One Black Key at a Time

Black keys are my least favorites. Once it reaches 4 sharps, or 5 flats,, that was about the ultimate end of my ability to read and decipher a piece of music and play and think at the same time. That is my brain and it is apparently not wired well enough for such complex theme as the black key etude by Chopin. I think it does have an official name for this piece but we will just call it the Black Key Etude for now, since it is quite well known piece in that name.

Of course, parents are supposed to be proud of their kids and compliment them in any way we can to encourage and to instill the sense of pride of "work" and "personal accomplishments". I am always keenly aware of the fine line that exists between the pride of "work" and the temporary boastfulness or mere sense of "I am better than so and so".

One thing I love about watching Erik is that he seems to have a very good tunnel vision about his approach. It could be because he is still young but when I was 14 or 15, I probably already was made to think of myself in terms of where I placed in the class or 365. True, each term exam resulted in postings of top 30 scores with names in each exam subject in my school system starting at 7th grade. Each term results was handed to the student with exact number of placement your score was... Such as, English, 80 (78). This meant that you were 78th in the 365 students. Tough? Yes, I now realize how crazy that was. But that is the way my every week was. Often doing your best meant you had to also analyze where you were in the placement to strategize the move. Doing your best was not good enough in the society I grew up.

Now watching Erik, it is almost funny how he seems to be totally oblivious to what others are doing in his class or where he placed on this test and that test. Frequently, when he brings home a test, I want to know if there were many others with similar score as he did (just meaning if he made a 95, were there many 90's? ). Almost every time, his answer is, "I don't know, the teacher did not say anything about it". I am glad about this personality traits of his in many ways.

When he was competing for the Concerto Competition, he never once asked how many other kids like him are among the entrants or what his chances are at winning anything... Now, another small event is coming up, we actually found out that it is really not a big deal when it is compared to the concerto competition. The level may not be high and he may not be competing with too many other kids with the same zeal. But he never asked about the nature of the event or who he is competing against, or who the judge may be,,,as if he does not see that part of the competition. It is an event he wants to play at his best and nothing else matters to him right now, at least that is how his approach to his piano events appear to me right now. He is putting all his energy into practicing this Black Key Etude very much like when he approached the concerto competition in January. Our tendency is to put more energy into something when the reward is bigger and that is not entirely wrong in any sense.. We always pay back our debt on the amount with high interest rates with more energy than other debt that may have a smaller interest.

I called it a good sort of a tunnel vision..If we could aim our goal and see our purpose without being distracted by other elements that take away from our energy to accomplish the goal, all of us would perhaps be more productive and pure in our motives at the same time.

As parents, we would like to see the child graduate from college knowing how to live in the society independently,, but for now, we like our Erik who does his things in his way. He serves one master and I must learn from that.

There he goes again to tackle his piece,,, one black key at a time.