Practice What You Practice by Susan Menahem 3.23.2011

     I hated my piano teacher. His name was Gary and he always wore the same white button down, short sleeved cotton shirt. I hated him because he had bad breath, he wore thick black rimmed eyeglasses that made his face look like a raccoon’s and worst of all, he actually lived downstairs from me and could always hear how often I practiced – or more often – had not.


     The routine was always the same: He came upstairs on Saturday mornings – when everyone else in the world was either watching cartoons or playing outside -- had a cup of coffee with my mom and then headed straight to the piano, metronome in hand. He asked me if I had practiced, I reluctantly answered that I had, he would in fact tell me that I hadn’t because if I had he would have heard it -- and then we would get on with the morning’s lesson.

     It was on the day that he pulled out his battered copy of Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist, Solo’s For Agility that the problems really began. Apparently, not only was I to play and practice a boring book of music filled with songs nobody’s ever heard of, but now each finger had to be on a designated key regardless of where it had been just the millisecond before. Since there are 7 notes to a scale and each hand has only five fingers I was meant to do some impossible finger acrobatics on both hands simultaneously to somehow cover all the keys without my hands ever leaving the piano! Presto!!

     The following Saturday morning, same routine -- only this time I had managed to tie my fingers up into knots while attempting Hannon’s finger acrobatics. In utter frustration, Gary slammed his hands down onto the keyboard and accused me of not practicing. I assured him that I had and he yelled over his shoulder while storming out of the house that if I practiced piano as much as I practiced lying I might be able to play the darn thing! And, that was the end of my piano lessons.

     Thirty years later, and still unable to play the piano, Gary’s parting comments ring in my head, making me realize that at every moment of every day we are all practicing something – and whatever we choose to practice, we get really good at! If I am on line in the supermarket getting aggravated that the cashier is taking her sweet old time, I am practicing being aggravated. If my neighbor’s dog barks relentlessly at 6 AM waking me from a sound sleep every morning and I never bring it to my neighbor’s attention, I am practicing self disrespect. If I constantly leave important things for the last minute, I am practicing procrastination – not to mention that when I finally choose to complete the task, I am always practicing being under with pressure and filled with frenzy. These things we practice over and over again eventually become reflex actions. Perhaps that’s why Gary wanted me to practice finger acrobatics – eventually those finger movements would have just become natural.

     So Gary, wherever you are, thank you for a wonderful life lesson. I may never have control over the things life tosses my way, but if I practice better responses I can always make a more enjoyable time of it. Acceptance and patience while on a slow moving line at the supermarket? Hey, it couldn’t hurt!