Piano

Last night, for the first time in years, I went in to my piano room, shut the door, and played for hours. It was such a good time, I didn't want to stop. At first I played with the silent mode on (my baby grand has a way to channel the sound into headphones only--it's really useful). I didn't want to wake the kids. But after a while I wanted to sing along, so I ditched the head phones and played and sang as loud as the music moved me to. Singing is probably my first passion, way before playing piano. A single voice accompanied by a well-played piano is an amazing, beautiful thing. Not to say that I'm a piano virtuoso or a Carnegie Hall soloist. Far from that. But I love the limited talent I've been given and don't mind sharing it occasionally.

I'm so thankful that I suffered through 7 or 8 years of lessons (merely because my sister loved it and I had to keep up with her). I hated practicing. I was always in the shadow of Janice back then, since not only was she talented, but she loved playing. I'm thankful for all those years of sight-reading music while playing for choir in high school too. Now I can pick up most pieces of music and play them without practicing--thankfully, since I never take the time to practice the music I play for Church or wherever.

Music (whether it's me making it or not) has such a profound effect on my life and most of the people I know. It does my soul a lot of good to get back to my musical roots every once in a while. Hopefully I can continue these late-night concerts, even if nobody but me is listening.