Thursday, January 3, 2013

Music and Moguls

    When I retired at age 60 plus I began taking piano lessons since it had been a goal of mine from the time I was a child.   Daughter Viki was ten at the time and also taking piano lessons.  We were taking lessons from the same teacher.  So each week we would arrive for our lesson and get the appropriate guidance and instruction.  Daughter Viki would accomplish in a week what it would take me a month to get done.   My ossified brain would not develop the neuron pathways for music nearly as fast as hers would.   After five years of lessons it was clear that I had reached a plateau.   I was never going to be able to achieve piano playing at a superior level.   My limitation was that I was unable to both play the current notes and at the same time anticipate the next measure and process the information fast enough to continue playing smoothly.

    So what is the tie to skiing?   During a lift ride with Dennis we were discussing how to ski the moguls.   That discussion triggered a thought that skiing the moguls well requires the similar abilities that good pianists have.   That is, anticipating what is coming next.   A good mogul skier will be skiing one series of moguls at the same time viewing and anticipating the turns for the next set of moguls.  Think of it as measure after measure of moguls like measure after measure of music.   So I have the same problem of skiing moguls as I do playing the piano.  I find it difficult to anticipate the next turns in sufficient time to smoothly progress down the slope at a decent rate of speed.   Oh well, I guess I'll just have to accept my limitations and ski the moguls at a slower rate, just as I have to play music at a slower tempo than one might like.
A Magnificent Mogul Field
A Page Of One of My Assignments

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