Ab

I'm not huge on playing in Ab. Or Eb, Bb, Db, A, or B. Today I was on the worship team playing piano both in the morning and the evening. I've been really greatful for the opportunity to play; it has happened so infrequently over the years where I could play without singing. I like it alot. Peter has really been stretching me by asking me to play in some of the keys listed above, and it's really good for me. Tonight I had the special triumph of sight reading a piece in Ab that I didn't know while playing it in G --- it was one of those moments that I wish Mrs. Weatherby and Gayle Callaghan and Sheila Young and my piano teacher growing up could be there to witness.

I've determined to myself that before Exalt! next year, I will be able to play in every key by ear --- Abby, I will be banning the transpose button; I only wish you could be there --- and that my note reading (which right now is probably at a first grade Conservatory level... if I'm generous to myself) will not only be passable, but practical. I don't think it's wrong to rely on my ear as much as I do, but I think I owe it to myself and to the people who's teams I will be on in the future to stop copping out and get down to work. I don't know whether I"ll have the discipline to achieve it on my own, so I may end up taking lessons, if I can afford it and if a teacher will take me.

Tomorrow is supposed to be lake day, when I get on the tube with Esther and Jill respectively and yell "FASTER" to the boat driver. I've been flu-ish, but I'm determined. Unless I'm barfing, or sure that my germs will infect the populous, or unless the Lord speaks to me audibly and tells me to stay put, I'm going. (Spoken like a true lying wimp)

Sheila goes to school tomorrow --- why am *I* nervous?