Musical Dreams...

When I was about 5 years old my daddy brought home a huge beautiful upright grand piano. That night he sat down and started to fiddle with the white wood pieces on this massive wooden contraption. I climbed onto the piano bench and watched as his fingers made these sounds that created stories in my head. It was like he had taken these sounds I had always been able to hear in my head and used to create stories when I would play pretend and made them part of the real world. I was entranced. The next morning as soon as I got home from kindergarten I climbed on that piano bench and started to play with the keys. I wasn't sure if I'd get into trouble or not so I always tried to make sure mom was downstairs when I would play around. I started to pull out notes, and figured out songs. My mom naturally noticed, so when I was in the first grade she tried to put me into piano lessons. Mrs. Baker taught me the fingering methods, and how to count the beats before she moved away. I never had lessons after that. I took the books I had, and figured out how to read music, and what the notes of the piano were on my own. After that I would just pull out whatever song I had heard that day and would figure out the notes on the piano. I first learned the talent I had was called perfect pitch when I was in the 6th grade. Our orchestra directior Mrs. Mortensen was teaching us the string notes on our instruments. I had chosen the viola. It was the one instrument that seemed to call out my name when I decided I wasn't going to play the cello because my best friend had decided to play the cello. (I was 12 don't ask where my thinking came from)I wanted something different, and the viola as the perfect match. It has the same strings as a cello, but is held like a violin. The music is written in the Alto clef. I learned an entirely new musical language with the viola. Mrs. Mortensen proceeded to teach us the scales, 1st position fingering, and how to hold the bow properly. She pulled her bow across the D string, holding the second finger down. Which is F. She was playing F#. She asked if we could remember what note that was. I knew what it was. In my head I pictured the 3rd black key above middle C. I raised my hand and told her what it was. With each corresponding note she would play I would picture the key on the piano that made the same sound. Each note seems to have a specific place in my head. It's like one of those light games, when a note plays a light goes off and you match the sound to the light... She told me that was what most people referred to as perfect pitch, or relative pitch depending on how well you knew the notes. Though I stuck with the viola throughout school I never lost my love, or fascination with the piano. I've never had real lessons. I have always wanted formal lessons, but haven't done anything about it. Instead I play with the songs I know, tinker with songs I sound out, and occasionally I'll pull out a book and try to teach myself the correct fingering techniques. So, instead of encouraging my own possible talent at the piano I watch. I listen, and I enjoy. I have a passionate love for watching a pianist play. The passion that emanates from them is unlike any other musician. All musicians fall into their instruments and the music they create, but a pianist... a pianist is the music. Words fail me when I attempt to describe the magic that is the piano. Every single boy I have ever had an interest in has been a pianist of some sort. I love sitting on the bench with them and watching their fingers. Watching as they dissolve into the instrument and forget everything for just a moment. Watching as their hands move with grace, and passion, and direction. I truly cannot even begin to fully explain what I mean. The pictures that dance in my head during a piano piece. Of all the music that is going on continually in my head, most of it is piano. If I could learn to bring the music out of my head, and onto a piano... I am cocky/confident enough to say it would blow you away. I don't have the skills I need to play the piano as well as I like, but I have a capacity to learn, and to appreciate when others have taken the time and effort to learn. Maybe one day I will find someone who can hear what I hear, and together we will create a masterpiece symphony. Or, maybe one day I will sit down and actually learn how to properly play the instrument I love so dearly.

This compilation done by Jon Schmidt is simply brilliant! I have always loved his orchestrations. I cannot seem to get enough of this specific video. My dad sat with me and listened to it for 3 straight run throughs... It's unbelievable! It's... Magic!