Young Paul is such an arrogant boy who thinks Keller lacks ability to teach him. Paul’s first impression of Keller is terrible according to Keller’s alcoholism. Because of his intelligence in music, Paul feels patronised by Keller’s first lesson. Paul thinks he deserves a better teacher instead of a “boozer” who only tells him weird stories about fingers. When Keller throws Paul’s music into the bin and asks him to play The Children Bach, Paul’s complacence means that he’s insulted. At that stage of his life, Paul is too young to understand that Keller is trying to bring him back to basic and undo his bad habits. All Paul wants is to practise a higher level of music to improve his skills, because he aspires to be a concert pianist so much.…
The Piano Lesson was inspired by a painting of the same name. It was first performed at the Yale Repertory Theater November 26, 1987. The Piano Lesson tells the story of an artistically carved piano, the interwoven stories of the Sutter and Charles families that owned the piano. Berniece and Boy Willie (the grand children of the slave who carved the piano) have different views on what to do with the family piano which has much of the family’s history dealing with slavery, oppression and loss. The theme of the play is not to run from your legacy, instead embrace and learn from it. The play’s theme will be proven through the play’s Structure.…
Reaching the top, hidden around the corner of the curtain I watch the performer. The clarinets slow symphony spreads a tired, gloomy mood throughout the room. A soft finishing note seems to carry out for minutes. A pause of silence. Faint black figures all aligned in perfect rows is all that can be seen, and a loud applause burst all at once. The performer bows and waits for their judging. A big cringy looking man stands. He wears oversized khakis, a button up, and a face of complete confusion. Finding his way up the stage, he confronts the performer. In a booming voice he critiques even the slightest imperfections played in the piece. The performer's face flushes fast turning as pale as winter. A shake of the hand between the two and it is all over. The pressure I already felt rises higher than…
My sisters’ anger made me not want to practice; my lack of improvement made me not want to play instrument at all. My sisters practiced music to for competitions, but I just wanted to play for fun. All of my teachers said I was the most talented in the house, but because my lack of improvement, no one believed in my…
Home plate was only a few strides ahead of me, and I realized that this was it. I slammed my foot onto the plate, thinking to myself that I made it. Suddenly everything around me was loud. My hearing finally returned and I could hear the crowd cheering for me. I ran to the fence and found myself searching for his face. There Andrew sat on the bleachers, smiling at me and clapping his hands.. “I told you I would do it,” I hollered at him, which caused his head to be thrown back in laughter. I smiled proudly and turned my back towards the fence, seeing my teammates make their way onto the field, screaming and hollering my name. Everyone there couldn’t stop cheering and clapping in honor of me, and honestly, it was the best feeling in the…
By the time I was seated in front of the piano, it was dark. I had taken my seat and started my scales. I lost myself in the arpeggios, the notes musing together. I was lost in this world until a snap between my eyes had snapped me out of it. I looked over at my annoyed tutor. I had not noticed that we were done with the warm-up. I gave a small nod of an apology. She had me play a piece. I was allowed to choose any piece as long as it was memorized and she would look at the written piece as I played. I had chosen Moonlight Sonata. It was a personal favorite of mine; a piece of highs and lows and multiple paces all forming into a quick rush of sound. It was chaos and yet, was completely under my control. When the last note was played, the “helpful critiquing” started.…
Although the excitement of starting to play a new instrument drove her to her spot which she accompanied for two years, the fire began to die. “You don’t want to be first chair anymore?” the neighboring cello player’s question mixed with his shocked expression. “I don’t care for it much,” I mumbled while diverting eye contact and mindlessly strumming out of tune viola chords, “I guess it isn’t meaningful anymore.” # A play…
