Little Trout Learns

I had my first much-anticipated lesson with L last night; we'd planned on 30 minutes, but we ended up spending an hour together. She grabbed me and ripped me apart like a grizzly deftly catches and rends a stupid, overconfident, reckless trout as it tries to jump a waterfall. S says this means she likes me. ;)

Reckless and overconfident definitely describe my performance - toss in a healthy dose of nerves, and you've pretty much got me down. I certainly wasn't definitively there at the piano last night. I was way too clumsy and her piano didn't trust me. I didn't prove myself at all, but it wasn't a complete crash-and-burn... After all, she assigned me work with advanced technical instructions that I will be hard-pressed to learn before next Tuesday, so she must have recognized at least some skill.

She approached me with the mastery and firm direction that I didn't find in M last week. She spoke to me as a musician speaks to another musician, which I profoundly respected. Instead of initially assuming my ignorance, she assumed that I was knowledgable and let me decide when I did and didn't need further explanation.

I'm satisfied. She took me to the edge of my knowledge and nudged me teetering on the edge of it over the void, and I have a week to find my balance or build a less precarious place to stand.