Still Got It

“Prodigies can very quickly learn what other people have already figured out; geniuses discover that which no one has ever previously discovered. Prodigies learn; geniuses do.” - John Green, An Abundance of Katherines


Procrastination is a very fine art. Anyone can do it, but only a select few can do it well. One sign of an expert procrastinator is convincing yourself that you're doing something productive and useful. Example: writing a (hopefully) interesting blog post while you should be answering the last question of a book report.


My dad decided to get out his alto saxophone this evening. The last time it was played was over the summer, when my sister was learning so that she could join concert band in the fall (she ended up playing piano in the jazz band instead). He's played less than 10 times that I can remember in my entire life.
I asked him why he was playing, and he said it was because now he can use Garage Band to accompany him, which makes it more fun.


I always hoped thought that it was my mom's clarinet that was the magic good-spouse-attractor.
It turns out that I was wrong. He sounds really good when he's not playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.


(Oh, the things that band parents do for their kids.)


So I went upstairs to compliment him, and it turns out that not only is he playing really well, but he's also improv-ing the entire thing. For you non-music/drama people, that means he's making it up as he goes.


Can we say "jealous"? Yes we can.
This is the man who can't sight-read to save his life and takes over a year to learn one piece of piano music, but can still play it near-perfect 30 years after the fact. That doesn't seem analogous to good improv...