The party’s over in a way,or maybe a different party is starting. Yeah that’s it.
Up to now it’s been fun steaming along, meeting new people and learning new things, but this week I had a physics test (yes, my elective this term is the ‘Physics of Music and Sound’ - it’s interesting but I hate algebra), we got our project pianos which will comprise most of our practical marks for this term, and we got results of a couple of our tuning tests. It’s time for some deliverables! To be honest I kind of miss that about work - having deadlines and deliverables and so on and the little rush you get from the pressure of coming through on time and successfully.
The tuning test was a bit humbling because I didn’t do all that well and as I reflected on it I realize I’m not going to be happy unless I’m better at it than everyone else. I was thinking back on some words from the instructor on the first day, about how we are not competing against each other and blah blah blah. Yeah right - here’s someone who’s been in an academic setting for quite a while. Is it wrong that I feel like I am competing against the other students? Some of them are from the Toronto area and so I will literally be competing against them someday. Possibly this is a little vestige of the work world hanging on inside me I suppose. I’m also putting some pressure on myself be good at this; after all I left a pretty good job and am putting my family through a lot. However, I’m also being a wiener because it’s only a few weeks in and most of the class is struggling just as I am. If I’m still getting shitty results in March then there’s real cause for concern.
The project piano will be fun. It’s an ugly bugger of a thing - a 1975 Yamaha P22 upright that someone has painted a ghastly brown. Who would do that? So at this point we have pretty much taken it all apart and will be replacing many of the parts, especially those that are felt like the hammers and dampers, and generally reconditioning it, plus possibly replacing all the strings. My partner Amanda is the German girl - she’s a really good worker and will be a good partner but is recovering from a nasty cut she got on her hand so she has to work quite slowly at the moment. It’s no problem because we have lots of time but I’m toying with the idea of offering to carry a bigger share of the load until she is back to 100%.
At the moment I’m home for the weekend at going to my sister’s 30th wedding anniversary party on Saturday and also spending some time working on the Newcombe piano we have at home. More on that in another post.
