I finally started to learn the first two measures of Bach’s Prelude in C minor BWV 847 today after deciding a few days ago that this is the composition I want play next. I had been learning to play BMV (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis) 846 Prelude in C major. I can play it technically, but as it is with Bach’s music you can spend a lifetime interpreting it.
Learning to play a new composition is like jumping into cold water. I tend to circle the pool and put off getting in. But once I finally make the leap, I can become fully immersed in and obsessed with whatever it is I am doing. I love being in this flow, a notion Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi‘s work centers on and that I find most pertinent particularly at this time.
The joy I find in learning to play the piano again as an adult has to do entirely with this notion of flow. Once I commit to the focus it requires, I find I can get totally lost in it. We all know how to get to Carnegie Hall, but I practice to get to into the flow.
À propos Brad Pitt in Inglorious Basterds, this exchange in German and Italian is one of the best, most funny scenes: Grazie. And arrivederci.