Back in New Orleans

I can't say I absolutely LOVE New Orleans, but I do enjoy many aspects of it.  The culture, the food, and oh my...the music.  I can't say a day goes by without hearing some singer/saxophonist/pianist/drummer...all sorts of instruments and even the tambourine!  Not to mention, there is nothing like New Orleans Jazz.

I guess I get a sort of bittersweet feeling when I experience these musicians.  As the music flows through my ears, body, and soul, my heart swells with feelings I cannot even begin to describe.  Sometimes, I close my eyes to savor the magic of the music, secretly hoping the unremitting dream music will never end.  Other times, I am on the verge of tears with longing to return to that part of my life that once was so significant, in which I expressed my anger, my frustration, my sadness, my joy, all through the grandeur of an instrument, the piano.

Sure I played the guitar, the harmonica, and the clarinet...I loved it, and I loved being in band.  I miss singing, but I can still keep a tune, without all the practice and time I once spent.  While singing and dancing bring the uttermost joy to my life, allowing me to hide my shyness in performance on stage, nothing has brought me more fulfillment than my life as a pianist.  A part of me is yearning to return piano, which I haven't been able to keep up with since my mother passed, due to overwhelming circumstances and the rising costs of lessons.  Now when I sit in front of the beautiful keys of ivory white and charcoal black, I think back to when I first began hearing the piano.  My older sister, who took lessons, would sit and practice for hours.  I watched with unfeigned admiration.  I remember as a third grader beginning to sit down and play by ear, "My Heart Will Go On" or "What Child is This."  As a fourth grader I was introduced to theory, notes, reading music...all that the perfect piano lesson encompasses.  I practiced religiously.  My family noted how I was feeling through how I played and what songs I tended to rehearse.  While I love playing music in minor keys, there was diaphanous emotion wrapped within my playing that I could not portray in words to anyone, not even myself.

I face, however, frustration and disappointment when I try to play as I once did around the time I had ceased my playing.  I had progressed very far in just four years, switching from teacher to teacher, learning to intertwine all I had obtained from each to make me the musician I had become.  I played as soon as I arrived home from school, I played before catching the bus each morning, and I even tapped my fingers on my desk in class practicing and envisioning me rehearsing my pieces.  

A very select few of my favorites, Pachelbel's Cannon in D, La Valse d'Amelie, Chopin's Waltz in A minor, remained in my repertoire and in my piano hands; nevertheless, I cannot seem to grasp new pieces, new music...I have to relearn to read both staffs, become familiar with the bass clef.  I must exercise my once deft fingers to become comfortable with the keys, to play softer and with more flow.

Yesterday I enjoyed a night on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans, people in masks and costumes awaiting Halloween.  People singing and crafting on the sidewalks.  A poet with a typewriter with a sign that read "Poet for Hire." 

Frenchmen street market

As I began to tire from the market browsing and walking, we stepped into one of the buildings where we heard a woman with an amazing, powerful voice singing with her band.  I watched the keyboard player in awe, as I saw the utmost joy in his face and movement.  I was quieted by my own emotions and longing to sing to dance to play the keyboard...to experience that joy once again.

 Clearly the videos don't do justice as the tone on my phone seems off, but for all of you who haven't experienced living in New Orleans, here's a taste.

 

And finally, this guy I found in the mall, who just made me stand there in thought for probably a whole hour.  I didn't want to creep him out recording, so I turned my phone to the floor in respect, but just enjoy the music. 

 

As many of you know, one of my dreams in life is to perform just one song with Josh Groban.  Nonetheless, right now I am rekindling with my love for the piano...learning "The Prayer" by Josh Groban and Celine Dion.   

I would be surprised if I didn't fall in love with a musician of some sort <3>

Ciao! per ora i miei lettori meravigliosi!