The Piano
30(+1) Day Song Challenge Day 30: “A Song That Reminds You of Yourself”
Sometimes I can’t explain what I currently feel through words. I can’t even express it the right way. But, I find it easy to cope through those moments when my fingers dance through the piano’s monochrome keys. I think some feelings are best expressed through melodies. It’s funny; sometimes, I finally figured out what I felt after some time on the piano. I can read it clearly. The notes painted emotions like confusion, sadness, anger, anxiety, and excitement in unique ways. And it helps me understand myself, so I can finally put those feelings into words. With all that being said, there’s one song that makes my heart skip a beat when I listened to the words because I could relate to the words a lot. It’s (No One Knows Me) Like the Piano by Sampha.
I discovered this song by accident when I was listening to my Spotify picks. It was a weird feeling because I was riding a bike and was feeling very energetic but instead was given a mellow song by Spotify. But it wasn’t a bad thing at all, because I really enjoyed the song. The words hit me deep in the soul because it relates to me so well.
No one knows me like the piano in my mother’s home.
Okay, maybe that sounds a little exaggerated. Of course, a dead thing can’t understand the feelings of a living thing. But hey, it helped me sort out my feelings in a way most humans cannot. It’s like a part of my body. While we usually express feelings through our facial expressions, words, or body motions, the piano helps me express feelings through sounds. So that’s why the lyrics really hit me deep.
This song really talks about Sampha’s personal story with this piano in his mother’s home. It’s in no way the same as my story. I didn’t have a piano when I was three (And you dropped out the sky — Oh, you arrived when I was three years old). I feel like Sampha’s story is way different from the life I live (You know I left, I flew the nest — And you know I won’t be long). He might not see this piano in his mother’s house often, but I see it every day because I still live with mine. But there’s something else that I felt when I listen to this song. Something that caught my ears and somewhere in my soul.
It was the way Sampha played the piano in this song. It tells you a story. It really shows you how Sampha felt as he tells his story through the lyrics. It reminds me of how I can understand how I felt when I played the piano when I was alone and having an inner conversation. Even the way the lyrics were written out as. It made me think about the way I talk in my mind during that inner conversation.
So, it wasn’t really the personal story that makes me feel like, “Oh, yeah, that reminds me of myself.” Really, it was the way Sampha communicates his feelings through the piano. It’s how he chose the piano as a tool to “speak” to the world or just for himself.
I’m grateful that I came across this song on that random weekend; it feels nice to know that you’re not alone on something.
— Nathania S. Alexandra, 2021
