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came out and I learned to play the theme from it on the piano because the girls went ga-ga over it

My son wanted a $200 baseball bat the year after his team went to the city championship tournament. I told him Michael Jordan could beat him at horse wearing flip-flops using a deflated volleyball.

So what does all of this have to do with technical exercises on the piano? I think the point is this: if you want to get really good, you need to practice. A lot. But, then there will be that idjit with natural talent come along and learn the danged thing and in a week's time be playing Elton John.

I don't play anymore. Rheumatoid Arthritis. But when my hands still worked on it and I was learning Chopin's Nocturne in D-Flat, I sometimes wished I had done some of the technical things; it would have made the learning easier. But eventually, I got it. I guess that would have been the pro to technical exercises.

Now, kids, don't get me wrong. Because I never practiced, never did the technical exercises, I was never going to get to be really top-flight on any instrument. I learned enough of each one to play them passably. And, truth be told, I probably could have been something on the piano had I taken it seriously, but in the end, the arthritis would have gotten me, so it worked out.

But I can still hear the last time I played that nocturne which took me six months to get. Had I practiced more, maybe I could have learned it quicker and learned others too before my fingers quit working.

Learn more about this author, J L Petriesan.
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