From the Insane Mind of a Pianist ...


Bit of a rubbish title really, but then again, a friend thought of the name so I can't say too much.  (sorry if you're reading this, friend.)

Hopefully, on this blog will be bits n' bobs about a rather exciting musical life.  I not, then I apologise in advance for the false advertisement of this page.  Shall we start?

So a typical day in my musical life  (December) ....

5.30am - alarm goes off ( I hit the alarm so hard I normally always knock over my glass of water in the process).

5.31am- curse the alarm all the way to the kitchen to get a mop to clear up the water.

5.32am- clear up water

5.34am - go back to bed until 6am because no-one in their right mind gets up at 5.30am, unless you know for a fact you won't have time to mop up spilt water at 6am.

6am - make a cup of tea, listen to radio 3 and try to imagine what the month of December would be like if I weren't a musician.

6.01am - realise life as a non musician in December must be lousy.  They have to get up at 8am, walk the dog, feed the cat, drink non-caffinated drinks and slope to work.   I get to drag my tired body from my bed at 5.30am to mop up water, only to get up again at 6am, get on bike at 7am and tootle (waving at the milkman on the way, the only other person alive at this time) ... cycle to work (8am), play the piano (which i love- not moaning about at all) and teach pupils, cycle to lunchtime concert (1pm), run back to University to play piano to practise for seminar, leg it to get a coffee, leg it back to piano, then pick up friend (4.45pm),  run to choir rehearsal to accompany and sing (5pm-7pm) , finish accompanying, sing in 2nd choir rehearsal (7pm-9pm), slowly go home, have dinner, work on Dissertation (10pm) (by this I mean look at it and loath the font) pour a very large glass of water and then go to bed.  (11pm).

3am - get in bath because still have not fallen asleep.

4am - sleep

5.30am - wake up, hit the alarm to hard spill water curse the alarm and thank God i have some sort of spontaneity in my life, even in the form of 5am spilt water.


It's soooo much better than I am making it out to be.  Life as a music student it incredible and something I am so lucky to have.  There are a few moments when you think,

"I am in a wind band playing percussion, but I am a pianist"... (it's so obvious too) because all I can do is think, "what are all these little crosses for?"

There are funny times too -

The time I got up to play Chopin in a seminar in front of my class. Half way through, the piano starts to roll, or rather as I see it, the keyboard gets further away and my arms get shorter...  instead of stopping, I continue, at first shuffling the stool and then just stand up and moving with the piano to play.

Tutor - "haha, sorry Lauren, I must have forgot to put the brakes on."

really? I didn't notice.

I hope after a while, I will be able to create a fun page of things we get up to at University, but until then... I have to prepare a glass of water to spill.

LC x