No story came through from the music at first, but gradually a little dog came into focus. I’d started gathering up my tuning tools and turned in surprise to look at the man. This wasn’t a little dog, it was a big dog. Chopin’s dog was based on some toy breed like a Maltese, but the one summoned by the young man was something larger and a little ungainly, more like an Akita or golden retriever. The tempo was too slow and the notes uneven, but it was clear that the young man, just like a boy or a little dog, was enjoying playing. Occasionally he’d bring his face close to the keyboard and appeared to be humming.

So there are dogs like this, too, I thought. And pianos like this.

Watching from the far side of the small room, I listened to the young man’s playing, with all its intensity of emotion, and when the piece ended I couldn’t help from breaking out in a heartfelt round of applause.

Music Is No Competition

Like people, each piano has an environment best suited to it. Pianos in a concert hall, resplendent and bold, dazzle us with their gorgeous, peerless sound. At least that’s what I thought. But who’s to say that they’re the most beautiful? Who decides that something is the cream of the crop?

Since that day, I’ve often recalled that young man in jogging bottoms who avoided my gaze. No one listened to him play and he sought no audience. My presence on that occasion was of no significance to him, but I was witness to the blossoming of his shuttered heart as he played. He enjoyed those frolics with the dog so much – the joyful embodiment of playing the piano.

A concert hall wouldn’t have worked. That particular piano was destined to wait in that little house for him alone to play. And that was fine. That quiet, solitary joy was not something you could appreciate in a large auditorium. This was a piano that allowed someone to smell the scent of a little dog and to stroke its soft fur – music at its most noble.

I could picture the person who had taught the young man to play, and how much he had relished the task. Music is there to help us enjoy life, not as a means to outdo everyone else. Even if you do compete and a winner is picked – the person who enjoys himself the most is always the real winner.