Lightning Striking the Piano

Last night I went to a restaurant in Canfield to sit at the bar and listen to the jazz. How different for me to be on the other side of the piano. I've written in the recent past about my feeling of lightning striking the table on a first date where I felt I'd be seeing that particular man again and again. Last night I felt like lightning was striking the piano. I want to hear this music over and over again. This could become an addiction!

Tyler and Ron and I have all talked about being on the other side of the "stick". Ron doesn't attend church very frequently any more, partly because of his American Guild of Organists travel schedule, but also because he's used to sitting on the organ bench and directing all the music in the service. Sitting in a pew and participating is very different from sitting on a bench and leading. Likewise, I tried to get Tyler to sing in Tucson Symphony Chorus with me, but he was too used to leading choruses. Singing under someone else's baton would not have been the same thrill for him as leading that chorus, that production.

Of course I've gone to restaurants in the past where there were pianists. And they were okay. The PianoLady and I spent over an hour after a late Broadway night listening to the pianist at the lounge in the Marriott Marquis, trying to analyze where he was going with his harmonizations, singing along with his chosen tunes.

But to sit and listen to someone so musical, so skilled, so intuitive. Heaven on earth. I've had men propose to me after listening to me play the piano. Now I know how they felt.

I feel excited when I think what I might learn, how I might progress musically, if I were to sit for an hour every Friday or Saturday night listening to this music, taking it all in.

Strike me again!