Tickle Ivory

On Sunday, the REAL Halloween, we were pretty exhausted. We got up late, and did a very late breakfast/lunch with Chris C and Jessie. They had to go to a wedding the previous night and missed out on the parties, so we had to catch them up.

I kept my hair the way we cut it for the costume. I didn't spike it, but I still have the line/fade thing going on. It actually looks pretty normal, and I've forgotten about it except when I catch myself in a reflection every now and then.

We sat around at Baker's Square for a couple hours, leisurely enjoying the quite before we headed out. Lindsay and I took a trip to the bookstore and Best Buy. I wanted to grab the Keyboard for Rock Band, and Lindsay just likes to shop sometimes.

The Best Buy had no Keyboard, but they told me the Mall of America Best Buy had ONE left. Since it was on the way home anyway, we stopped at the mall. It was PACKED with little kids trick or treating. There was a constant parade of costumes for a series of unending contests on the main stage, and the place was a zoo.

Lindsay started to look at Alpaca Sweaters, so I made a bee-line to Best Buy and grabbed the last Keyboard in stock and made it back before she had even finishing trying on everything. She ended up with a few sweaters, and we chatted with the woman working for some time. We talked about MCAD and art and we were introduced to her co-worker who was doing architecture or something. It was kind of weird.

At home I cracked open the keyboard and attempted to tickle them Ivories. I went straight to Pro Mode, because that's where it's at, and there's no sense in getting used to the normal mode then having to re-learn Pro.

I played the Piano for 2-3 years as a kid but I suck. Lindsay is pretty darn good at the piano. So we kind of jumped in. Whoa. It's HARD. I started slow, Pro Mode on Medium, maybe even Easy, and failed out.

Lindsay jumped straight to Hard and was surprised at how fast she failed out. It's really just due to trying to read the chart coming down the track. It's going 25 keys, so placing your fingers at a moment's notice when you're not familiar is... impossible.

I've been working my way through the Pro Mode tutorials and it's making me flashback to Piano lessons. Running scales and chords and stuff.

The funny thing is, I understand WHY I'm practicing now, where as I didn't as a child. I thought I was just supposed to learn the songs through brute force. I did scales, sure, but I didn't understand WHY. And, with 20 years of hindsight, I instantly realized the entire reason why I quit the piano...

Well, one reason. Make no mistake, I still suck. My fingers are too big and I'm too clumsy for this kind of precision, but I'm having more fun practicing now than I ever did back then.

I think that's saying something.