Watch this. Just...watch it.

Brought to my attention courtesy of Instapundit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYpyLzORfP0

Friday Afternoon Ragtime

I'm listening to a Scott Joplin CD of ragtime piano.  I love that kind of music.  It's just beautiful to listen to, but also I know--having spent years learning the piano--just how much skill it takes to play it so well and make it sound so easy.  Alas, I haven't played seriously in years, and have only fiddled around a little on my mom's piano on visits to Virginia.

snippy and I visited a friend of hers this past weekend who happens to own a piano and play.  She has a book of Joplin's ragtime music.  I looked at the music and realized...I can't read it anymore.  Once upon a time I had memorized The Entertainer.  I could play the whole thing.  Now I look at the music and I can't even read it, much less play it.

Oh, with some practice--starting on simpler stuff--it would come back to me fairly quickly.  But I don't own a piano or even have access to one, and while I miss being able to play this stuff, I also know I probably wouldn't spend a lot of time playing if I did have one.

I also own a banjo.  I once started taking banjo lessons many years ago, but stopped when I moved away from the area.  I've never gotten back to them.  But sometimes I think that if I want to take up an instrument again, I should learn to play that banjo.  I love listening to five-string banjo for the same reason I like ragtime--I like the sound of it but I also appreciate how much skill it takes to play stuff like Foggy Mountain Breakdown or Dueling Banjos well.

I'm in a very good mood this afternoon.  One might even say "unaccountably" good except that I know exactly why.  I got a promotion and a raise at work today.  I expected some kind of raise, but it was considerably more than I expected (the promotion bumped me into a higher wage range, which was the whole point of the exercise).  So I'm very pleased.

It's a great way to start the weekend.