Perfect
I believe that every individual person in this universe should have something they are passionate about. Something that allows them to be carried into a beautiful world for an hour or two where they are able to escape reality.
Let’s face it reality isn’t always the best place to be. Sometimes we need to escape and let our troubles drift away with the afternoon breeze. How we go about it is up to us, but I like to think that being passionate about something helps the process. You can allow it to take control of you.
So what is my absolute passion? It’s a rather unique one. I love to play the piano. It’s been my passion for as long as I can remember and as the years have gone by, I have developed and developed. Tunes have changed, songs have come and gone and now I improvise and allow my “fingers do the walking” for me. There are moments when I’ll suddenly get inspired and race to the keyboard and start playing. So here I can say that music is my life. I don’t know what I’d do without my keyboard.
I rarely ever become frustrated when I play. Unless I am playing for a particular purpose.
This is why I don’t like playing when I have to. I play when I want to.
So now I find myself sitting down staring blankly at the keyboard wondering what to play. You see, I have given a task. A particularly difficult task that requires immense concentration. A high level of concentration.
I have been entrusted with producing an original piece for a local theatre production. The director was immensely impressed with my talent after watching me play with my band at a local performance. She approached me afterwards and asked me if I would be able to play some background music to be used in particular scenes. I eagerly took on the project without hesitation. I’m not one to shy away from a challenge.
‘I’d like it to be original, to be unique,’ she had said to me with such expression that I just couldn’t refuse.
‘Sure, no problem,’ I had said casually.
At the time I thought it was going to be that simple. It wasn’t until I arrived home and had a quick read of the script that I wondered what I’d got myself into. It was so complicated, which was rather ironic. The title of the play was ‘Perfect.’ There was a slogan underneath that read: ‘What’s your definition?’
To me there really is no way of defining perfect. It can have so many different meanings. The question was how was I to create a ‘perfect’ tune for a ‘perfect’ play? It seemed almost impossible. I’ve been fiddling around with the keys for the past few days already. Only it seems as if they have decided to lock on me. No matter how hard I tried there was a combination lock on each and every one.
I wasn’t ready to give up. I wasn’t ready to be defeated. I control the keys, the keys don’t control me. That’s become my philosophy now.
It’s now at the end of the week and I still haven’t achieved the perfect tune. I’ve been spending hours at the keyboard with immense concentration, taking the occasional break to refresh my mind. By the time the weekend has emerged, I haven’t managed to achieve much at all. Even when I sleep, I had dreams about a magnificent grand piano speaking to me.
‘Perfect, perfect, perfect,’ it would sing to me repetitively in all different notes.
‘It’s no use you singing to me like that, you’re not helping at all,’ I had said to it.
The piano ignored me and continued singing without the least inclination of stopping. That’s when I would wake up and curse. Then I would sigh and lay awake and wonder. How is it that this particular project is having such a profound impact on me? Was my dream trying to present me with a clue?
Then waking up to feel the cool breeze on a beautiful sunny Monday morning, it suddenly dawned on me.
Of course. Why didn’t I see it before? The same recurring dream I had been having for the past week had been trying to give me a clue. There was a reason that grand piano had been singing me the same repetitive tune.
It was the tune.
So without bothering to dress, I race out to the piano in my pyjamas while the dream is still fresh in my mind. As I enter the room. I am so energetic, so excited. It seems my piano is as well. When I sit down and play the first key, all of the keys unlock in unison. They’ve admitted defeat; they’ve understood that I control them. They don’t control me.
So then I press record and close my eyes. I feel the passion pulse through me, and then begin to play. I’ve finally made the perfect tune for the perfect play.
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