New Piano Solo: Onward
When something bad happens, it’s a natural tendency to make sense of it. Our 25-year old son Carter was struck by a boat on Thanksgiving day, 2019. The boat’s three propellers severely injured both legs, missed a major nerve in his left (dominant) hand and severed his right arm just above the elbow.
So, in my case, “making sense of it” meant going back in time before the accident where Carter was playing the piano with two hands. Being 25, he’s just old enough NOT to have a parent that took videos of every moment (important or not) with a smart phone. So, there are only precious few videos for me to cherish.
[To learn more about Carter’s recovery, please visit his Caring Bridge site at this link: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/carterviss/journal]
Swiping through the photo app on my phone, I knew I wouldn’t find many videos of Carter playing the piano as he lives in Florida and I only see him about twice a year. My texts are flooded with photos of Carter but, they’re of him beaming while holding a fish he just caught.
I was urging Carter to send me a video or two of him playing his Chopin or Beethoven on his newly purchased digital piano but that had not happened before Thanksgiving Day. In my search weeks after the accident, I recalled that Carter had composed and recorded four original pieces, one for each year of his high school career for a senior-year project. It had been uploaded to my YouTube channel.
Watch his full senior project video below.
So, I downloaded the video from my channel and exported the the Mp3 file into an app called Anytune that slows down music files without changing the pitch. Next, I labelled all the sections of his piece in the app and played and looped sections over and over at a lower speed until I could play the first of his four pieces by ear. I did this at night during Carter’s 68-day stay in the hospital on his digital piano while we stayed at his one-bedroom apartment. Just feet away from the piano, my husband Chuck somehow managed to watch the Australian Open with the magic of Roku. I won’t forget those nights in Carter’s small, slightly sandy apartment.
A screenshot of Anytune on my iPad.
After Carter was discharged from the hospital, it was decided that my husband would stay with Carter in Florida and I would return home to my studio, my church job and the rest of our family in Colorado. On my return, I felt that Carter’s piece had appeal and others may like to play it. So, I notated it at Noteflight.com—my notation platform of choice for my work and for my students use, too. I asked my youngest son Levi if he’d like to learn to play it and as you can see in the video below, he mastered it.
Levi practicing.
Both Carter and Levi play all the repeated “As” in the right hand. My notation of the piece redistributes most of them to the left hand which may be easier to manage for some pianists.
Carter didn’t have an official title for this piece besides “Freshmen Year” so Levi and I chose “Onward.” We thought it fit well with how most freshmen feel in high school—ready to move on. In addition, it’s a word that reminds us of our entire family. Carter is moving onward with incredible strength and because he is, we all are, too.
And, as this is being released during the world’s battle with COVID-19, “onward” seems an appropriate response for all of us as we power through this unprecedented time.
Listen to Levi playing “Onward” in the video below
All proceeds from the sale of Carter’s piece “Onward” will go to Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) as long as they remain closed due to COVID-19. LMC rescues, rehabilitates and then releases sea turtles and it’s where Carter works in Operations. The entire staff at LMC has been key to Carters’ onward attitude and rapid recovery.
