Inspired!

I’ve been haunted by Rachmaninoff’s third concerto over the past few days, since discovering it for the first time while watching Shine on Saturday night. This piece has me completely captivated, from start to finish. I’ve never heard anything like it. How I didn’t know about it in my days of natural hearing is beyond me, but, never mind, I know it now. And I can’t let it rest.

I’ve been listening to it over and over again on the iPod. The more I hear it, the more I want to play it.

I sat at the piano the other night and tried to play the opening bars ‘by ear’, like I once would have. I played the notes that matched what I was hearing off the David Helfgott recording. I’m pretty lucky – being able to hear each semitone on the piano means the piano generally sounds pretty melodic, even if it the tones can be digital and weird sometimes.

When I sourced the first page of the music, I was surprised to see that I hadn’t been far off! In fact, the melody was identical – I’d just been playing it one key higher than it was meant to be played. This confirms a little exercise I did with my piano teacher a couple of months ago. She’d play a note and tell me to sing what I heard. From that, we gauged that I was hearing the difference in every note, but that I was hearing them half a step, or one step higher than what they actually were. Very interesting … and that confirms that my singing during that earlier lesson was much more accurate than I thought too. ;-)

I have noticed that if I’m playing a single melody, either with the left hand or the right hand, I will be able to tell if I’ve hit the wrong note – as long as I’m concentrating. The differences are very subtle – with natural hearing, they were very obvious to me. For that reason, if I’m playing two melodies at a time, both hands together, it will be harder for me to tell if I’ve hit a wrong note. (Also because the notes do not always merge harmonically, like they do with natural hearing.) Still, the fact that this ability to ‘play by ear’ is not lost altogether, like I expected it to be with cochlear implants, is pretty incredible.

So … The Rach 3. Can somebody with cochlear implants learn to play ‘the hardest piece in the world’? This is not a piece I was familiar with when I had natural hearing. I’ve only ever heard it ‘bionically’. But is that going to stop me? 

Well, it’s not going to stop me trying.

But not just yet.

I am booked up with Beethoven and Chopin for the next few years.

But how incredible that the reason is because I’m busy getting my technical skills up to speed? That I’m busy learning some other pieces I’ve already devoted to learning? That I can even sit here and seriously contemplate learning this piece in the future?

It was only a few months ago that I was completely deaf and preparing myself for never being able to take lessons again.

And now? Well, this is what I said to my piano teacher last night, as I handed her the first page of music for Rachmaninoff's concerto no. 3:

‘I hope your calendar is free, because I’m booking you in for a lifetime of lessons!’

The look on her face was priceless.

My oh my, as I closed the piano lid after that lesson, and thought excitedly about actually getting to hear David Helfgott play the piano in person later this year, I couldn’t help thinking ...

How different my life is now … after only four months. :-D