Have you ever thought that you can rediscover something about yourself?  I’m still on that process but I never knew that I could achieve to play the piano.  Yeah….I have a bachelors in music education but I could never learn how to play the piano.  Strange, huh?

Well….here’s the sad story.  When I started studying music more than 20 years ago, the only instrument that I could play, like a beginner, was the guitar.  I had taken private lessons with a teacher and I learned basic chords.  I used that knowledge to play the guitar at church.  It was useful at that time.

When I started studying music to achieve a degree, my focus was on singing and theory/solfege.  Well, in the theory classes that I took, I gained a lot of knowledge about harmony, major, minor, augmented and diminished chords.  I had all that knowledge and I could see it in the piano but I could never play it to accompany someone or even myself.

My piano lessons were limited to scales and playing while reading the music.  So I did learn the major, minor, diminished and augmented scales.  I learned to read music and play it, after practicing like 100 hours, of course!  I was never good at that, honest.  All of this instruction can’t help you play in the secular world, unless you know how people do it “in the streets”.

A good musician knows how to play by ear.  Even though I have good ear and I can imitate with my voice any sound I hear….when it had to do with the piano: I was totally blocked.  I felt like I had all these empty spaces in my head: insecurities and fear.  But I do love that instrument.  It has always been a dream of mine to sing while playing the piano.

After studying music, completing my degree and seeing that my knowledge about the piano had not increased; I was resigned to think that I could never, ever, play the piano to accompany anybody.  Well….that was until last night.

I saw a video on YouTube about this young man teaching how to play Worship music by chords in the piano.  I watched the video several times and I watched it this morning again.  I memorized the coordination and movement of his hands.  I didn’t have to memorize the chords that he played because I already knew them by heart.  I even knew more chords than the young man who was teaching!

Well, I sat in front of my keyboard awhile ago.  My hand coordination was a little hazy at first, but then I was amazed at all the chords that I could play.  All I needed was the perfect rhythm and someone to point me in the right direction.  I was actually playing a song in the piano.  Now I feel more confident that I can actually do more in my music ministry.  I know that if I keep this up, I can play anything by ear.  Praise the Lord for that!

Sometimes we don’t know our own potential until we try to do something.  Maybe you have a hidden talent that you don’t know of, until you try doing something different.  Probably somebody asked you if you could teach a class, do some community service….but you were afraid to do it because it was out of your comfort zone.  Why don’t you challenge yourself and say “yes” for a change?

You might even surprise yourself for the things that you may be able to do.  All you need is someone to point you in the right direction.  Maybe it’s God himself using someone to tell you:  try it because I will help you and I will use you for My Glory.  He is the Giver of Talents, you know…

God Bless You and keep working on your talents.