Her hands came crashing down at the piano again, knuckles almost white from the intensity of her playing. Slowly, she beat the endless sixteenth notes into her fingers, the keys, and everything around her. The air pulsated with the rhythm of her frustration.
Mentally, she cursed herself every time her fingers missed a note, a beat, or even a fingering. Why had they mutinied and become such stupid, slow followers?
She dropped her hands off the piano in disgust, feeling them throb as the pressure on them was lifted. Usually this was a more pleasant sensation, reminding her of all she had accomplished, but today it only pained her still more.
She was not making progress. Though she could set the metronome at higher and higher speeds, each time she barreled through her fingers knew less and less notes. She scowled at them as they hung by her side. They couldn't even play it at a slow speed, much less the galloping pace it required. Could she ever get it there?
This was how I felt yesterday. I was practicing a piece full of almost non-stop sixteenth notes, and getting extremely frustrated with my fingers' sudden lack of ability to cooperate with my brain. Playing louder than I probably ever had on that piano, I tried to pound the correct notes into my fingers. But it only made me more and more frustrated.
Any of this sound familiar to you?
For you music types, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. I bet you've experienced something like this before, be it clumsy fingers on the piano, running out of breath for the voice or wind instrument, or any other frustration for a musician.
Sometimes, I just wish my piano playing was like a machine that I could always count on to do the job. But it isn't a machine, it's a part of me. And I have to learn to be patient with me.
When I wrote that excerpt at the beginning I didn't have any more than what you see there. At the time, I was too frustrated to bring any kind of resolution to the story. So, dear readers, I put the question to you. How would you finish the story? Would you give resolution (and how?) or would you simply leave it hanging, with the frustration still in the air...?
If you get inspiration for the ending of this, please go ahead and post it! I'd love to see what y'all come up with. And feel free to share your own stories of musical frustration... I know we all have those moments. ;)
