Music: theory and all

I'm back into music again. It's been heaven-knows-how-many years, but a certain piece at last year's Winter Concert got me hooked, and I've been determined to learn it ever since. Regular trips to the piano room were the first step.

It's been frustrating. Stiffness: tick. Lack of control: tick. Patchy memory of music theory: tick. Worst of all: no sheet music. All my books are at home, and it's been such a long time that I couldn't even pull off a piece without peeking at the first few bars first!

So how did I get by those first few months? If you've ever tried "picking up" a skill after a substantial amount of time, you'll know that muscle memory is your friend. That, and playing by ear. Legend has it that some people can never see the sheets and learn a piece entirely by ear...now that's talent. The best I've ever done is transcribe the melody of songs, then figure out what key they're written in and throw in some chords for good measure.

Legend also has it that people can be technically perfect at everything they attempt, but not know how to improvise. This whole "improvising" thing is darn mysterious isn't it. And alluring. I have an early memory of my first piano teacher improvising - it just took my breath away (it still does). Well that's one more thing on the wishlist I guess. But now I've got the sheets, that can wait.

I can read music without problem, but sight-singing is a whole different matter. Apparently I have zero perfect pitch, which is quite bizarre considering my tonal native language and years of musical training. Relative pitch on the other hand, is definitely my cup of tea: give me a starting note, any note, and I will transpose whole songs on the fly. It comes so naturally that I can't even practise choir parts without playing out the first few notes on the piano. Because of this lack of perfect pitch and a limited vocal range, I transpose nearly everything I sing and find it really hard to sing with standard accompaniments. Hence my disinterest in karaoke.

Afterthought: getting back into music does not mean taking the old route. I don't care if my arpeggios are unbalanced, Czerny and Hanon can go stuff themselves.