The End of This Year of Piano Practice Brings Hallelujah and Important New Learning
A series on my daily practice
I searched for many years for a spiritual practice, not realizing that my love of playing music on the piano could provide this for me. Now they have become one and the same. I can see benefits in my spiritual growth as well as my piano playing from this habit. I practice the piano not as a chore but as a devotion. The act of doing it day after day is a gift for myself and the world. Through the very concrete act of gradually building my skills with music, I am learning to know myself better. The practice gives me the chance to push toward goals, to try and fail, and get back up again, over and over. To treat my struggles with patience and kindness. To be grateful for my opportunities and accept my limitations.
I have decided to use the previous paragraph at the start of each piece of this series. It can serve as a statement of my mission in my daily practice.
Ending 2021
My practice this month has been especially enjoyable as I linger over many familiar and evocative pieces of music that are some of my favorite parts of Christmas. This year, I decided to use as part of my sight-reading time the score of Handel’s Messiah. Today, I decided to try the Hallelujah Chorus. I have sung the Messiah…
