Another Music Story

Wednesday is the day that I have music classes three periods in a row. First, two periods of "music," then a period of "religious music." For "music" class, the sensei had given me two pieces to work on, which I did, and then I was to play them this past Wednesday in class. That was a disaster. My fingers decided that they didn't actually know how to play and would not move. The first piece was for the entire choir, which was fine, because at least they could drown out my playing. After that, the sensei told me that she had set aside the class time for me to give the class a performance. hahaha. No one had told me anything about that. I sat down and played Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu for the millionth time since I've arrived here, no problem. Then they wanted an encore! I was terrified. I tried my best to play Gershwin's Prelude No. 1 even though its been eons since I last played it. I guess it didn't go too terribly because they wanted ANOTHER encore. I had been afraid to play them Prokofiev's Diabolic Suggestion, because it tends to sound like a cat running across a piano and not many people can appreciate that it actually is an incredibly difficult piece. I finally decided to play it though, figuring that if they did think I was only banging on various keys, they at least wouldn't ask for another encore (my repitore of memorized pieces sadly ends here). When I finished I was amazed to find that they actually were impressed, and so gave a quick bow and ran back to my seat before they could ask for another song. A little while later though, the sensei asked me to come up and play the other piece she had asked me to prepare. Apparently this was her turn to preform and she would be singing a solo. She set the music in front of me and it was the same song she had given me two weeks previous, but the key had magically changed from F major, to D major. I guess it's a good thing that I was so terrified, because otherwise I would have died of laughter. The situation was exactly like a joke that my cello teacher used to tell.