In 2003 I started working in nursing homes and began the interesting and arduous task of learning everything I could about the daily life of someone who grew up in the 30's, 40's and 50's. I acquired all kinds of useless facts and became very familiar with the music from those eras. Earlier this year I changed careers and began working with children. This presented a unique challenge because all of the music I had been using was from their great-grandparents time and the only children type music I knew was too young for 10-12 year olds. The other standards I have included mostly classical music which kids are definitely not too keen on.
I began to search around for music these kids could relate to, but mostly they talk to me about which rapper did what. I'm pretty sure that sheet music for rap music is not available, nor would I know how to play it. Not to mention that 9 times out of 10 the lyrics would not be appropriate at an elementary school.
The point of this is that music to me is life. No matter what I do I find some way to incorporate it into my daily life. I don't work well without it and only like silence when it relates to enjoying nature. Eleven years ago while I was still taking piano lessons I learned a hard lesson. Having small hands often impedes. I was at school one day and suddenly couldn't feel my left hand. The lack of sensation gradually spread up my arm all the way to my elbow. I was terrified!! I was having to use my right hand to pick my left up and move it. Turns out the previous eleven years of playing the piano had finally taken their toll and I had acquired carpal tunnel.
Carpal tunnel is an extremely frustrating thing to deal with. You know your hand(s) are there and can even most of the time move them around but can't feel them. It is a strange and sometimes scary sensation. At the time of the onset of my carpal tunnel I was working on a difficult piece written by Rachmaninoff that clearly had been written by someone with much larger hands than I. My sometimes overzealous practicing for perfection became a disadvantage. Anyone who has had carpal tunnel can tell you that the strange pain and loss of feeling is inconvenient at best and alarming at worst.
As the years have gone on I have not had problems with my carpal tunnel and in fact the symptoms had completely disappeared. The main reason was because I have not been practicing the piano for at least 2 hours a day. It has been a nice reprieve not to worry about it. As I started my summer hiatus job cooking I found my carpal tunnel symptoms returning with full force. All the repetitious chopping and stirring and squeezing of sink sprayers has sometimes left me with debilitating pain. One of the most frustrating things is that I am also beginning to lose the strength in my wrists and fingers. Things like lifting a pan or plate, or twisting a lid become a chore. I am counting down the weeks until my summer job is done and I can go back to teaching which does not aggravate my carpal tunnel. In the end I still blame Rachmaninoff. Blast him and his man hands.
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