Jason Mesches - Don't Know Much About Music

 

 

So, at my first piano lesson with Carl Lowell, he was my piano teacher, he said to me, “So, what songs do you want to learn how to play? What do you want to do?” I gave him a book that I had purchased with money that I had saved up, and I said, “I want to learn how to play Billy Joel.” He looked at me and he said, “Well, Billy Joel, he doesn't know too much about music now, do he?” [audience chuckles] I was six, but I was still like, “It’s Billy Joel.” 

 

I learned something at that first lesson. He looked at me dead in the eyes and he said, “If you're going to learn to play piano with me, you're going to learn the standards. You're going to learn the 1920s, you're going to learn the 1930s, you're going to learn the great American musical theater, and that's what we're going to learn.” And I said, “Okay, that's what we're going to learn.” I was fine with it, because I wanted to play like Carl, because I saw Carl play the piano, and he was amazing. He's the best piano player I've ever seen. 

 

But Carl was a very unconventional piano teacher. He couldn't see very well because he was very old. So, because he didn't read music, he didn't teach me how to read music. [audience laughter] We did everything by ear training and by learning chord structure and how chord progressions worked. And through that, I learned the standards. Even though he would just write down lead sheets on whatever he could find around, which was on papers, the back of receipts, I brought home pennies from heaven on the back of a paper towel. My parents still laugh about it to this day. 

 

The whole time, anytime I would bring him in something modern, something of my own, he'd say, “Yeah, well, they don't know too much about music now, do they?” That was a big line of his. He didn't like anything except for himself. [audience chuckles] It was fine, because throughout the years, I learned the standards, and I learned how to play jazz, and I really learned music. 

 

Fast forward, I'm with this guy for 12 years now, and it's my senior year of high school, and you had to do a senior project. My senior project was on George and Ira Gershwin. And I was like, “Yes, this is what I'm going to do.” There's a presentation part of the essay, and you had to do a PowerPoint or something. So, I was like, “I'm going to put together a medley. I'm going to do this big song of all the Gershwin hits. I'm going to have S' Wonderful, and Strike Up the Band and American in Paris, and it was this amazing thing. 

 

And my parents said to me, they were like, “You know, for your last lesson with Carl, you should play him the song. That's going to really make him feel good. He's going to send you off in the sunset with that, and you're going to make him feel great, like he really taught someone.” And so, I brought the song to Carl at my last lesson, senior year of high school. I was like, “Carl, I put together this song. It's this great medley. I'd really like to play it for you,” and I played it. And you know how when a figure skater, they land all their jumps and their twisties and they do it perfect, and Scott Hamilton's screaming his head off? It's amazing. 

 

They hit that final pose. They did it so well that they can only hold that final pose for a couple seconds and then they break down in tears, because they're so happy and that's what happened to me. [audience laughter] Because I played it and I nailed it. It was awesome. I knew it was good, because I had goose bumpies. And I also knew it was good, because Mrs. Lowell came running in from upstairs. She came running into the room and she said, “Oh, my God, Jason, that was you. I thought it was Carl for a couple minutes.” I knew that I nailed it, because she came in here and said that. I knew that I nailed it, so I looked at Carl. I said, “Mrs. Lowell said that,” and I knew it. He looked at me and he said, “Well, the wife don't know too much about music now, do she?” [audience laughter] 

 

And then, we were out of time. It was like 12 years of piano lessons, curtains down, and that was it. I was legit. I was bummed. Mrs. Lowell walked me into my car. She did that every lesson after I got my driver's license, because it was dark out. She walked me to my car and she said, “Jason, do you remember four or five years ago when Carl started cutting back on students as he was entering into retirement?” And I was like, “Yeah.” And she said, “I just thought that you should know that he only kept one.” I was just like the happiest guy. I had the figure skating goosebumps again. But I had to play it cool, because you had to act like you'd been there before, [audience laughter] and I was just like, “Oh, well, actually, Mrs. Lowell, he had to keep me.” And she said, “Why?” And I was like, “Well, he had a mission. I didn't know much about music.” She laughed, she said, “You get it. It was a nice song.” Thanks, guys.