Music and me - at twenty-two and later

from w
Rock my soul and so on in Bendigo. Captured the religious spirit and wanted to shake the world with an evangelical zeal! Then a few years later on, had to leave a piano behind in Dilkusha when we moved to Labasa to the family cane-farm and beach bures.

Music and me - at eighteen

from w
She rides a borrowed bike
to nervous piano lessons in Alma Street,
practices in the hostel lounge
annoying others with obsessive Bach fugues,
scales minor rand augmented.
They leave her alone, go laughing with friends
as she plunges into Rachmaninoff
frightening the dust motes and mice.
One day the television arrives,
is placed solidly into the corner.
Residents watch a blur of snow
and occasionally patches of face.
The piano stilled, she crouches behind viewers,
strains at the back of the crowd
to see what they are seeing.

At the hostel for trainee teachers, the music student practices Bach and Rachmaninoff for an exam while most of her friends go out and have a good time. She walks to a different drum-beat focussed on music as well as art studies. I've made her a blonde this time!

Self-portrait aged seven

from w
Though playing the piano has nearly always been a joy to me, there was the initial slog of learning scales. I was first introduced to the piano by my grandmother who lived with us at the time. I still remember though how awkward it was to perform in front of people, such as a Rotary 'do'. I was probably about nine and playing 'The Merry Peasant' in a concert. I panicked, started to cry, and had to be comforted then I valiantly sat on the stool and played the darn thing. I still do not like 'performing'. The pic is approximately what my mother's lounge room looked like when I was seven.