Mastering scales before Rachmaninov

Step by step…

Piano Teacher: One step starts a long journey. 

Olivia: That’s why you only set small daily challenges?

I can do this...

Piano Teacher: Think of it like breakfast. You’re stressed. That day’s events distract. Take one spoon of cereal. Pretty soon you’re through eating, on your way, energized. Anyway, this week scales right hand. Next week scales left hand. Throw in a few chords as a reward. Then on to a simple piece.

Olivia: So you’re saying I shouldn’t start with the Rachmaninov?

Piano Teacher: Dream it. That’s OK. But it’s not this week’s goal.

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Voice-over

Biting off more than you can chew sets you for choking. Not knowing what you are capable of results in unrealistic goals setting you up for a DNF “did not finish”. “I can do that” trap so you end up doing nothing and going nowhere. Daily exercising. Daily sketching. Daily Vocabulary. Daily writing. Excerpts grow into expertise and on to a life work and perhaps eventually a magnum opus.

Anthropomorphism of Olivia

Now for the third movement...

Discussing progress…
Ekaterina: How is her piano practice coming along?
Zuria: Good. She’s nearly mastered the Rachmaninov. 
Ekaterina: Amazing. You don’t think there’s an element of anthropomorphism in this?
Zuria: Anthro what?
Ekaterina: You know, ascribing human characteristics to a god, or an animal. You talk to her, right?
Zuria: And she answers.
Ekaterina: Hmm. And I suppose she helps cook dinner?
Zuria: Oh, sometimes. She makes suggestions.
Ekaterina: But never pork?
Zuria: Oh no. She’s vegan.
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Voice-over
A relationship with an animal, or an object, can extend and fulfill one. Especially in these viral times. A relationship with a real animal is better though. Although soon we may have avatars or cyborgs. And they may be trainable.

Ukrainian film: Piano

A piano as an antidote to conflict…

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Antuanetta Mischchenko

Bohdan: The director drew a good story from the chaos in the streets.

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Natalya: That she did. Centering on a piano. In a sense beginning as the Sakamoto film, CODA, did, with a focus on a piano as a beaten-up survivor of a tragedy.

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Bohdan: But in this case, the piano was a hub about which stories of musicians revolved. The extremist as pianist. The teacher from the conservatory.

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Natalya: But perhaps the most luminous person was Antuanetta Mischchenko, the girl who came to play the blue and yellow piano every day, and who rescued it from the streets.

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Voice-over

The filmmaker, Vita Maria Drygas, said she regarded making Piano as one of the most important events in her life. Most of us have a story to be told. The piano is a symbol, surrounded by people with punctured lives, a glimpse of contemporary Ukraine.

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