The Turtle and The Lion: Lessons for Living while Learning to Play the Piano

One-Octave Major Scale of Chapters

Tonic: Values – Priorities ........... pages 7–14 Tonic = HOME, most important, security, comfort, dependable

Supertonic: How to Study and Learn –Work Habits – Process – How toSucceed ....................... pages 15–23 Supertonic = Starting on our way, going forward

Mediant: Personal Character ......... pages 25–36 Mediant = Third of the chord determines type of chord, major or minor

Subdominant: Overcoming Disappointment, Setbacks, Discouragement ............ pages 37–39 Subdominant = IV chord used for Amen cadence, church hymns

Dominant: Creativity and Freedompages 41–47 Dominant = Tonic's best friend; cadence ending on V asks a question, open-ended

Submediant: Communication ........ pages 49–63 Submediant = Beautiful consonant sound, harmonious

Leading Tone: Life ................ pages 65–84 Leading Tone = Reaching to the goal, the ultimate – almost there, can see the light

Octave: Spirituality – Faith –Mysticism ..................... pages 85–89 Octave = The Goal, Home in Eternity

I

Values – Priorities

Continuity – Quality – Sharing Beauty – Vision – Learning – Equality – Higher Road

A

ppropriately, we will begin our journey, our non-song with words, at the first note of our scale, on the Tonic. That is the tone that we keep hearing, the note and chord that determines where the piece resides, where we feel most comfortable. It is at the root of the song's identity. It is Home. So this chapter is about our Values and Priorities, what makes us who we are and gives us our identity.

The most basic necessity in Music is CONTINUITY. As performers we are obligated above all else to keep going. Our listeners will forgive us for mistakes but not for quitting. If something unexpected happens (i.e., we make some ‘horrible’ mistake, God forbid!), we have to recover, improvise, do something…but we cannot stop, give up, quit, get up from the piano and walk off!

That is certainly a Life Lesson that most of us have learned and ascribe to. Although we would not consider actually ending our life when things don’t go as we planned or when we make a horrible mistake, nonetheless there are many other ways that we can give up, quit, walk away. Think about a time when you didn’t have the patience or courage to stick with your task, your vision, your dream and just gave up on it, did something different, changed the subject.

Performing music, or even just seriously practicing music, forces us over and over again to practice Not quitting. That is where our lion Courage comes in – courage to keep going when we would rather run away – from others, from ourselves, from the situation. For the sake of something we value (learning to play the piano or this particular piece) we bravely put ourselves into a situation where we now will face that dilemma over and over again. But we have chosen our priorities, and we are determined to stick with it, scary though it can be.

The next highest value that we learn from our music is that QUALITY is by far more important than sheer quantity. A piece of music moves us by how beautiful it is, what it says to us, how it makes us feel. It can be long or short; that is not what makes the difference. It can have a lot of notes or only a relative few.

How many people use up their time, their energy, their emotions, their abilities going after Quantity: impressive salary, large house, expensive car, numerous titles after their name, big bank account, number of Boards they serve on, number of friends they have on Facebook, and on and on? And yet none of those guarantee that their life is happy and fulfilled. It is the Quality of the life they live that determines that.

We can whip through a number of pieces, learning the obvious things like the notes and rhythm, and think that we have done it. But we have robbed ourselves, and anyone who might hear us play those pieces, of the real beauty and deep meaning in the music. What could have made a lasting impression, one that might have inspired us, has simply come and gone hardly to be thought of again.

Working at each musical skill until we attain a certain level of mastery requires determination and our other mascot Patience. That kind of mastery allows us to attain Quality, Beauty. Quality is not about how much we can get done in the shortest amount of time. Quality is about how deep we can go in any amount of time.

Quality is Beauty. If the tone isn’t beautiful, the music memorable, it does not matter how flashy or impressive we try to be. Music demonstrates that Beauty and Meaning are more important than showing off what we can do, how many notes we can play, how fast we can go.

Think about people you have known who tried to impress you by their snazzy clothes, their shiny fast car, their bragging about all their big accomplishments. I remember some of the quiet, less obviously remarkable young people in my high school class who at class reunions years later were the ones who had done deeds of great value in the world (still without