Beginnings 15

doing that means preparing all along the course to reach thegoal in productional form.

The experienced hand lifts off of A, and as it moves towardB it changes its configuration as a smooth and not jerky unfold-ing. No sooner does a liftoff from A occur than the movementis already toward all of B, a proper transition requiring thatmanifold realignments of the hand occur simultaneously.

Adherence to a steady pulse is a critical resource. With anupcoming time of arrival preestablished by former beats, oneknows just when to reach B, having lifted off from A.

Fluent chord production for song play must meet otherrequirements, for it’s not enough to grab chords cleanly, or onlyto move smoothly in tempo from one to the next. To play asong well, one can’t do more than peripherally monitor the key-board, if at all, to handle chord transactions. At the outset, andfor some while for beginners—the more so the more complexthe sequence and rapidly changing the chords—one must fairlyclosely survey the left side in order to move from place to place.But before songs are well played, and surely before one can tryimprovised melodies, one must transcend this tilted viewing.

Looking’s work load progressively lightens for finding dis-tances, the gaze at the keyboard progressively diffuses in func-tion, as places gradually become places toward which theappreciative fingers, hand, and arm are aimed. As I reached forchords (and reaching for chords in song contexts alwaysinvolves reaching for recurring patterns of them), I was gaininga sense of their locations by going to them, experiencing a rateof movement and distance required at varying tempos, therebydeveloping an embodied way of accomplishing distance.

Our symmetrical stance toward settings is striking. Sit downat a dinner table and, without thinking about it at all, pull yourchair up to eat. Your nose is most likely exactly over the centerof the dinner plate. Go before a bathroom sink to wash your