Etude in Eb Major

Welcome back to Tea with Liya! Today, I'm playing a classical song composed by Frederic Chopin called "Etude #11." Chopin was one of the three well-known composers of the time period in which this song was written. These three piano players also happened to have bigger hands than mine, which makes it harder for me to play songs like this one. But why shouldn't you push yourself to the edge of whatever limits you have? I hope you like listening to this song!


Listen to the song here
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Remember how I said that there's always a limit to how far your hand can reach? If you've ever tried to play a song like this one, you've probably seen a real example of that fact. Or maybe you haven't, because you're the one that has big enough hands, and I'm the one who's trying to play all of these songs. 

But what if I have to stretch my hands across all of the large intervals, and you don't? Does that mean I shouldn't learn any more songs?

If there's a limit to how far I can go, then should I stay as far away from that limit as possible? By doing that, I'm only limiting myself more, and by saying that I shouldn't learn any more songs, I'm turning a limit into an untraversable barrier.

But what if I decided, "Okay, I know that there's certain things I can't do, but I don't have to be stopped by that. Instead, I should be looking at what I can do." I might not be able to play an 11th, but that doesn't mean I should avoid learning a song because it has large intervals in it. Maybe I could find another way to play the 11th so that I don't need to stretch my hand.

It's easy to look at what we can't do and come up with excuses for why we shouldn't challenge ourselves. But in some cases, challenging yourself could help you to get rid of the limit. For example, if I wanted to sing a song that had notes in different ranges, the more I practiced it, the higher I would be able to sing. I don't think that happens when you're playing the piano (look, you've played this song for 3 weeks, and now your hands are 5% bigger!), but if you take the time to practice, you can find a way to work around the limit.

So I can't play those 11-note intervals, but what if I practiced playing 8ths and 9ths? If I stopped at the first interval that looked big, I'd never see how far I could go. 

Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay

And if you decided not to fill your teacup because you didn't have enough time, or you didn't know what to listen to ... you'd never know what songs you could have found.

Keep filling your teacup with music!
~Liya