Once upon a time, in what almost seems like another life, I played the piano. I don’t mean Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. The type of playing I did involved practicing for many hours a day. I was even a keyboard minor in college (piano, organ and actual keyboard). Then life took a different path, and now I play a different kind of keyboard as I provide tech support for websites.
Sometimes I feel nostalgic and long for the non-verbal expressions I could emote through the ivories. I’m so out of practice, jibberish results now when I try. The only proof I had that I ever played all-right was a cassette tape created when I was around 18 years old. Yes, I said cassette — does that date me or what? Haha.
CJ (my son) digitized it with decent equipment years ago. Then I lost the file 🙁 Now, realizing that even owning a tape player is getting scarce, I figured I had better record it while I can.
So here is my horrible recording of a practice tape being played through an old tape player and recorded using the video camera on my four-year-old iPhone SE. (Can you tell I’m not a sound/tech expert?)
Warning, there’s no image once it starts playing. Just a lovely view of the cover of my phone. I just had it recording for the sound.
Brahms Rhapsody Opus 79 No. 2
Ironically I hated the recording for many years because I perceived it as so inept (it was a practice tape after all, and nowhere near my end product on it). The recording and actual playing certainly aren’t high quality, but how I wish could now play the mediocrity of then.
So symbolic of life in general, am I right?
I used to record my practice sessions then listen to them over and over while away from the keyboard to mentally assess weak areas then go back and fix them.
I think I was banging too much at the beginning, and if I could play that again, I would relax the wrist a bit more. And it was recorded before I nuanced the sound — I was at the stage of practice where I was just figuring out the notes and phrasing.
Anyway. I keep losing my files of my recordings so I figured I would throw it on my website for posterity. It brings back happy memories for me, and I really love the song.
If you want to hear it played properly, check out:
