PA Shorts: How Charlie Brown Helped My Career
When I was in middle school I was asked to play a solo in the winter program. It was a big honor. My teacher and I worked hard on my piece until it was the best it could be. I looked forward to the event with the feverishness of a 13 year old during the weeks before Christmas.
One week before the program the teacher in charge of the program told me she was sorry, but I couldn’t play the solo I had prepared because someone else was playing it. I was devastated and took it quite personally because, although I couldn’t articulate it, I instinctively knew that power games were being played and I had lost. That teacher had known which piece I was preparing from the beginning.
My Dad took it personally too. He went to the school and told them how hard I had worked to no avail. OK, he probably said more than that. I wanted to quit but, at the same time, I was as mad as I was devastated. Dad said- What about that Charlie Brown tune you’ve been playing by ear?
I loved that tune. I had worked it out on my own and it didn’t belong to anyone else. I wasn’t sure I wanted to share it. But, Dad helped me to see that I could come out as a winner instead of a victim and walk out with my head held high. So, I worked on the Peanuts Theme for a feverish week. Although I wasn’t privy to this part until later, Mom told me that Dad made sure it wasn’t accidentally left off the program.
For the record, my performance was quite the hit. I got points for bravery and for a great tune- also for having been clever enough to figure it out without the music with no time to spare.
I think that was the day I became a musician. Because that is what musicians do isn’t it? Real musicians take adversity and turn it into opportunity. And, we don’t whine or complain about it (although it might eventually become an amusing story or even a blog post.)
I wrote a letter about the experience to Charles Shultz and thanked him for the inspiration. I got a personal reply and the signature of the man himself. Of course, today I realize that I should have written to Vince Guaraldi. His scores to the Peanuts Gang opened up the world of jazz to me.
All these years later, I don’t have a clue what the piece I had worked so hard to prepare was, but I can still play the tune from Charlie Brown.
The Piano Guys surprise some nursing home residents with their rendition of the Peanuts Theme
I must have been under a rock because I just discovered the heat miser song on Pandora this season! It made me laugh.
Back to middle school: I had been fooling around with the tune for a while so I had to polish it and make sure it had a form that made sense. Of course I didn’t think of it as form then.
” … having been clever enough to figure it out without the music with no time to spare.
I think that was the day I became a musician.”
I’ve never worked under a time constraint like that, but I feel the same way about composing and working things out myself by ear. When I became a real musician — which happened relatively recently! — is when I ceased to be mute on my instrument just because someone else hadn’t told me what to say.
Amazing for you to have worked that piece out and prepped it with only a week to do it! That and the “Heat Miser/Snow Miser” song from “The Year Without a Santa Claus” I think will always bring the house down. 🙂