Piano

D and I bought an electric keyboard off of Craigslist about two months ago. At the time the purchase seemed like a hair brained idea to me since neither of us could actually play the Piano. D, however, assured me otherwise when she told me that she played a little as a child. I played a little guitar as a child, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to run out and buy one so that I can sit in the living room strumming my little heart away while sucking at it in front of my girls. But, D was persistent, as she tends to be, and finally I relented and green lit the purchase. Actually, that’s not entirely true. D doesn’t need me to green light anything. When D gets an idea in her head she goes for it.

When we got our new electric piano home, I was surprised to find out that D actually played the songs from her youth quite well, and that after only a couple of days had learned a few more songs by ear. Though the discovery of D’s talent left me more than a bit jealous, I was amazed at her aptitude for the piano. She’s become very good at it. She doesn’t play it as much as she did when we first brought it home, but when she does the Bean loves it.

This morning, as I sat outside enjoying my coffee, D and Bean played a duet. I could hear it echoing out from the backdoor. I sat there entranced for a few minutes. Bean must’ve been on her lap, I thought. I could hear her excited screams and every once in a while a random misplayed note would come with them. They played for about a half hour with me as their unknown audience sitting outside the whole time. I wanted to go in and watch, but decided that risking their momentum wasn’t worth it. So instead, I just listened with a big smile on my face as I watched the sun come up to D and Bean's serenade.

Maybe, if I’m lucky, there will be a piano recital in Beans future. D and I would be there, in the crowd, proudly recording the event. We’d watch it over and over, forcing Bean to sit through it with us every time. We’d tell all our family and friends about our daughters’ virtuosity. We’d become braggarts and the musical equivalent of Soccer parents.

“C’mon Coach! Where’s Beans solo!” I’d scream as I spit a sunflower seed into the row in front of me. I’d feel righteous about it too. How dare the coach not let all the people in the crowd feel my daughter’s brilliance! Well, I hope not. Besides I’m getting way ahead of myself, just as most new parents tend to do. But, the fact remains that, for now at least, with me as their audience, I’m happy that we bought it. I’ll be even happier when Bean rocks her first few bars of “Chopsticks”.

It seems that purchasing the piano, an event that I wasn’t so sure about at the time, was, in fact, a good thing. D’s much smarter than me when it comes to things like that, and in keeping with her mother of the year status (I judged the competition so what’d you expect), has found a new way to keep the Bean happy when all else fails. Next stop, Beethoven’s 5th!