Today I am thankful for our charming houseguest who usefully interrupted our evening routine, so that homework and dinner and everything happened later than usual, and no one seemed to mind very much. By “no one” I mean, of course, “me.”
I took piano lessons for a few years as a girl. My teacher was very dramatic former concert pianist, who, I believe, was also bipolar. I was diligent about practicing but not especially musical or deeply interested in piano. I was happy to take lessons, though, because piano lessons seemed like something one should do. I had very definite ideas about what childhood should be, informed by reading (the Trixie Belden series, anything by Ellen Conford, Elizabeth George Speare) and TV, and piano clearly fit.
My piano teacher had me do Hanon exercises, which are repetitive fingering exercises. My hands would march up and down the piano, unmelodiously, hammering out the notes and working out correct fingering. In the mood I’m in now, I remember that I quite liked them, but that may be a complete lie. Blogging right now, suspended between addresses, feels like Hanon exercises. I am writing not for itself, but because I need to stay in shape. I feel sharper in every way when I am blogging. But I’m also vain, and miss writing for more people than can fit in my station wagon, or even a Mini Cooper (exuberant kisses for the people who know I’m here — you are more dear to me than crowds). Regardless, I need to keep writing. I need the energy that it gives me, the feeling of being a writer, the feeling of forward movement, of goal-full-ness to which I am addicted.
I wonder if there are Hanon exercises for writing? I know there are prompts and memes and other supports for blogging. I could do that, just to stay in shape. I could make up my own meme and launch it and see if anyone pays attention to it: My ten favorite things about doing laundry. But of course writing is different from playing music, because one is composing and playing at the same time. I am writing the narrative that I’m commenting on. And frankly not doing a great job of it tonight. And this after a short and drab post last Thursday…. I hate that my momentum is broken.
So, since I can’t fill up this post with my own words, I give you Hanon exercises on YouTube.
Another Door 