Tell Me A Story – “You missed a B♭.”

Tell Me a Story Challenge :

Choose a person.  Then do any or all of the following:

• Make a list of the top ten stories about this person, a word or phrase will do.
• Choose one story and tell a compelling, short version that will interest your family members in one minute or less.
• Tell a more detailed version of that story including photos if you have them.

Note:  You can read about my inspiration behind this challenge here.  I’ve decided to reverse the order in my post.  If you are reading this, you like stories so I’ll start with the full story, then the bite-sized story to hook my family members, then the list of ten stories.

My grandmother was very musically talented.  She played the piano, sang, and played the violin.  When she was young she was involved in various performing groups and performed as a soloist.

By the time I came along she had poor health and her musical talents were limited to sharing with her family.

I started playing the piano when I was four.  My Grandma was always one of my biggest fans.  She would sit and listen to me play for as long I would play for her.  She often pulled out her tape recorded and recorded me so she could listen again later.

When I was in college I regularly visited my grandparents.  One weekend when I was visiting, I gave them a little concert.  Well, a long concert actually.  Grandma was recording and they were both relaxing with their eyes closed, listening.  After a while I ran out of songs I had perfected but Grandma wasn’t done listening, so I moved on to some less polished material.  During a particularly difficult section of music I hit a bum note and my Grandma sleepily said, “You missed a B♭.”

“You missed a B♭?!”

I knew she was talented but I had NO IDEA she had perfect pitch!  She was so apologetic for correcting me and went on and on about how beautifully I play and she didn’t mean to criticize and so on.  I think she had gotten a bit sleepy, let her guard down, and spoke before she thought.

I still can’t get over it.  My Grandma was so much more talented than I had ever realized.  Not only did she notice my mistake but she knew exactly what note I should have played.

I wonder if it had been painful to listen to me when I was younger.  How many times did she smile, praise, and bite her tongue?

One Minute Story

My Grandma was very musically talented.  One time when I was playing a song for her I hit a bum note and she said, “You missed a B♭.”

Top Ten Stories List for Grandma

• Cabbage Patch Dolls, Pound Puppies, can stools, quillos, and more!
• The movie file
• Identical feet
• “You missed a B♭.”
• Road map brain – travel map trip
• Our last lunch
• The Last Christmas Party
• “I really need to write these things down…”
• Pouring over her scrapbooks
• Grandpa’s bracelet, grandma’s curls
• “So this is Margaret, so this is Margaret.”
• Two VCRs