2. play 10 Jon Schmidt songs in a performance setting

Today I went uninvited to the hospital atrium, plunked myself down at their Yamaha grand, and played for a couple of hours. "Impressive," you say. "There are enough songs in your repertoire to cover a couple of hours?" No. Really there aren't. The two hours were filled by inelegant repetition. I was there to practice playing for persons who are not me. It was an hour before I was calm enough to play without fumbling for the notes. I went through everything I had at least twice - once to break it in, and another to satisfy the piece. The nice thing about the atrium is the nomadic audience. They drift through, maybe stop to eat at the cafeteria, and then march off. You could run the same five songs over and over and they would still be fresh to everyone but the woman at the Information desk. I played until I felt done, happily disregarding the time and repetitions it took to get there.

So . . . while leaving the atrium I recollected that playing every song I have in practice means playing mostly Jon Schmidt. I played eleven of his pieces today while an audience of vagabonds floated by. Have I accidentally completed item 2? Does that count as a performance? I was playing for those people. It's not my fault they didn't pause to listen.

Except. Some of them did stop and sit for a while. Five or six people left thanks or compliments. One woman applauded, another lady sat and cried through four pieces and hugged me goodbye, and one guy dropped a toonie on the piano while telling me I have beautiful fingers. Those ones were listening.

This was not what I anticipated when I made the goal. I thought it would be harder, something I chewed through one piece at a time. Since nothing is stopping me from finding other performance settings, I'm going to say this counts anyway.

The songs:

1. I Do
2. Hymn of Spring
3. Song of the Ocean
4. Morning Light
5. Prelude (My Little Girl)
6. First Run
7. To the Summit
8. Hymn of Nature
9. All of Me
10. Waterfall
11. Winter Wind

The atrium was too fun to break into only once. I'm going back in a few days for more public practice. Who knows? If I get real comfy it could become a place to practice voice as well.