You can play the game of life successfully!
The best players of the game of life are on the bench, the piano bench, that is. Why?
When you play piano, you realize that life and playing piano have much in common. Here are some points about this.
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The piano keys
The white keys (naturals) represent happiness and the black (sharps and flats) sadness, but as you travel through music and life, you realize that you need both to make music and have a life.
Some players, like myself, have more sharps and flats in their lives and others more naturals, but when we put them all together each one of us has a life song.
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Easiest in the beginning
Vladimir Horowitz said that the piano is the easiest instrument to play in the beginning and the most difficult to master in the end. Life is the same way.
Life for a child is fairly easy. Children do not have to worry about paying bills, relationships, or survival. But as a person gets older, he must be concerned about these things.
When I started piano lessons in March of 2016, my teacher taught me during my first lesson how to sit on the bench, how to hold my hands, and how to play the C scale. Now I am learning to play a difficult song with a Spanish rhythm called “Guantanamera”. I have been working on it now for almost three weeks and am just now starting to play it decently.
When life and playing piano get harder, a good pianist does not give up. And a strong person does not give up in the game of life.
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How you play
Albert Einstein wrote that life is like a piano, because what you get out of it depends on how you play it.
When I play piano, I have to pay attention to incidentals, crescendos, the pedal, the rhythm, and many other things. Learning to play the piano has not been easy for me because I have traumatic brain injury and struggle to focus on so many things at once. So when I practice a new song, I first pay attention to notes, then to rhythm until I get that down, and then I learn the other aspects of the song. It is very important for me to keep adding up the aspects of the song until I make music when I play it.
My life is the same way. On the very hard days when my brain struggles to focus, I just have to keep working to pay attention to the details until I accomplish my goals.
Living a good life can be a challenge, just like playing the piano is. But if you play the game of life well, you can make a beautiful life.
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First play by the rules
In life and piano playing, you must play by all the rules at first, and then you can follow your heart.
When I first learned to play “The Entertainer”, I had to play it by all the music rules. The when I had truly learned the song well, I could follow my heart and add my own touches to the song.
In life, you first must manage your relationships by the rules. Then after the rules become ingrained in your mind, you can follow your heart instead of the rules.
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The best players are on the bench. On the bench, you cope with your depression and anxiety much better. Also, on the bench you must persevere to learn to play a song. Hearing the music you play gives you confidence to try to do new things and a greater since of self-worth. Therefore, you play the game of life better.
But not everyone can play piano. Those who do not play piano can still learn these lessons and play the game of life well.
Play the game of life as though you are on the piano bench!
Let the encouraging words in these near a river posts help you
soar like an eagle above life’s storms.
How can music change your life?
Ndamukong Suh’s advice for coping…
Every child deserves the gift of a successful life.
Here is a gift that will surely bring smiles to everyone.
If you enjoyed this post, remember that BJ writes children’s books.
Her encouraging children’s eagle
Near a River common core reading book
is available on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.
Buy BJ’s Near a River encouraging eagle reading book
for a child you care about today!
