a little less than a year ago I bought my own keyboard, after wanting my own piano of some kind for years. it had been so long since I played and I really struggled to get going again, but nevertheless I was having a blast just playing and experimenting and whatnot.

but man, fast forward to now and with some dedicated, consistent practice I'm finding I can actually play some moderately difficult stuff (jazz, no less!) like this frankly gorgeous version of pure imagination by Bill Charlap, just, one of the all time greats. i'm still so, so, hopelessly far away from being a competent sight-reader and even further away from being a competent jazz improvisor (although I'm slowly re-learning the theory!) but still, it's so rewarding to sit down and play this and at least have maybe like, 1 in every 5 takes be a pretty clean run, albeit a little stunted. all of this I'm playing from memory because my brain does not like reading sheets on piano, and this is only about half the tune; I'll add the rest once I can memorize it.

if there's any one thing I've learned in my mid-twenties— a time when I otherwise feel SO MUCH like I'm constantly falling behind, I'm not putting out enough creative output, I didn't learn the skills or gain the clout I needed early enough to become an influential artist— it's that practice really does work. this alone is such a wonderfully tangible reminder to me that putting in a little time as consistently as you can is the best way to build up skill; that it truly isn't too late to become good; that you probably already know a lot more than you think you do. mostly it's just a matter of creating the conditions under which you have the freedom to practice— that's the tricky part, which I'm still (re-)figuring out for some other media like film.

anyway. I'm really proud of this; I hope you enjoy <3