A New Approach

Today I learned how to play the piano.

Sounds funny, eh? I've been playing for many years and I finally learned.

We had our first piano inservice today where the pentatonic children's scale was introduced. Before we even started playing, my internship director (ITD) gave us six simple rules for learning to how to play:

1. Play Slowly--- for learning clinical improvisation (and any type of music), slower is actually faster.

2. No Pedal --- that was certainly directed towards me

3. No Stopping

4. No Turning Back

5. No Apologies --- which was quickly added to list once I started playing and went too fast and then had to apologize.

6. Play without Fear

If we do the first 3 rules, then we won't have to worry about the last 3. This kind of opened my eyes. I don't think I ever gave much thought to how I approached the piano. Practicing is something that I always knew I should be doing and I never did enough. For some reason today, hearing these rules and being at this point in my life and education really brought new awareness to creating and learning music. It's like learning a new approach to something you thought was very familiar and totally known. It was absolutely refreshing.

My ITD compared all of these inservice days and learning improvisation styles to a basic white cake recipe. They give the tools for an excellent white cake recipe. The first few times you make the cake you have to follow the recipe exactly- and it creates a moist, most delicious white cake. Once you get that basic recipe down, you can add chocolate or strawberries or funfetti thingys. But you can't do that without mastering those basic ingredients. With each improvisational style we'll get the ingredients and tools for the basic white cake and once we master that, we can start getting a little fancy.

So I have to add a 7th rule:

7. Keep it simple

I sat down to experiment with the style we were working in and already wanted to go faster and get really fancy. Yea, that didn't work. It was nice to take a break from all the observations of the day and just get to play. I think I've been doing some of these things when I learned how to be an audition pianist and how to accompany singers. It's when I have to read what's absolutely on the page and practice tiny passages over and over again that I begin to go crazy. Thankfully, with this type of instruction and style of music, I get to infuse the music with my personal creativity rather than demonstrate my mechanical efficiency. That was fancy and fantastic sentence.

After more thought, these 7 rules are pretty applicable to life. Don't go too fast. Don't sustain things that aren't meant to be sustained and don't get caught up in meshing all of the sounds together--- it can get too complicated and muddy. Don't stop. Keep going. Don't completely turn back. Keep moving forward. Don't apologize for being exactly who you are. Live without being fearful. And keep it simple. I'll give this a little more thought, but we'll see how these seven rules work throughout my internship.

Anyhow, It turned out to be a great day. We met more clients and got to observe them in session with the ITD. She has a different style than my supervising therapist (ST). Its also been wonderful to see such life in the clients with whom we'll be working. We met 8 clients today- 7 of which will be on the intern caseload-- we don't know which intern yet. We met one woman who "interviewed" my co-intern and I to see which one of us would suit her needs. She was described as their "Ms Diva" and boy, is she a hoot. She asked us a few questions and gave us some "audition" pieces to play for her next time. She is super sassy. We also observed our ITD working with another woman who both of us interns will be treating together. This client is very expressive and has such a gentle spirit. I can't wait to start working with her and co-treating with the other intern.

I think I'm starting to find my place around here. I know its only Day 3. It's nice to know that our ITD does not expect miracles and for us to be perfect or know everything. That makes me feel better, even though I still have my usual high standards for myself.

Tomorrow is more observations at two new sites. I'll see two more clients that will be on my personal caseload at the second site. Friday we're back at the main center in Newark for more observations and our first formal supervision and group supervision.

For now, I better start practicing--- and slowly and simply at that.