As a kid I was very passionate about music. Somehow at 12 I managed to get a baroque soprano Hohner recorder. I spent hours playing it. After that I tried with the acoustic guitar, but I desisted because I wanted something else. What I really wanted was to play piano. My father gave me an electronic five octave keyboard. Again, hours and hours of playing. I don’t know why I’ve left it, but that’s something I really regret.

However, every time I listened to some piano piece I was moved, and I knew, somehow, that I should go back playing it.

A year ago a music student of my University posted a message in our Facebook group, he was offering personalized classes with an special discount for members of the University. I immediately contacted him. I thought it was my real opportunity to do it well this time.

Our first meeting was exploratory at his place. I remember I was very nervous because I really admire musicians. So he told me to sit in front of that beautiful Yamaha piano, I won’t forget the music sheet he was working in: A Rachmaninoff study. He took it off and put that orange book, the first book of Bach’s Das wohltemperierte Klavier. He immediately opened it. He chose the Prelude part in the Prelude and Fugue No. 2 in C minor BWV 847. Then he asked me to play that. I got frozen, but somehow I managed to start playing… well, actually it was more like deciphering those cryptic symbols, I could get the first measure together. I played it so bad, but then he told me, “OK, that sounds good. Now I want you to close your eyes and play it again slowly, being aware of your whole body”. Then the magic happened. That first measure sounded really good. I was very excited.

We talked about how I got into music and why I wanted to play piano. I remember I told him I wanted to play it, just because I love it. My main motivation was (and it still is) to play Salsa piano. But I also enjoy playing academic music. We continued liked this for two hours. I payed him those two hours and left his place heading back home. I took a taxi, holding in my hands that copy of the prelude. I couldn’t take my eyes away of that sheet. I took my cell phone and opened Spotify, searched the song, and played it over and over again trying to follow it in a failed attempt to not getting lost on what I was reading. I couldn’t avoid dreaming of me playing it as Glenn Gould did in that recording I was listening to.

That night I went to sleep thinking in nothing but that Yamaha piano, asking myself over and over again if I could managed to do it.

The next day I woke up, looked into my old stuff and it was there… the old electronic keyboard my father gave me when I was a kid. I cleaned it and started to play the first three measures of the prelude. The sound was hideous, but it was the only thing I could afford to have. I needed to buy a piano. But I thought buying a piano for an amateur was way too much. So I decided to take four more classes and see how it was going to be. Every class I did show a huge progress, and my new teacher was so supportive that I finally decided to go deep in the piano again.

Again, buying a piano was way too much for an amateur and couldn’t avoid thinking that it could be a waste of money to buy it. What if I drop it again? What if I’m not good at it? So I decided to buy a new electric piano. It was cheaper, with a good sound that resembles a real one. If I were meant to be a good musician (not a pro, but a good one) I could buy the piano after some time. So I bought a Casio Privia PX-160.

I’ve been taking classes for a year. The outcome? I made a new friend, and despite he’s younger than me and I see him as my teacher, we got a nice friendship, so classes are more than just music, we get some beers, talk about politics, science, computers, sci-fi and other stuff. And I feel I’ve made progress. I’ve already completed three works and I’m still working on getting a perfect Prelude. But as my teacher says, I’m at one work piece to have my first small concert. This is what I have complete now:

• Gymnopédie No 1. Lent et douloureux (D major) - Erik Satie. As to my knowledge, the Gymnopedy was a festival of warriors on ancient Greek, but I hardly believe Erik Satie has taken it as inspiration. I’m still looking for more information to know what was Satie’s inspiration for this work. This was my first complete work and I chose it because I thought it was simple and easy to learn, and I was right. I could play it in some weeks. Every time I thought it was ready, my teacher pointed my errors in the execution. So every class was a stream of improvement. I guess I still can improve it.
• Waltz No. 10 in B minor Op. 69 No. 2. - Frédéric Chopin. A melancholic piece composed by Chopin at the age of 19 in 1829. A posthumous waltz. As it starts with a moderato, to me it’s dramatic, like there’s something hideous to happen. As it flows it gets more and more dramatic. But then the key signature changes from B minor to B major, it gets happier, almost as if it’s the Death, as an entity, was mocking us on our grief, and suddenly it goes to a minor chord, the death is joking no more, Death is telling us how harsh death is. And it ends as dramatic as it began in the B minor key signature.
• Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 in E-flat Major. - Frédéric Chopin. This work is a milestone in my path to becoming a pianist. Somehow the posthumous waltz got me hard, I needed something new that helped me to get out of the grief of that waltz. This work is a masterpiece. Tender and very smart at blurring the line that separates drama from melodrama. This work was a beautiful study to me because it taught me to stay calm and focused. Every time I tried to play it fast was a fiasco. Those moments where I was fully aware of my body, just focused on the keys, the sound, the volume and my emotion, were the moments where it sounded astonishing. The fingers of my right hand became relaxed, and I could felt that right hand as I never felt it before. Somehow I rediscovered that I had a pinky finger and that he was so important, and that as small as it is, he was strong enough to make the keys to sound as I wanted, but at the same time as gentle as he was. I took me four months, and I always go back at it when I need to calibrate my body to a relaxed state. I know I can’t be called a pianist just by playing this one, but I like to think I actually am one every time I play it. I simply love it.

The challenge. Prelude and Fugue No. 2 in C minor BWV 847 - Johann Sebastian Bach. This work has tested my physical limits. I usually play it at 70 BPM. Currently I’m at measure 24. I’ve improved it a lot in this year. Something I like to do when preparing a work is to listening at Spotify. When I listened to this one, I got overwhelmed. All the interpreters play the first part between 80 ~ 90 BPM, and after hours and hours of practice I can barely play it at 80 BPM too. I was happy, but then… the presto. I was done. How possibly could I play at that speed? Should I stop? Hopefully for me, my teacher got me back to reality. Those interpreters are professionals and they were trained to do that. I’m supposed to go at my own pace. Finally playing is more on the well execution than speed. So I’m trying to play the first part at 50 ~ 60 BPM foreseeing the presto. But I know that I’ll be there if keep practicing.

What have I done to reach this point? Progress, not perfection. No one masters anything just by wishing. I’ve devoted about four hours on a daily basis to the piano. Sometimes is more, sometimes is less. I’ve made a promise to myself: there shouldn’t be day where I can’t play. I have to play at least one hour. I haven’t bought the piano yet, and I think I won’t, at least for a year or so. I still have to get better (not to mention finding a good deal to buy a good and cheap one). But the good news is that my teacher told me I’m about to have that first concert. I have three complete works, having one more and I’m in. Maybe a Mozart’s Sonata as he suggested.

I hope to write more about this soon.