Rainbow Hands

Learning Piano With Grace

I’m watching my daughter practice piano when she does this thing with her hands as she plays chords. The hands come up and arc over or down the keys and then land again. It’s surprisingly graceful.

“What’s that thing you do with your hands?” I ask.

“What do you mean?” she asks.

I make the movement with my hands in the air.

“Oh,” she says, “that’s called rainbow hands.”

Rainbow hands.

I wasn’t able to find anything online that illustrates or talks about this particular hands movement, but watch any classically trained pianist and you’ll see it. In fact, you’ll never watch Liberace again without thinking, Rainbow Hands.

She’s preparing for her big recital next week at the senior living center. She tells me she’s going to be playing five songs! That seems like a lot, but she says she’s not worried. One of those songs where she’s using her Rainbow Hands is called “River Dolphins,” my favorite of her set - a gentle, tinkly song about actual pink dolphins that live in the Amazon.

She doesn’t seem nervous at all about a concert, in fact wants to bring a couple friends with her to the show. I suspect the most nerve-wracking part of the gig is going to be finding something nice for her to wear.

I’ll write about my own Boy Scout guitar gig one of these days. I suppose I wasn’t nervous either, though I also wasn’t any good.

Meanwhile she runs through the song a couple times, her hands floating above the keys like little rainbows, and it strikes me as amazing that my daughter appears to know how to play piano. When did that happen?

“Want to hear the next song?” she asks.

“Of course!”

She tears into a version of “Hot Cross Buns” and I’m not even sure Rainbow Hands can help with that one!