“Pause Your Piano Scales”
December 20, 2023
My biggest takeaway from a few years of piano lessons, is that my piano teacher, Bea Thomas, and her husband David, ate potatoes for dinner every Tuesday night. I knew this, because at some point in my Tuesday afternoon lesson, Mrs. Thomas would interrupt my scales and rendition of “Dan, Dan the Piccolo Man” and yell to her husband, “David, honey, turn on the potatoes!”
My Dad was greatly disappointed when I decided to pause my piano lessons, which by the way, had nothing to do with potatoes. I was simply more interested in other activities at school. He said I would be sorry down the road, and his prophecy has proven to be correct. I wish I had become more proficient in my playing, especially this time of the year when the music of Christmas is so beautiful. I have often pondered the pausing of my lessons, and I think my Dad did too because he would ask on occasion if I wished I could play the piano better than I do. Big smiles!
Ponder. Pause. These are words that appear over seventy times in the Book of Psalms, as the Hebrew word, “SELAH.” If a word appears that many times, it must be important. Selah is a musical term which indicates an interruption in the music, a suspension of the music, and a pause. For example, in Psalm 44:8 we read, “In God, we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah”
This is a good pause and not the kind of disappointing news my interruption in piano lessons gave to my dad. This pause is meant to direct the reader of the Psalm to stop and ponder the words of the verse preceding it—to ponder the great name of God which is worthy to be praised forever.
There is a story about another child who, like me, got bored with piano lessons and gave up on them. However, his story is quite different from mine in that he was taught to play the piano by his mother. She taught him the notes on the piano, the scales, the minor and major keys, but he wasn’t a particularly talented player. Then one day, the mother told her son, “The best news in the world can be found by playing a simple scale on the piano.”
He played an eight-note scale but failed to see the good news. So his mom said he needed to play it in the other direction, and he did, but still no good news. Finally the mother said, “You played it in the right way, but you needed to add the pauses.” Pauses? The son had no idea what she was talking about and it wasn’t until years later that he finally understood. His mother had told him to add pauses in the scale on the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th, and last note. And when he added the pauses, he heard the song, JOY TO THE WORLD, THE LORD IS COME.
Try it and you’ll find the best news in the world by simply pausing. Selah.
You may view the video of this story here—The Best News in the World