Today’s writing was inspired by the following picture:
Practice!
“Play! It’s time to practice.”
“Not again,” Charlie said, “Didn’t I just practice last week.”
“You’re music teacher said that you must practice at least 30 minutes a day and I’m supposed to record the amount of time in this notebook she gave me.”
“Mom, you do realize that my teacher is a sadist. By making you keep a record, she gets to succeed in her evil plan that no one can have fun with this experience.”
His mother replied, “All I know is that she said that you have the potential to become a great musician and get into the finest music academy if I get you to practice.”
“I’m guessing,” Charlie retorted, “that the jelly beans are supposed to be the incentive to get me to become this virtuoso on violin and horn.”
“It worked for your sister.”
“My sister is only FOUR YEARS OLD!” Charlie continued, “And if I only had to play Twinkle and Mississippi Hot Dog, I’d practice too!”
“Well, you’re more advanced than she is. Now go and do your practice and I”ll start the timer.” You could tell that Charlie’s mother was getting annoyed.
“Whatever,” he sighed.
And that began the grueling 30 minutes of practice. First, there were warm-ups, then scales, followed by the pieces that he had been assigned. If only there had been a way for him to play the two instruments at the same time, he could be done in 15 minutes and then say his 30 minutes were up.
Charlie was somewhat gifted in music. He had taught himself a number of instruments with no instruction. It was said he had an ear for music. He could hear a tune and then figure out how to play it. His biggest problem was that having an ear for music wasn’t helping him in the pieces that he was assigned. He always was given the 2nd and 3rd parts, meaning that he rarely got the melody parts to play. And since the tunes were not familiar tunes, he was just practicing notes and rhythms.
As practice ended and both the tuba and violin were put away on the shelf. He stared at the jelly beans just sitting there on the table and shelf as his reward. As he spread the jelly beans out across the table with the instruments just sitting there, these lyrics came into his head.
Jelly bean, Jelly bean, come hither and play
The songs you’ve been practicing on this very day.
You’ll be a great player and famous to all
Just keep up your practice and stand very tall
Your teacher has said so; your mom keeps the time.
But despite all you tempt me, this music’s a crime.
Don’t think I’m not willing to play on my own
Though preference for me is to play on my phone.
Until tomorrow…
