Fakin' it

So, back in the day when I was a concert pianist--okay, I was never really a concert pianist. But back in the day when I took piano lessons and performed in solo, duo, and concerto festivals every year, I did rather well for myself, thank you. I earned my 75 point cup, which amazes me...but enough talk about how wonderful I am ;)

Especially during my high school years, I was learning some difficult pieces. I played the Gershwin preludes, which are great pieces of music, but they're hard. Because of time, skill, and reality constraints, I wasn't able to learn the Gershwins 100 percent polished. But because of the pressure (perhaps imagined) I felt to perform, and perform consistently superior pieces, I taught myself how to fake. By leaving out a couple of notes here and there and substituting new notes in the chords, I could change that span of an octave and a half to just an octave, making it much easier (and possible) to play (now, I think every piano player does this. It's not unusual. Right? I don't think I did anything wrong by faking a little bit...honestly the chords were too big for my hands to play).

My version sounded good and similar to what it should, but it wasn't quite right. People were impressed by my playing, though-I let them hear what they wanted to hear.

I have to admit that piano was not the only thing I learned how to fake during those years.

Now that I'm older, I'm going back and relearning things. It's harder, but I know that it will make for a more pure, right, and enjoyable life in the end.