The Enigma of the Ivories and the Strings

I play the guitar and the piano – but not at the same time.  (My toes tend to cramp up when I try. 😉 )

I was forced (and I mean “forced”) to take piano lessons in 1st grade by my mother and would take those lessons for ten years until my high school activities became too numerous to schedule piano lessons anymore.  For the next two years I would  glare evilly at the piano as I walked past it. 

Then in 12th grade, I heard a song on the radio.  It was “November Rain” by Guns ‘N Roses.  It has this amazing opening piano solo.  I feel in love with it instantly, raced up to Don Randalls Music Store, bought the sheet music and would spend the next few weeks driving my family crazy as I played that song over and over (even into the wee hours of the morning) until I memorized it.

I became so obsessed with learning that song, that I would practice it with my eyes closed and once tried playing it with the lights out in the room.   Needless-to-say, I learned I can’t play it like that, but I certainly tried.  🙂

From that point forward, I began playing the piano again and haven’t stopped since.

—————————————————-

The guitar I picked up my freshman year of college at Temple University, again being enticed to play an instrument because of a Guns ‘N Roses song.  This time, it was “Don’t Cry“, from the same album as November Rain.

Temple was a bit of a culture shock for me and when too shocked to do anything else, I sat in my dorm room and taught myself to play the guitar.

Throughout college, I wrote 100 songs – about 40 of which were about a girl I fell in love with and for three and a half years was too much of a chicken to say anything to.  So instead, I wrote her 40 songs.  The next to last day of our senior year, I mustered up the courage to tell her how I felt about her.

Then I played her the first and last songs I wrote about her:

Can’t Get Close Enough   and   The Way That I Do

It was a wonderful feeling to take her breath away, even if just once … but maybe I did it twice.

——————————

I had practiced the piano for years and knew it like the back of my hand, but didn’t want to play anymore until something caught my eye and re-ignited my interest.

I knew nothing about the guitar.  It was a total mystery to me, but I wanted to learn it badly and I taught myself how to play it.

The difference was:

For the piano, I was given lessons.  For the guitar, I made my own lessons up.

What lessons did I really learn from the Ivories and the Strings?

“Sometimes the things you want come from the things you know.”?

It would be easy to add that: “The successes you will find will be learned along the way as you journey to reach them.”  Sort of  ‘been there, done that, much wiser now’.

But ultimately, you realize that what you pushed away in order to go after the enigma will be waiting for you when you return. 

And they just might want to hear you play “November Rain” and Don’t Cry”.

That, in itself, might be the real enigma: Which One To Play  …  And Why.