I Used to Play The Piano

I used to play the piano. But I really haven’t played seriously for a number of years. When the kids were growing up, there wasn’t a whole lot of time. So I got out of practice. And then, over the past ten years, I’ve developed arthritis in my hands, and it hurts to play challenging music for more than a few minutes. But I used to play the piano. Mostly for myself.

I took lessons for almost eight years. Twice a year my teacher would stage big recitals in one of the theaters in Seattle, and I’d have to go on stage and play whatever 6- or 7-page number it was she’d picked out for me. This may come as a surprise to those who know me, but, in all honesty, I’m actually rather quiet and shy until I get to know people. And I didn’t know more than four or five of those several hundred people sitting out there. I enjoyed playing the piano, but I really preferred to do it down in the basement where I could be by myself.

When I got into junior high, I started singing in choir. That I didn’t mind doing, because it wasn’t just me up front by myself. I continued on into high school, singing in both the boys’ glee club and the mixed choir. But I kept my piano playing to myself.

At the beginning of my junior year, a honey-blonde piano player my age named Marlys moved to our area from Wichita, Kansas, and immediately became the accompanist for our choir. She was good. Then one day early in my senior year, Marlys was absent from school. I don’t to this day know how the choir director knew, but he called on me to come down and accompany in her place. We were singing the “Lacrymosa” from Mozart’s Requiem. After a little hesitation, I went down. And we rehearsed “Lacrymosa” for the full fifty-minute period.

Because of my shyness, I had always felt rather awkward around girls. Truth be told, I never dated in high school. So after practice that day, I was very uncomfortable when one of the senior altos came up to talk to me. She was one of the more popular girls in school; in fact she was one of the varsity cheer leaders. She smiled at me, and said, “You really played the piano well!” Embarrassed and grasping for something to say, I smiled and said…...”I know it!”

Of course, the look on her face told me that the crown she had just finished placing on my head was now down around my feet. I think that was the first experience I had had with the lesson Paul may have been trying to teach in Col 4:6, where he said, “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every (wo)man.“ The point I wish to make (and I have to admit to having had a rather slow learning curve on this one) is that we have to be so very careful about what we say to others and how we say it, especially with the children who look up to us teachers with such admiration.

Truth is, I had done well. In fact, for a concert later that year, Marlys and I worked up a four-hand accompaniment to “Lacrymosa” that really went over well. And I really didn’t mean to sound proud. But there was certainly a more diplomatic way to receive a cute cheerleader’s compliment. She turned without speaking and went on down the hall. I stood there and didn’t say anything. I mean, even after forty plus years, I’ve not really thought of a suitable follow-up.

I pray your day today goes much better than mine did that day.

Dr. G