Week 10: 10/27/11 I practiced on the piano again for 30 min. I am sad that I can't focus on the hands and my feet at the same time. The only place that I can really do the pedals is at the end. It sounds great and the hands are not changing while I come up the scale with the pedal. Since the hands are just holding down chords, I can concentrate on moving my foot. What is discouraging is that my student Melissa last week, sat down for the second time to try the organ and she brought a piece with her that she practiced the hands and now wanted to try the feet. She was amazing. I don't know how she was able to do so well. I feel perhaps like special ed kids feel when the other students in the class understand that math problem, and they just don't see it. My feet surely do not see the pedals. I don't know how she was able to coordinate her hands and feet so well. Wow! It was shocking. I just have to accept the fact that some people can achieve more in some areas than others. Perhaps playing the foot pedals takes kinesthetic intelligence and perhaps that is what I do not have. I used to be athletic and coordinated, but my body does not let me do much in the way of athletics anymore. So, perhaps I am losing my kinesthetic intelligence and that is why I cannot coordinate my feet and hands like Melissa can. I was really beginning to wonder how anyone manages to play the pedals. Since witnessing Melissa do it so effortlessly, I realize that some people can do it quite easily.
10/28/11: It is alright that Melissa is so great on her first attempt to try the pedals. I said earlier it was her second time at the organ, because two weeks ago, after we tried our piece, she came over and played the organ just for fun. She didn't attempt the pedals then, but just played some hymns and goofed off with this new, fun, instrument. So when she came prepared to try her organ piece, I was amazed that she could play those pedals with relative ease. They were not perfect, but she was playing them and was not afraid to try. I practiced for 30 minutes again.
