I dreamed last night that I was having a first lesson with a new piano teacher. I showed her the exercises Strasburg taught me that I have been practicing lately. I had trouble remembering them without the little cheat sheet he made for me. I was anxious to get to my four octave scales so my new teacher could evaluate  me better and begin to help me.

Before attending Ohio Wesleyan, I was a voracious reader in preparation for my musical college education. I showed Lhevinne’s book, Basic Principles in Pianoforte Playing, to Dr. Strasburg my piano teacher. I told him that this little book was very like his pedagogy. He pointed to Rosina on the cover and said, she was my teacher.

Craig Cramer, my grad organ teacher, used to insist that musical technique could only be transmitted from one living being to another, that it could not be written down.

Maybe at his level that is true, but for me I have always loved to read what people have written about piano and organ technique.

I didn’t practice piano yesterday. Instead I put a little composition I wrote on Saturday into Finale. I do enjoy working with Finale and this was the first time I used my new version of it.

I probably dignify this little piece by referring to it as a composition. I basically wrote out a little obbligato line that I want the violin and cello to play in octaves while I bang away at the piece in a gospel piano style. I think this will be fun and easy for my players.

I was thinking about spending more time alone at church.

It would be nice to find a little midi musical keyboard so that I could working on compositions there.

I priced them on Amazon and found a cheap one. However I couldn’t be sure that it had the kind of midi chord outlet I need. I’ll have to look at one in person before I will feel confident enough to purchase it.

My intermittent reluctance to spend more time at church might be something I could overcome. I find the whole Christianity thing suffocating sometimes.

It’s my problem, no doubt. But if I’m alone in the building and am thinking about my own need for solitude, maybe I can overcome this.