I Wonder Why My Fingers Remember

When I was a kid, I used to play the piano all the time. Of course, this was because I took lessons, and generally, if you take lessons but don't practice, you're throwing money down the drain. Anyway, when I went off to college, I stopped taking lessons, but my dorm was right next door to the music building, and I was in Timko often enough for classes anyway, so I still found myself playing a lot.

I have a keyboard now--one I really like. But I only play it in random spurts. I'm really not sure why (other than the fact that I hate to have other people hear me when my playing is imperfect, and it always is because I never practice).

Tonight, after I got home from hanging out with Heidi, I decided I was going to play. Oh, it was lovely. I worked through all sorts of songs from Miss Saigon, Wicked, and my Disney piano arrangements songbook. And since that was all going fairly well, I picked up Chopin's Nocturne in E-Flat.

Now I'm not going to pretend that I played it well enough for you to want to hear it. But considering the difficulty of the piece (for me, at least), I was amazed at how much my fingers remembered. I mean, I go for months without playing, and even when I do play, it's not usually Chopin. In fact, I don't recall playing Chopin since we moved into this house. Yet my fingers remembered much more than my mind could take in just by looking at the notes on the pages.

I wonder why this happens. Some kinesthetic reaction, maybe. Kind of like typing. You can go for a while without typing (perish the thought!), but the minute you go back to the keyboard, you realize that your fingers still remember where to go and what to do.

It's pretty cool. I should play more often. Good night!