Sonatina Deja Vu

The youtube videos below are the sonatina I learned to play by the end of the summer last year. Sadly, I was forced by circumstance to leave the piano at my old house during the winter, with no heat. When it got cold, the keys stopped working and I was no longer able to practice my newly learned skill. I was terrified that the piano was forever ruined, but when the weather got nice, the piano started working again. I stood at the piano and tried to remember how to play - with no success for quite some time. I was devastated.

Not being one to give up easily, I continued to try. I found a chair to sit in and took out the music with the intent of learning from scratch. I fumbled through for about an hour, trying hard to play it once again. Then something strange happened. I was tripping through the melody when all of a sudden my fingers played a measure - without me! It felt a lot like deja vu, except that I was re-experience something I knew I had played before.

In physio II we spent a significant time on spinal learning. This is an example of that at work. In the second movement at the end, I had read the notes incorrectly in the re-learn, but as I was playing it, my body moved into it and played the correct notes - correctly. This happened several times over this past week while I relearned the songs. It is the most amazing thing. I encourage everyone to learn some kind of move, or song on an instrument, then put it away for 9 months before going back to it. See if you experience the same thing I did? Spinal memory - in conjunction with auditory memory - is fun.

So, I wanted to post these youtube videos because when I first started learning the song I used these videos to help me figure out the melodies and some of the fingering. It really helped. I, of course, add a little bit of me into the songs when I play them so they don't sound exactly like this (and I have never had formal piano lessons - so I undoubtedly don't play as well), but I can play them again, and that makes me happy.

Now I just have to get the piano to my new house. I can play some songs so I shouldn't drive my roommate too crazy, and I now have a way to get it to my house (fingers crossed) due to some new reconnections that have taken place this summer.

I don't know why it makes me so happy to play the piano - especially given how awkward I am at it - but it does.