Expanding My Horizons

Like many folks, I took piano lessons as a child. I can’t say that I enjoyed it fully, but I do have fond memories of a recital here and there; and I do love music. So I would spend a reasonable amount of time just messing around on the stand-up piano we had in our home. Practicing wasn’t my favorite. I don’t really remember how to read music. I’m not even sure how to play scales with my left hand. But, I do still have a tiny bit of muscle memory left over for playing chords. Frankly, I didn’t really stick with it because it was kind of hard and not as fun as I wanted.

Fast forward more than 30 years to when my son, at the age of four, receives a ukulele as a Christmas gift. I was thrilled and immediately began to learn ukulele chords so I could teach him how to play! We began learning old hymns because the chords are pretty simple for a lot of them and I love them so much. After only a short time, I fell in love with the ukulele and had to buy one for myself!

I began playing Happy Birthday for folks and dropping a Christmas tune now and again. But something began to happen deep in my brain. Old connections were becoming active again. I was starting to think about piano again, but this time in terms of chords instead of the wandering phrases in classical tunes. There is a keyboard at our office, so I sat down one day and was able to locate C, G, and F chords right away. At that point, I was already able to play 6 or 7 ukulele songs we had learned over the last few years! I was ecstatic!

So now begins my journey of learning to play the piano (again). 10 min each day. Day by day. I am armed with a tiny bit of personal knowledge, a delicious sounding Garageband grand piano, a boss that is musically talented, and a coworker with perfect pitch. I’m going to mix all that together with a list of Southern Gospel tunes to which I have access and just see how it goes!