The sheer terror of forgotten piano notes! Playing the piano had occupied the lad's life during his entire childhood. Now, after a twenty year break, the lad, now full grown, ventured toward the piano to relive his childhood via some black dots on some manuscript paper. Then it happened. The dots did not make any cognitive sense.

The frustrated lad (now a bold, confused adult) pondered this newly disturbing circumstance. Suddenly, four penetrating questions popped up in the confused and outraged adult's mind:

1) Why do these notes make my face look so wrinkled and confused?

2) Why does this rhythm make me feel like smashing my head against the piano keyboard?

3) How do I stop myself from taking a complete temper tantrum due to my newly found lack of music reading abilities?

4) Who's the nearest person that I can take my newly found anger out on?

5) Why am I drooling?

It is true that a long break from music can make your reading ability exceedingly rusty, almost to the point that you feel like you are starting from stage one again. Of course, music skills will come back at a much quicker rate than having to learn notes from scratch. Still, it would be nice to avoid this type of frustration.

Like any language, reading or speaking it on occasion keeps, as it were, the machine oiled. Sitting down with your instrument every once in a while (even if it's every few months) is most certainly better than giving yourself a two decade break before realizing that playing an instrument is something that you should have kept alive.

The other occurrence of ‘forgotten piano notes' occurs in an even more heart-breaking manner. This phenomenon has to do with the vast world of mediocre in the music world. So many works from a variety of music genres are either forgotten or have never seen the light of day due to lack of quality or marketing.

This circumstance is true not only in music, but in literary writing. There is very little that is more heart-breaking than a well crafted piece of music or writing that, having had an excessive amount of blood and sweat poured into it by its author, is ignored and ultimately forgotten by the public.

Avoiding this scenario can be accomplished in a number of ways, including:

1) Praying for more talent.

2) Seeking out the best marketing means, especially if your work at hand is of quality.

3) Stealing someone else's work.

The latter is, of course, morally reprehensible, besides being illegal. If you are at the stage that you feel the need to steal other people's ideas, this is a sign that you are in the wrong profession. That message is a blessing. Imagine realizing at a young age that you've chosen a path that is not for you. With youth in your hands, you have a wonderful opportunity of changing your course, thus reducing the possibility of having your piano notes forgotten. Changing your direction in life could very well mean that those low quality piano notes will have never been composed in the first place.

However, before changing jobs, make sure that you really are not a composer. Seek out the opinion of professionals and have a good soul search. If, after searching, you find that your talents are perhaps in the restaurant business (maybe a chef), then go for it. Just make sure that your talents really lie in food, or you will soon be lamenting your forgotten recipes that you thought were masterpieces!