Piano Man

Picture this: A piano recital is taking place in a nursing home. Most of the students are very young and nervous about being around such a large crowd of octogenarians. They tend to hang just around the corner form the day room, waiting until the last possible moment before they have to play. The program is mostly light classical, heavy on the Mozart. Near the end of the show, there are a couple of students who are set to play their accordions. One of them sits down and performs a spirited rendition of the theme from MASH, "Suicide Is Painless". It is a moment that lives on in my memory as the quintessential music lesson moment. The only thing that makes it any sweeter was that it was my younger brother playing the accordion.
I never made the transition to accordion myself, I dodged that instrumental bullet, but I do remember the struggle to make meaningful music. Early on, I resigned myself to learning "Hot Cross Buns" and "Little River Flowing" as rungs on the ladder to becoming an accomplished pianist. After I had been playing a few years, I started to yearn for something a little more hip than Beethoven's Sonatinas. I knew that there were racks bursting with "E-Z" keyboard of the day's popular hits. I negotiated with my piano teacher until he allowed me to, as part of my lesson, start to learn Don McLean's "American Pie". This would be only a segment of my week's practice, along with more traditional pieces, and a heavy dose of music theory.
My initial attempts were less than gratifying, and after many weeks of limited success, I was finally able to pick out most of the melody, but the bridge and the left hand chords continued to elude me. I gave up and returned to the Mozart. Until the day that I saw Elton John playing "Pinball Wizard" in the film version of "Tommy". Now I had a new goal. This time I was determined. I practiced harder than ever. I worked on the opening for weeks, trying to recreate the pounding fusillade that Elton was able to unleash from high atop his platform boots. "How do you think he does it?"
In the end, I was no Elton John. I was no Billy Joel. I was no Randy Newman. I wanted to play the hits, but I was stuck with my misses. It was shortly after this that I gave up my piano studies. I haven't had to think about this for many years. Until today, when my son returned from his piano lesson, anxious to find the sheet music for a song by Linkin Park. Already his ability to play music by ear has outstripped mine, so I have little doubt that he will be successful in his endeavor. Am I a little jealous? We'll have to wait and see.