"But it is evitable!"

I'm a little finicky when it comes to my piano.  It's a 1948 Baldwin baby grand, with a rich brown finish and the original ivories; I faithfully polish it every night after the final practice session like a jockey grooming his or her horse with devoted care and respect.  When she starts to go out of tune even ever so slightly, I panic like a first-time parent listening to their baby stop breathing in the middle of the night (thank you, Tim Minchin...) and call up my tuner ASAP.

I've worked with several tuners and technicians, of course, but the one I'm working with now, Yuri Melekh, is expensive and oh-so-worth it. Anyway, right after he finished tuning it (I was dancing a bit in anxiety because I had about 5 minutes to get out the door to head over to the fiddle concert I wrote about earlier), he did a little tinkering with some of the hammers, since Akari (that's her name) is getting on in years and her action is less than concert-grand-quality.  There was one note in particular, F4, which is so sensitive that I have to do nothing more than look at it and it goes WHAM right in the middle of a pp section.  Ah, c'est la vie.  Anyway, so after Yuri worked with it a bit, I tried it out, and it was better but not quite there.  Knowing that in order to get it just right, considerable technical work was needed, I commented, "Well...it's still a little off, but that's inevitable."

...Mistake.

Yuri got a strange look on his face and said, "But it is...evitable!"

Pause while both of us pondered if "evitable" is actually a word.  (It is, by the way.)

Anyway, that comment has stuck with me the past few weeks.  There are so many things that I brush off in my practice and say to myself, "It's inevitable", but it is evitable!  What I have to do is focus on the problem, figure out what it is, and hunt up a solution until it's fixed.  No excuses. 

Needless to say, I've had to slow down quite a bit as I realize what needs work and have to work on it.  A lot more thought is required.  But after all, the point is to play the music beautifully, not come up with reasons why I can't play it as well as I want.  If I want to sound good, I need to find out how and work at it until what I have in my mind is what I have in my fingers. 

If you're making excuses, you aren't looking for solutions.  End of story.

-G