[This post is dedicated in memory of Corinne Hyre (March 27th 1961 - January 24th 2007) An amazing woman, mother, wife, person, musician, and music teacher.]
I posted a video on Facebook of myself playing the intro music to the TV series The Newsroom. I then received a number of comments on the video itself and via messenger asking how I managed to do it. How did I manage to just sit down with no music in front of me and just pick out the right notes and fit them all together so that in the end, I was able to fluidly play the theme song? The answer may seem impossible for you to think of doing but to me, it's very simple. I play by ear which basically means, if I hear something at least a few times I can usually play it back as I heard it with my own personal twist to it. It doesn't matter if it's a well known song like Billy Joel's "The Piano Man" or a TV theme song.
Take "The Piano Man" for example; if you take the sheet music and attempt to follow along with me as I play you'll quickly notice that I go "off script" pretty fast playing it as I learned to play it - by hearing the song often enough to play what I've heard. I can read music but I have to literally take the sheet music and in painstaking slowness, go note by not writing the letter that corresponds to each one next to it. I can then usually manage to eek out exactly what's on the sheet music but stumbling and fumbling my way through it and instead of it being a fun thing to do, it causes me immense frustration.
The opening music of The Newsroom is beautiful and I'd just watched all 3 seasons for probably the 10th time (if you have Amazon Prime...watch the show and you'll understand why I've watched it so much). I woke up the other morning with the tune in my head. I couldn't shake it from my mind so after breakfast I decided I'd sit at the piano as long as I had to in order to at least figure some of it out. I then recorded it, not to show off or anything, but because it's helpful to me to be able to hear what I played and continue to be able to play it in the future. I posted it to Facebook because, well frankly, I was so excited and pretty damn proud of myself due to my arm.
If you've followed my story you know that I am an above the knee amputee due to recurrent infections and while the infections in what's left of my leg seem to have at least gone dormant for the last few years, unfortunately that hasn't meant that I've been infection free. Due to several bouts of sepsis (what it's called when infection gets into the bloodstream) bacteria was sent throughout my entire body. Apparently, the bacteria decided that my right arm was a great place to take up residence and over a year and a half ago I was diagnosed with osteomyelitis bone infection in my right ulna. It came out of left field and threw all of us including my doctors. It's the exact same bacteria that wreaked havoc on my right leg and we now know that my flawed immune system can't fight this particular bacteria. I've had a number of surgeries on my right arm including losing 80% of my ulna which forced my surgeon to create a one-bone forearm. He literally cut my radius (the second bone in the forearm), moved it inside my arm, and used plates and screws to attach it to what was left of my ulna. The reason we have two bones in our forearms is so we can supinate and pronate our arms making the palm up motion and the palm down motion. I now have an arm that can't do either movement. But I digress...
Growing up, my sisters and I didn't get a choice. We each had to learn to play the piano and one other instrument of our choice. Michaeleh, being the oldest, chose the flute. Amanda chose violin and then swapped to the cello. I, being the youngest and looking up to my eldest sister, also chose the flute. Michaeleh sailed through piano lessons. She was the one who could sit down, open a new book of music, and sight read it with few mistakes if any at all. Amanda struggled through piano lessons in large part due to a personality clash with our piano teacher. She can play but she prefers the cello. I don't think she's sat at the piano in years. She isn't nearly as good as Michaeleh was at sight reading but she can do it if she tries and really wants to. I had the same personality clash Amanda had with our original piano teacher who turned my love of making music into a hatred of it. I got lectured at every lesson about playing what was written and as her frustration with my inability to do so grew, the angrier she'd get. Eventually, like Amanda, I quit.
Several years later, I started taking lessons again with a wonderful woman who taught Michaeleh and I both how to play the flute and also gave piano lessons. I'd been incredibly hesitant to take any music lessons but especially piano lessons. It turns out that I owe that woman far more than I could ever have given her. She recognized that I play by ear and instead of berating me about it being a "bad habit" as my previous teacher had, she made certain that I knew that the ability to do that was an incredible talent that very few people have. She gave me one of the greatest gifts. She gave me back my love of making music which is also meditative and calming for me when my life is spinning out of control. Unfortunately, she was taken far too soon from this world by cancer - just as Michaeleh was 7 years later. I can't begin to tell you how much music has helped me to cope with my sister's death.
