I Can’t Play the Piano

I come from a very musical family. My grandfather plays the guitar and my grandmother plays the piano. My mother plays the clarinet and the piano, her sister plays the viola, and their brother plays the piano, guitar, and saxophone. My father plays the congas and the bongos, my sister plays the piano, and my brother plays the guitar. You may think that I too share in this musical talent that so clearly runs in our veins, but you are completely and utterly wrong.

My musical talent is nonexistent. I cant even sing. I couldn’t carry a tune if it was in a bucket, and while I would love to be able to play an instrument, I am just not musically inclined. My mother even signed me up for piano lessons at Bronx House, and I dreaded every Sunday for that reason. That being said, I do have an immense appreciation for others’ musical talents, since I have none of my own. So when I heard that we would be going to see a live piano performance I was intrigued.

I had never heard of Sara Davis Buechner before in my life before starting this course. Before I did the readings I had no idea what to expect. I was immediately impressed by her talent upon hearing a clip of her playing the piano. I read the articles and saw all of the achievements she had acquired over the years, but I wasn’t able to get a true picture of who she was as a person until I saw her live. From the beginning, her spirit shone through. Her humor was something I greatly appreciated. Although I love listening to classical music, I don’t often enjoy listening to classical musicians. I have found some to be quite stiff and boring and serious, but Sara was none of these things. She immediately began cracking jokes and throwing jabs at Trump, and her personality is what I enjoyed the most. She spoke with such passion for music and art while also making it enjoyable for those in the audience who don’t have as much knowledge in that area.

That same spirit was clearly translated into her performance. At first I was a little taken aback by her intense movement as she was playing. She was rocking back and forth and it seemed as if her limbs had a mind of their own as they were flailing all over the place and I thought she was going to fall off of the bench a few times. But the more I watched, the more I understood that her movements and facial expressions correlated with the way she was playing. She made the intense and serious moments more so by contorting her face into an almost confused or agitated look and accompanying it with bursts of movement. And then she made the peaceful and happy moments in the piece even more so by appearing softer and a look of overwhelming peace and serenity overtook her face. These details made her performance even more engaging for me to watch.