Hello world. I'm an anonymous keyboard player, full of bad habits, aged 38. I am starting on a journey... on the Road to Grade 8. Soon (not) to be a major motion picture!
I was taught the organ when I was about 12 years old. Shortly after, my organ teacher moved away. I never had any formal organ or piano lessons after that (I did have guitar lessons when I was 30 though, but guess what, my guitar teacher moved away - to Australia! Am I using the wrong aftershave?), but I have taught myself quite a lot in the intervening 20-something years.
But I have recently had a bad case of GAS (that's Gear Acquisition Syndrome), so I am sitting in a room full of keyboards that I can play, but not to the standard I would like. So - as I am only 2 years away from turning 40, and I am starting to realise that in life "if you do nothing, nothing happens" - I have decided to look for a piano teacher, and start on the long journey to becoming a properly, certifiably, competent player.
I would love to be a grade 8 pianist. It's like being a black belt in karate. (But bashing keys, instead of bad guys.) When I told a non-musical friend (who didn't know of my keyboard torturing hobby) that I was a player, his first response was "Oh, are you a grade 8?" and my heart sank. No, I'm a grade nothing. But the fire in my belly was lit...
Some of my friends and work colleagues, as they hover around the 40-year mark, are undertaking big challenges: marathons, tri-athlons, big weight loss goals, boxing matches. So here is mine: the Grade 8 challenge!
I know the road ahead will be long, sometimes boring, frustrating, expensive, and very time consuming. I wonder how long it will take me? It is August 15th 2011 right now, and I'm 38. My first guess is: I will read grade 4 in 2013, before my 41st birthday. Can I do it?
Anyway. First things first. I don't even have a teacher yet. There are absolutely hundreds of them even in this small city of mine. My wife and I narrowed it down to a shortlist of 4. Number 1 was rejected because the electoral roll website 192.com revealed his age as 69 years old, and if I want to keep the same teacher throughout my challenge, he might not live long enough to see me holding the grade 8 trophy! Number 2 is a very distinguished organist and high profile local school's director of music. Quite daunting. He seems to be more of an organ man, so I'll move on to number 3. She is a woman (hence the cunning use of "She") but I can't find anything else about her online - I just don't want a school headmistress type in a tweed suit. (She might be a hottie, but there is an element of risk.) So, fortunately, number 4 looks perfect. He's a bit more expensive than some (£15 for half an hour, £30 for an hour) but looks great - lives very close, very busy musically, does organ and piano, and there is quite a bit of stuff about him online and a few photos (he looks friendly). And he has an email address - very rare, in this field, from my research so far.
So, I've fired off an email. Let's see what happens next!
