Satie on Hold

"I heard it as the hold music when I called the sushi restaurant I often order from."

That is how this student told me they chose the piece.

What an incredible way to discover it.

"I just really like this song,"
they thought, so they looked for the sheet music,
and decided to take on the challenge this time.

It is Satie's "Je te veux."

However.

This piece is
much harder to play than it seems.

Just listening to it,
it sounds so natural and familiar to the ear.

It is light,
elegant,
and flows effortlessly.

That is why
it sounds like it would be "easy enough to play."
But when you actually play it,

it is quite difficult.
What makes it difficult is,

first of all, this piece
is actually composed of three voices.
A melody on top.

A bass line on the bottom.

And in the middle,

there is a constant backing (rhythmic chords).
You have to

play these distinctly:

• Make the melody sing
• Create a flow with the bass
• Play the middle part with a light touch

And you have to
maintain that lightness of the 3/4 time signature.

This is what is truly difficult.
If you tense up even a little bit anywhere,

it suddenly becomes heavy.

Furthermore, the left hand
requires many octave jumps.

And,
the melody in the right hand tends to sound choppy without the pedal.

So the pedal is necessary, but
if you press it too much, the three voices become muddy.
Balancing this is also quite difficult.
That is why practice starts with
checking the horizontal flow of each voice part.

Melody alone, bass alone, inner voice alone—
you grasp the "song" of each before putting them together.

Because of this,
it is a piece where it is easy to think,

"The notes are right, but it sounds heavy,"

or "I can play it, but it doesn't flow pleasantly."
In this lesson as well,

the student gave a wry smile and said,

"It was much harder than I thought..."
But,

these "pieces that are harder than they look"

are quite common in adult piano.

And strangely enough,

the more you play such pieces, the more you get hooked.

I bet the sushi restaurant
never imagined they would create such an encounter.
#piano #adultpiano #pianobeginner #pianolesson #Satie #Jeteveux #adultshobbies #life with piano #note