One of the things that I wanted to do as a New Year’s resolution was get back to playing the piano. By “piano”, I mean, some form of keyboard; I’ve neither the money or the space for an actual piano at this stage in my life. At one point in my mid-20s I was taking piano lessons while I had a Fender Rhodes in our 650 square apartment, learning simple jazz standards and trying to not be such a drummer stereotype. During December 2009, I’d been eyeing a chepo-o Casio at the local Toys R Us on while shopping for the boy’s birthday presents and the kids’ Christmas presents. At $100, I couldn’t really go wrong if it turned out that I was far too busy to stick with the notion of playing again.

During the pre-Christmas run up, I’d been walking along Queen St. West when I happened upon a fairly new storefront: The Toronto Institute for the Enjoyment of Music; music lessons offered. In the back of my mind, I was going to visit this place early in the New Year.

So, I bought the keyboard and signed up for lessons. After about six weeks now, things are starting to happen again. I’m falling back into thinking about scales, modes, fingering exercises, etc.

My other new year’s resolutions included doing one Max/MSP tutorial a day (soon, soon); reading all of the Marshall McLuhan I can mentally digest; start learning French (I say “start learning” as I’ve never been fluent past elementary school); enroll back at the University of Toronto this summer; get down to my ideal weight by June (a milestone birthday coming); WRITE!

We shall see.

First “composition” using Max/MSP: three separate patches playing random piano notes. It’s nice to be able to get this kind of instant gratification whilst learning the fundamentals.