Ch-ch-changes...

It's amazing how much of the important stuff never gets written down, or ends up scattered across half-empty notebooks, dead laptops, and various internet forums.

A year and a half ago I was happily involved in learning piano, until I quit smoking, after which I suffered  a severe and persistent deficit of musical motivation. Even a year later, I was experiencing periods of active revulsion from my instrument.

Now, at last, I think I've finally gotten over it. Playing piano is fun again, in fact more fun than it's ever been before -- it's as much fun as I've always thought playing music would be (yet it never quite was...). My inner critic, who used to growl discouraging things like "This is hopeless, that doesn't even sound like music!" has changed his tune to quasi-positive comments like,  "Not bad, with a bit of polishing that might be worth recording :) "

Yes, you saw it. My inner critic even smiled at me.