Michaeleh was the sight reader. Amanda had some of that ability and far more musical ability that she's ever let on or embraced. Me...I can't sight read at all. I can read music but I literally have to sit down and write the letters next to each and every note and then I can fumble my way through something. I'm far better playing by ear - playing what I hear. I'm also able to pick out simple songs like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Mary Had A Little Lamb on just about any instrument.
I didn't know if I'd ever make music again once so much damage had been done to my right arm. I'd pulled out my guitar several months back, tuned it, and discovered that with time and some finagling I'd likely be able to get back to playing it again once my arm has fully healed. The piano, for some reason, seemed like a very daunting task. When you sit at a piano your hands are in the same positions as though you're sitting at a computer keyboard. I can sit at the computer and type with ease just as fast as I always have so you'd think the piano wouldn't be daunting to me at all. The difference between a a computer keyboard and the piano is that at the computer your arms generally don't move a whole lot whereas with the piano your entire arm from fingertips to shoulder are used if you're playing correctly. I can't quickly rotate my forearm to hit various notes in various songs or slide from one octave to another as easily. I knew I'd have to figure out a different approach if I wanted to play again which is exactly what I did in working out the intro music to The Newsroom. Part of playing by ear is muscle memory. I conjure up a vision of where my fingers are on the piano for this song or that song and with muscle memory there are many tunes I can immediately just sit and play. It will take time and patience to learn to play those songs again and new songs since muscle memory can't help me now but I will figure it out.
Music is an amazing thing and has been called the medicine of the mind. It can change your mood, set the tone for your day, comfort you, and calm you. I have PTSD and music is an incredible calming tool for me when anxiety starts to strike or when the demons of PTSD make a full fledged attack. While listening to songs on the radio or on an iPod can help soothe those demons, there is no greater soother for them than sitting down at the piano and actually making music even if I play the same song over and over. I truly believe that music certainly can change people, help people, and even save people and I think that every child should learn to play an instrument. I'm not talking about those stupid recorders many elementary schools give out to children. I'm talking about actual instruments. There is a lot to be gained by being able to play an instrument. Playing an instrument - making music - is proven to increase memory capacity, teaches perseverance along with patience, sharpens your imagination as well as your ability to concentrate, relives stress, and teaches you discipline just to name a few of the benefits.
I didn't know if I'd ever make music again once so much damage had been done to my right arm. I'd pulled out my guitar several months back, tuned it, and discovered that with time and some finagling I'd likely be able to get back to playing it again once my arm has fully healed. The piano, for some reason, seemed like a very daunting task. When you sit at a piano your hands are in the same positions as though you're sitting at a computer keyboard. I can sit at the computer and type with ease just as fast as I always have so you'd think the piano wouldn't be daunting to me at all. The difference between a a computer keyboard and the piano is that at the computer your arms generally don't move a whole lot whereas with the piano your entire arm from fingertips to shoulder are used if you're playing correctly. I can't quickly rotate my forearm to hit various notes in various songs or slide from one octave to another as easily. I knew I'd have to figure out a different approach if I wanted to play again which is exactly what I did in working out the intro music to The Newsroom. Part of playing by ear is muscle memory. I conjure up a vision of where my fingers are on the piano for this song or that song and with muscle memory there are many tunes I can immediately just sit and play. It will take time and patience to learn to play those songs again and new songs since muscle memory can't help me now but I will figure it out.
Music is an amazing thing and has been called the medicine of the mind. It can change your mood, set the tone for your day, comfort you, and calm you. I have PTSD and music is an incredible calming tool for me when anxiety starts to strike or when the demons of PTSD make a full fledged attack. While listening to songs on the radio or on an iPod can help soothe those demons, there is no greater soother for them than sitting down at the piano and actually making music even if I play the same song over and over. I truly believe that music certainly can change people, help people, and even save people and I think that every child should learn to play an instrument. I'm not talking about those stupid recorders many elementary schools give out to children. I'm talking about actual instruments. There is a lot to be gained by being able to play an instrument. Playing an instrument - making music - is proven to increase memory capacity, teaches perseverance along with patience, sharpens your imagination as well as your ability to concentrate, relives stress, and teaches you discipline just to name a few of the benefits.
In closing I shall leave you with several quotes about music that speak volumes...
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
– Berthed Auerbach
A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.
– Leopold Stokowski
Were it not for music, we might in these days say, the Beautiful is dead.
– Benjamin Disraeli
Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.
– Ludwig van Beethoven
I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to all of us, in all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality.
– H.A. Overstreet
