So Sunday September 6th, 2020 added some excitement to the Labor Day weekend. A couple of our friends stopped by with an outdoor pizza, as we really haven’t seen many friends in months. We just moved to a new condo development, and decided to take our pals down the street to look at a new patio home model that was under construction.
Walking back to our condo, I cleverly tripped on a small rock, fell, and tried to break my fall with my left hand, which is in fact, my dominant hand. Wrong move. I could feel my wrist swelling as I got up from my slow motion fall, and what went through my mind was....piano playing is going down the tubes.
As luck would have it, our new patio home is close to the local urgent care/emergency room. Since I don’t have a medical background, I decided a trip to the ER was warranted. It must have been far too early when we arrived at the Urgent Care, as the place was basically empty. They took xrays and determined I did in fact have a hairline fracture of my left wrist. There is nothing like bandaging by a medical professional, and I left the place with a very white ace bandage, almost to the tips of my fingers.
On the way home I started to think about what I wouldn’t and couldn’t be doing over the next 6 weeks. When it is your dominant hand it is always a bit daunting. I add I am full on left handed, and cannot do much of anything with my right. And after a visit to the local hand surgeon, it looks like I was looking at 6-8 weeks of inconvenience. I don’t know, it is in my nature to cry, particularly, when I am not thinking clearly and can’t seem to find an initial way out of things. But as head of the national crying committee, crying doesn’t take one very far...and honestly you can wreck your eye make up.
But when I got past those feelings, and realized I had already had two foot casts for bunion surgeries more than 10 years ago, I knew in my mind I would find a way. In a pandemic world I rely on all my hobbies to see me through. I am just a piano playing fool, and realized that a cast on my left hand is going to take away time from working on my new play list for a time, until playing at the Ohio State James Cancer Hospital will resume. I also love to create through needlepoint, and I think for now, I am putting that on hold. You can needlepoint with one hand, but I like needlepointing with two.
So in thinking ahead, I decided that when my amazing piano tuner arrived for my 6 month tuning of my beautiful grand piano, I was at least preparing for the day when I would play again. In fact, Mark Ritchie, decided that now was as good as time as any to pull the “action” out of the piano, and take it with him, so he could file the felt hammers, and generally get this amazing instrument in even better shape. I bought my piano in 2002, and I have always been committed to tuning my piano twice a year. If you care about the piano, you want the sound to be perfect. There is nothing more horrible than playing on an untuned piano. And there is nothing better than playing even the simplest of exercises on a piano that sounds great.
Mark Ritchie, is an incredibly knowledgeable piano tuner and piano restorer. He has the confidence of many long time customers as well as the confidence of various local Central Ohio school systems. He takes this artistic craft seriously, and appreciates that even amateur pianists like me, are willing to commit to excellence. So if you need a tune up- message me if you are in the Central Ohio area, and I will send you his number.
So without my piano action/piano keys, my piano sits in our new house, as a reminder, that music is what makes this family, this home, this house Better, everyday. I’ve blogged before about the piano symbolizing possibilities, and in this pandemic world I know I need all the possibilities I can get right now.
Interestingly, Mark Ritchie, is actually going to do some work on the action, that will voice the piano down a little. We have a great room with an adjoining den, and the piano is in the beautiful den space. With our wood floors, the sound is almost a bit too big, so, some professional work on my instrument might really make a difference.
For now I put piano lessons on hold. But Dr. Suzanne Newcomb, ever the optimist, scanned and emailed some piano pieces to me for the right hand only. Suzanne was a student of the great Leon Fleisher at Peabody, and he had a neurological condition in 1964, when he lost the use of his right hand. It was diagnosed as focal dystonia forcing him to focus on the repertoire for the left hand, including Ravel’s Piano Concert for the Left Hand. And in 2004, he played the world premier of Paul Hindemith’s Klavier music, a piano concerto for the left hand. See Wikipedia notes on Leon Fleisher.
Just reading this about Maestro Fleisher, gives me hope, and I hope any pianist with an injury, hope. He could have pulled back, and given up, but from what Dr. Newcomb tells me, he never did. Isn’t that one of the points about any artistic endeavor, not giving up on creativity, not giving up on playing the piano, not giving up on drawing, not giving up on painting, not giving up on dance, or not giving up on cross stitch, needlepoint, knitting ever. The story of Leon Fleisher and this set back for him is in part about not giving up on whatever feeds your soul.
So I am still whining, I’m still saying a Charlie Brown “aaaaargh,” but like a lot of other things that don’t go my way, when I take the necessary pause, I usually try to find a way.
So, re grouping, at 64, I would like to think I can always get better at it. And I should have this cast off in time to start working on my Christmas music sets. Aaaaargh!!!!
