My Afterglow Moment: Bach vs. Lupe Fiasco

My Afterglow Moment is a series where staff writers and editors share their favorite music-related memories.

Written by Dylan Keesee

Picture this: it’s 2011, Drake just dropped Take Care, and all an eighth grade boy wants to do is pretend to know heartbreak and listen to "Marvin’s Room." Instead, he has to go to piano lessons once a week and focus all his energy on learning “Solfeggietto” by C.P.E. Bach.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mind playing the piano and going to the weekly lessons, but I had other important eighth grade things to attend to (such as perfecting the John Wall dance and remembering to put on deodorant). Nonetheless, my mom always made me go to lessons and tried to make me practice at least twice a week. I would have still practiced at least twice a week even without her pushing me, thanks to the woman who taught me piano.

Mrs. Greene was a fairly young woman who never seemed to struggle playing any piece. Her fingers danced across the keys without any hesitation as she would play an unfamiliar song for the first time, never failing to amaze me. She was not only talented, but a wonderful person as well, breaking the well-worn stereotype of the mean, old piano teacher. I think that’s what made me feel so bad for only practicing twice a week; she would genuinely be disappointed in me. Though Mrs Greene was too nice to say she was disappointed, it would still show on her face. Still, being a snot-nosed 13-year-old, I continued on my path of laziness.

I kept up this low effort game for a while until, one day, she confronted me about it. She sat me down and asked me why I had plateaued in my progress of learning my pieces. Startled by the confrontation, I lashed out and told her that none of the songs I was learning interested me–– that all I wanted to learn how to play was “The Show Goes On” by Lupe Fiasco. She was clearly hurt that I wasn’t enjoying myself, but she handled it with grace.

Mrs. Greene asked me why I liked the Lupe Fiasco song and why I didn’t like C.P.E. Bach. Of course, my first answer was, “Because Bach is a dead, old guy and Lupe Fiasco isn’t.” But when she asked me to dig deeper I realized that I didn’t really have a reason for not liking Bach, and that I liked “The Show Goes On” because it was catchy but knew I’d get over it in a few weeks.

When I told her this, she said, “That’s the thing Dylan, I think you like both of them, but you only want to learn the new song because it feels more relevant. Both of these artists put an immense amount of effort into their art and have produced something people want to listen to and build on.” At that moment, something clicked inside me and, whether it was Bach or Lupe Fiasco, I was grateful for the world’s music.

Since then, music has been a constant in my life that I could always turn to. And whether it be Nat King Cole, Frank Ocean, or Gunna, I have always appreciated the work it took to make that art.