You’ve heard that quote before…..which simply means that something that one person considers worthless may be considered valuable by someone else. It’s the same with music. One person’s ear sore maybe someone else’s masterpiece.

One day, quite a while back, I was playing what I thought to be a beautiful piece. It began a bit unusual and tad monotonous, but only at the beginning and then developed into a flowing, gorgeous piece. I was only at the beginning of the song, when this small, elderly woman slowly approached me. She stood very close behind me, as if she was looking at the music I was playing. I could feel her breath on the back of my neck. I said hello to her, expecting that she was going to tell me how pretty the music was, but instead, she said to me in a very nasty tone, “I would think……..that you could find something better to play than this trash!” I was horrified! I tried to explain as my fingers continued; telling her that I try to play a variety of music and that maybe the next song would be more to her liking. But she didn’t say another word, she just walked away.

It was very upsetting to me and it made me nervous that she would say something so horrible to me. I began to doubt if this song was as melodious as I thought. I continued to play with as much feeling as I could muster to possibly try to make up for how hideous I was beginning to think this song was.   I was starting to believe what this woman had said to me!

As I was playing the last line of music, thankful that this debacle was almost over, I noticed a tall, dark and handsome man (no kidding) coming quickly down the escalator straight ahead. He was coming towards me. Trying not to lose my concentration and to continue playing with feeling, I came to the end of the song and hit the last note just as this man reached the piano. I seriously thought he was going to tell me that it was a hideous song and I was actually going to apologize to him for the calamity piece I chose to play, but before I could speak he asked me, “What was the name of that piece?” I timidly told him the name and he said that it was the most beautiful piano piece he had ever heard! I couldn’t believe it! He continued to go on and on about it asking questions about the composer, if he could purchase it on CD, if there were other songs like it, etc.

I thought about this the rest of that day and continue to think about it to this day, amazed at how people can look at things and hear things so differently. I guess the world would be a pretty boring place if we all liked the same things!

Aren’t you wondering what piece I was playing??