It was a week away and surprisingly I was calm for the upcoming event. Usually I would be nervous from the top of my head all the way down to the bottom of my toes, but I had so much confidence that it was inspiring to others. Knowing that the big day was 2 days away, of course I had to go out and buy new equipment so I could not play the part, but also look the part. Shortly after buying a new Nike helmet, Swingman batting gloves and a brand new solid pro maple SamBat I immediately went to the cages. The bat had the biggest sweet spot and the most pop out of all my bats. The ball hitting of the barrel sounded like gunshots. I felt like taking a million swings, but I knew if I stayed there for a long time I would be a little tired for the big day so I only took 100 swings and called it a day. Finally the next day I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock with the mindset of determination. I quickly got dressed in the proper sports attire and fled out the house with my brother. On the way there I had the speakers on blast playing the most inspiring and highest BPM songs I had on my play-list. After arriving to the parking lot I had walked to the front entrance of the stadium where they had given me a shirt with a specific number and a cap so it could be worn on the field. After suiting up and taking the first step on the field, the amazing view of the inside of a baseball stadium had me speechless. Knowing that professionals play here too had me feeling proud that I was doing something with my life and that hopefully it was going to lead me somewhere better. Before starting all the drills and the showcasing of the performance of the players, the commissioner of the league had a few words to say. Shortly after the speech was done, we had finally started to begin! Everyone was split into different groups. Some kids were hitting, some were pitching, and some were taking ground balls. I was put into the hitting…
The second movement, Allegreta, made me feel as if I was at a wedding reception, with smiling faces surrounding me. I saw such a striking sight; the bride and groom dancing, wine glasses held high in the air, a bouquet of flowers thrown into a crowd of screaming hopefuls, and a band playing on a stage, the pianist playing a jumpy, fun beat.…
I felt pain as I propelled all my strength through the first famous oboe solo of the piece. My embouchure almost gave way until the last note finally arrived, and there I began to quiver. In my sophomore year, I performed Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony with my regional orchestra. This rather short experience reshaped my approach not only of music, but also of my outlook on life.…
All my teammates came up to me and yelled, “That was a great shot.” They said, “THAT WAS SICK!”…
I am writing this essay because on January 17th, 2012, I failed to report to my appointed place of duty at the proper time. I accidentally turned off my alarm clock instead of hitting the snooze button, which I usually do. This does not excuse anything, but it is the reason. There are many reasons why being on time is important, both inside and outside of the military. Failing to be at a place you are supposed to be at the right time can cause so many problems, including losing your job, receiving counseling statements, having to write ridiculously long essays which take up more free time than you really have, receiving an Article 15, and creating more work for your peers.…
Blinding sunshine flooded into the room, coating the furniture in a vibrant golden sheen. Baking bread lightly perfumed the air, soothing my olfactory instantaneously. Morning had most assuredly broken. I looked around and thought plaintively, What should I do on this lovely morning? As usual, my response led me to the Baldwin Acrosonic piano across the room. Due to my perceptible laziness, I avoided pulling out any new manuscripts from storage, leaving me no choice but to read through the music lying open upon the desk: the great Nocturnes of Master Frederic Chopin. I began randomly flipping pages until a lovely F-sharp minor key signature caught my eye. I just had to play this! I started scanning the piece to check for technical difficulties.…
Jeremy Friesz, Gabe Meschke, and I were taking in all of the action on the second day of the tournament. During breaks in the action, the camera men would show fans on the big screen, and we were laughing at some of their antics. After Gabe bought a giant bucket of popcorn, I jokingly told him, “If we get up on the screen, you have to dump that bucket on Jeremy’s head.” When a few minutes had passed and we the camera had not found us, I forgot all about our deal. Ironically, it was about an hour later when I was telling Jeremy, “You know, I’ve only been up on the screen once, and I hid.” As I was saying this, we flashed up on the big screen, and Gabe’s face immediately lit up as he quickly slam-dunked the bucket on Jeremy’s head. The entire crowd let out a collective laugh, except for the people sitting in front of and behind us because popcorn had just flown all over them. Even after the hilarity died down, I kept laughing for a long time because of the perfect timing of the gag and its sheer ridiculousness. Furthermore, the story perfectly supports the idea that my funniest moments occur as a result of being around teammates and sports.…
Though I fell short of the gold medal that year, falling second to the woman who had defeated me in the year prior, I was content. My overcoming of a disorder that can cripple the most resolute of men and women was as much of an achievement as winning state could have been. The following year, complemented by a newfound sense of my resilience, I won the VHSL State Championship in extemporaneous forensics;…