The Spirit of Music

First Steps

"How much is it to rent a piano for use?" The man looked up from his computer to give me a monotone reply.

"$5 an hour." He said as he went back to looking at the screen. I thanked him and ran off to the pianos at the back of the shop with my sheet music. It was a mild August night, with the sun still shining through the treetops and a gentle breeze swaying through the branches. The lazy day at work and the calm evening was a stark contrast to the way I felt in that moment. I was panicked, worried about what I was going to do with this piece. I had never played piano before, let alone read sheet music, and just looking at what was on the pages made me sweat. I had to look up how to read sheet music on my phone just for this piece, and that only made everything more confusing. Then again, this situation was already as confusing as it could have possibly been. That first night in a piano rental shop yielded absolutely nothing for me.

This was several years ago.

This was the start to the strangest story of my life.

I went back every night I could, going after work to see if I could improve upon anything from the previous night. I looked up how to read sheet music, what certain symbols meant, what note corresponded to which key on a piano. The worst part was, I couldn't even tell what song it was, as the name had been ripped off at one point in its life. I even went as far as to ask online if anyone knew what piece it was to no avail. It seemed as if it was nonexistent.

Several months later I finally learned a little of the piece. In comparison to the rest of the work though, I had barely made a dent. To make matters worse, I couldn't check if I was playing it right since there was no way to find it online. Yet, despite all of this, I kept trying to learn and play.

About a year after this started, I moved out of my apartment and into a house in Middletown, Ohio. I found a new piano shop and practiced there, and I was glad I found it, since this was what helped me the most. The owner, who I only knew as Mr. Stanton, was an older gentleman, somewhere in his late 70's to early 80's, and he had lots of experience in playing the piano. His white, balding head, thick framed glasses, large nose, and overall look of a grandfather was a much more comforting sight than the owners of the last piano shop I went to. He was apart of orchestras and symphonies in his time, he had a degree in music, and knew many songs on piano. He was the one to help me conquer this work.

"What is this piece called?" He asked me when I showed up the first time. He put on his circular glasses just to look at the pages and what was written on there.

"I'm not sure. I've tried to find it all over the place but I haven't been able to." He nodded his head as he squinted at the page.

"Ahh. So what are you learning this for?"

"I don't really know. I've never played an instrument before I tried to learn this." I responded. His eyebrows lifted as he looked up at me in shock.

"And you're learning this? This is advanced notation, with difficult parts to learn, surely I can show you some simpler pieces to start off with. I have this one-"

"No no, I need to learn this one specifically." He looked at me, completely puzzled. He took off his glasses as he fully turned toward me.

"You don't know why you're learning this extremely difficult piece, yet you won't try and learn anything else to begin with. There has to be a reason, why won't you tell me?" He questioned. I shifted in my spot, formulating my response.

"You won't believe me." I squeaked.

"Well I already find all of this quite confusing, so just go ahead and say it. Who knows, maybe I'll understand?" He said with a smile. After a few seconds, I gave in and answered.

"A ghost wants me to learn this."