Learning to Play the Piano With a Song in One's Heart
Imagine there's an exam in allotmenteering you could take. At the simplest level, you would have some elementary horticultural questions: differentiate between peas and potatoes from their foliage, say. A trained examiner with a clipboard would watch you digging and raking, pushing a barrow-full of oomska around an obstacle course, and make an assessment of your ability. If anyone suggested I take such an exam, I'd respond with what I can only describe as a scornful guffaw. Gardening is my hobby. I've been doing it on-and-off since childhood. Sod off. Learning to play the piano is a hobby, too. Admittedly, there aren't too many parallels between the 2 activities, but they have this in common: I do them in my free time, with no thought of reward or praise or anything else but enjoying the doing of them, and aware that doing them is part of a process. By that I mean, the allotment will look different and be more productive, some years from now; and my piano playing ...