Top dog, bottom dog

My piano class has turned 180 degrees from what it was in the beginning almost two years ago. Then it was our instructor's first all male class, six old men who had never played piano before. The senior piano students are predominantly female, so this was a rare gathering. And we all loved it. Soon enough it became apparent that I was the quickest learner in the group. The class, however, moved forward to accommodate its slower learners, which was fine with me. I was having fun and learning something and was in no hurry.

Then things began to change. As we reached more complicated material, requiring more homework, a few guys lagged behind more than usual. Eventually some quit and some decided to move back a class. Their spots were filled by women: moreover, by women who had played piano before and we "brushing up" old skills. This evolution continued so that today I am the only original man left in the class. Now we have four, three students with prior piano experience and me -- and the former "top dog" is now the slowest learner in the class. In fact, I struggle to keep up.

However, I struggle because I put so few hours into practice. This term especially has seen many other demands on my time, especially getting the new review out and the Finale class. Taking three classes was too much, really. I won't do that again unless it's a class I absolutely need. I hope this summer to put more hours into piano and not feel like I'm such a drag on the class. What was fun has become work. Moreover, my desire is not to become a piano player in any public sense. I am learning piano in order to compose, not to play, though of course they are related. But the composer-player can be slower than the performing-player. In the end, the computer can play it "right" ha ha.

I've thought of dropping the class and may yet. I have signed up for summer, so we'll see how it goes. I have no desire to struggle through a class that isn't fun. I'm also taking another strategy to learn some things on my own with DVD material, so we'll see how that goes, too. I definitely will keep taking my theory class. But the piano playing, we'll have to see.

Another issue is that in class we learn mostly songs I have no desire to play in the first place. I'd be more motivated if we were learning boogie woogie or blues. In fact, last week we had one jazzy song, in swing time, and I excelled. All these former piano players had a hard time getting the swing feel down, and I got it right away (having heard it for so long, I suppose). So with the right material, I was "top dog" again. I don't need to be top dog. I just need to have more fun, like I did in the beginning.

All this may resolve itself once I'm not so busy. We'll see.