As blatant as the title is, I *do* think my 365-days-of-playing-piano experiment was a good one. I wanted to devote at least 5 minutes a day to creative exploration musically — that is, ignore my inbox and disconnect from any stressors in life.

The good news is that I created 156 original songs of varying length, from a few minutes to more than 20, and I’ll always have them to enjoy. Because, hey, I’m not a trained pianist but I felt like they represented by emotions pretty closely.

Another great element of the experiment was that I developed the range of my left hand — I’m not even using the right verbiage here — so that it could carry a tune on its own. I mashed together crazy chords and brought them back to relative harmony. I tried to create new things that I hadn’t created before, and I didn’t judge myself too hard when I failed to be original.

Here are a handful of my particular favorites:

• Day 119: “Girl.” 5/23/11
• Day 106: “David.” 4/13/11
• Day 78: “An Ode to the Wind.” 2/19/11
• Day 64: “Thundersnow.” 1/26/11
• Day 53: “New favorite tune!” 1/14/11
• Day 31: “Gave in. Damp eyes followed.” 12/20/11

Overall, the piano on some days was (is) a cathartic experience. Just sitting there and letting my mind wander through the keys can be a powerful thing. I occasionally ended up crying for no apparent reason. I wouldn’t change a thing about those moments.

The bad news is that I only created 156 songs rather than 365, and most of them through June of this year. (Since June I’ve played very little. I could blame it on the whirlwind that is FastCustomer, but it’s entirely because I chose to spend more time in front of my computer or out at events than I did creating music. Period.)

So what’s next? Well, first up, re-commit. Maybe not 1-per-day commit, but “most days a week” commit. With or without blogging about ‘em, either.

That, I can do.

*shuffles off to piano*