Feeling: worthwhile
Listening to: Blue October - Angel
Reading/Watching: teaching guides, but of course

So a few weeks ago, I had a few students approach me about playing the piano for Evanescence's "My Immortal" so they could sing it for a talent show.

Since this is one of the few pop songs I know how to play and sing (that, a smidge of Sarah Mc, and a few random Tori pieces that I picked out by ear and butchered the arrangements on), I whipped it out as an attention-getter when I first started teaching there. It got the kids convinced that I knew something cool about music, and was occasionally my way of rewarding them when they did well and had some extra time at the end of the period.

So naturally I agreed, and she pulled out the stripped copy of a music book (I refrained from mentioning the illegal side of buying a book without a cover) for their live album Anywhere But Home. Since I only had the sheet music for Fallen (which Bri stole long ago), I flipped through it and had a girlygasm when I saw the piano part for "Breathe No More," a B-side I fell in love with years ago and could never pick out on my own.

I have since ordered a (legitimate) copy of the music, and am figuring it out on the little keyboard I have at home (I get a rush out of playing it on the school piano, but it's not exactly work-related). I love knowing just the opening sequence... Amy's great about writing in patterns, although this arrangement looks like it was transcribed from an actual live performance, so there's all kinds of abstruse improvs like non-chord tones on downbeats and funky splayed out broken sevenths (and wow, I just lost every single one of you, didn't I?), but I've been reducing it to simpler patterns and enjoying the singing very much.

This is especially exciting ever since I lost my mp3 of the acoustic version, and now just have the crappy electronica remix, which I think tosses off a lot of its depth for some ridiculous attempt at becoming a dance number ("I bleed, and I breathe no more! Let's boogie!").

Being able to play this song makes me feel capable, and musical again. It's a feeling I've been groping to hold onto for a long time. This gets filed under the Good column.

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