Still Angsting After All These Years

     The night before last I lay awake in the middle of the night angsting.  I was angsting about chord progressions. Specifically the progression of the chords in the song “Take My Breath Away,” the theme from the movie “Top Gun”:  C, C Maj 7, Am; C, C Maj 7, F; Dm, D min 7,  G, G7; C, CMaj 7, F, G, C.
     I chose these chords to ruminate on because the following day was my piano students’ spring recital, and, “Take My Breath Away” being one of the songs I was performing, I figured if I was going to angst in the middle of the night I might as well angst productively.
       After a while I stopped thinking about chords and started thinking about minutes. I always think about minutes before my students’ recitals. I like to know how many minutes a recital will run so once the performances start I won’t feel like glancing at my watch, angsting and wondering whether the recital will run too long or too short.

      To this end before the recital I timed each student’s piece several times,

​...and my own.

    One less recital detail to angst about.
    And so, in the wee hours of recital day I thought about the minutes, mentally listing each piece and its length, adding up the minutes in my head one more time. Six students plus me with pieces ranging in length from one to eleven minutes, still adding up to thirty-five minutes total. I finally fell back to sleep.,
    And the next day, despite all my pre-recital angsting, I managed to arrive at our venue, Graves Recital Hall, in time,

…as did all my students, who were able to warm up in the practice area,

​…or, if they wished, on the Steinway concert grand they’d be performing on.

    And, as always, the excitement of my students was a cure for my own nerves.
   And I remembered my chord progressions, everyone's pieces were lovely and calmly executed,

...and all the minutes added up.