People

I’m slated to sing next at GCC on Feb 7-8th.  As usual it results in a challenge for me.  God never ceases to work on us and takes every single opportunity to do so.  It’s because he loves us so much. (read here)

For me, this song has a particular personal meaning like no other one I’ve done.

Takes me back to December ‘07…

That was when I put together my audition for the vocal team.  I needed to put together a track to perform live with, and to select a song I illicited the help of someone who had a much wider listening repertoire than myself.  Allison pointed me to Jon McLaughlin.  I fell in love with the song and decided to use it for my vocal audition.  I spent two solid days trying to get my piano hands back.  In the studio making the track we did a lot of punching in and out. Good times.

I loved the song and thought I was done with it.  Seriously.  But now I get to share it with my church family, and i get to play it. Now… I have to say Jon has some serious chops.  I used to, but that was literally TWO DECADES AGO.  So when Danny V gave me the challenge to play this song, I got a little concerned about getting back into shape.  I have been beating the ivories at least an hour-a-day since.  And that is about all I can stand until my right forearm is aching and my fingers literally hurt.  It’s comical.  I texted Dan and said “my fingers haven’t hurt this bad since college… Mr. McLaughlin… why so many notes?”

To which Dan replied in true pastoral fashion, “Suck it up and serve God.”

I love that guy.  That’s God-honoring leadership if I ever heard it.

I can explain a little of what it’s like to practice piano for something like this, given my current rustiness.  My hands feel like al dente pasta when I’m done practicing.  And if they were pasta, the would be buttered rust-a-cioli.  I have to keep saying, “C’mon fellas!  You USED to do this!  C’mon!  Don’t fail me now!”

First you figure out the chords the guy is playing.  Then you pick out a few characteristic rhythmic patterns.  Block it out.  Subdivide.  And start playing with a metronome at a slow enough tempo you can play it perfect.  I started at 80 bpm.  Then just gradually speed it up to performance tempo without practicing mistakes, but taking risks at the same time.  Sounds simple, right?

Performance tempo is something like 123 bpm.  MORE than two beats per second.  The Italian word for that means “dang fast.”

You learn the notes carefully and train those little muscles in your fingers by doing it 1000 times, then throw all caution to the wind and try and play them as fast as is possible while attempting to land somewhere between the cracks and on the beat.

Piano playing is fun.  You should have more respect for Jason Miller now.  He rocks.

I’m rambling, I know.

My kids have gotten used to the “bing bong bong bong bing bong bong bong” of the metronome as I beat away endless A minor 7 arpeggios, hand flopping aim-fully up the ivories.  My wife actually asks them to leave me alone to practice.  Families of musicians have to tolerate painful moments of rehearsal and training that would drive most sane people to earplugs.  It’s not pleasant.  When you hear the song, at least I hope, you’ll say, “oh that’s nice”.  But really it’s 4 minutes of sheer terror (for yours truly) that was preceded by hours and hours of repetitive banging (for my fam) .  Hardly musical.

Oddly enough, though, I enjoy the discipline of it.  I have not practiced piano like this for at least 13 months and it was years before that.  When I was in college I would literally spend all day Saturday in a practice room.  Just me and 88 of my closest friends.  I would disappear into the discipline of it.  Lose track of time and space.  Miss meals and not even notice.

God has ideas for this, too.

Looking at people around us takes discipline.  We can look right past them, right through them, if we are not disciplined enough.  While I’m banging it out, I’m thinking about the lyrics..

people doing better – people needin more

people writing letters – people get ignored

people savin money – people savin face

people goin hungry – people waste away

needin one reason to love in a world

where nothin is worthwhile till it’s gone

spend your life movin on

give me one reason to care anymore

there’s got to be a better way

a road that leads to better days

The discipline of living an intentionally others-focused life is not always easy, or song-like.  It’s often about looking past our own stuff into someone else’s eyes long enough to see their pain or their celebration. We have to bang-out new patterns of listening instead of talking, praying instead of gossiping, and yielding in conversation rather than commanding.

I have a few more weeks to get up to speed on my piano riffs.  But I’m convinced it will take God’s discipline from here to my last to actually learn how to live for others.

I thank God for such practical lessons.  I’m really pretty dense and it takes things like this to get through to me.

Maybe you can learn it with me, too.

Even if it is second-hand.