myself the ukulele. Another aspect of learning the uke that I like is its portability. I cannot easily take my piano with me, but my concert-sized uke is extremely portable. Right now, I am perfecting some songs using the C, G7 and F chords to play for my family when we are in the North Carolina mountains for our hiking trip.
I'm grateful for the ability to learn music at midlife.
Yes, I will talk about it a lot.
Shalom...
Sarah Beth McCarren
Pentecost 2023
No comments:
Post a Comment