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Musical Updatia
Monday night, I relearned two of my own works for guitar: A Rose in Winter Fields (which has a vocal component) and the short little instrumental with the long title: Anansi's Song: A Spider's Lullaby. Also recalled the arrangement of Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King from his incidental music for Peer Gynt.
Practiced those three tunes, along with the melodies of A Jug of This and Scarborough Fair. The arrangement of Simple Gifts is getting, well, simpler, and is almost coming close to sounding good in places. I've been spending a little time on scalar and arpeggio practice, as well as a few minutes (or more) of improv.
I did play around with turning the A Jug of This melody into a song - whether I go further with those ideas or try a different tactic to create a playable tune, I don't yet know.
From a technical standpoint, while I'm neither quite as fast nor as accurate as in the past, I'm not nearly as far off the mark as I had thought. The instrument makes a great deal of a difference: on the acoustic, with its six-mile-high action and fat neck, squeezing a decent sound out is a challenge. With the 540P, I'd have to say that with the natural aging of certain abilities, I'm probably a better player now then ever before.
Why am I doing this now, when I have "better" things to do? Is Nero fiddling while Rome is burning?
I've never stopped listening as a musician, so while I can't say that music hasn't remained a part of my life, it needs to retain its core position. Everything in life that means anything is music; everything else is just noise.
Justin really shows an interest - and a talent - in the musical department. However, he sets it aside for many distractions. If I'm making music, I'm more likely to encourage him to make music - even during the times when we're not working on songs together. And when we do work on a song together, there's even more benefit for both of us. There's also the opportunity to teach him more about harmony, orchestration, and arranging as he works through writing a tunes.
Rachel and Brandon both enjoy listening - requesting that I play far more often than I play on my own. For every minute that practicing music takes me away from my kids, and the things I should allegedly be focused on, there's at least a minute of rapt listening, joyful dancing, smiling and watching, or gleeful strumming on their part. I'm sorry - how, exactly, is that neglecting my children?
There is also a selfish reason behind it: you see, my memory retention has taken a hit over the past few years. A combination of things, including high blood pressure, medications, and a deliberate dumbing down in response to feedback that I answer questions too quickly (so people think I haven't thought about them) and that I seem to have answers for everything. So in addition to whatever medical and pharmacological factors might - or might not - be having an effect, I've been purposefully trying to hold as little in my head as possible: I made Dory from Finding Nemo my ideal. Keeping all those tunes straight in my head is a way to work on my memory, and increase my abilities.
Musical To-Do List:
Practiced those three tunes, along with the melodies of A Jug of This and Scarborough Fair. The arrangement of Simple Gifts is getting, well, simpler, and is almost coming close to sounding good in places. I've been spending a little time on scalar and arpeggio practice, as well as a few minutes (or more) of improv.
I did play around with turning the A Jug of This melody into a song - whether I go further with those ideas or try a different tactic to create a playable tune, I don't yet know.
From a technical standpoint, while I'm neither quite as fast nor as accurate as in the past, I'm not nearly as far off the mark as I had thought. The instrument makes a great deal of a difference: on the acoustic, with its six-mile-high action and fat neck, squeezing a decent sound out is a challenge. With the 540P, I'd have to say that with the natural aging of certain abilities, I'm probably a better player now then ever before.
Why am I doing this now, when I have "better" things to do? Is Nero fiddling while Rome is burning?
I've never stopped listening as a musician, so while I can't say that music hasn't remained a part of my life, it needs to retain its core position. Everything in life that means anything is music; everything else is just noise.
Justin really shows an interest - and a talent - in the musical department. However, he sets it aside for many distractions. If I'm making music, I'm more likely to encourage him to make music - even during the times when we're not working on songs together. And when we do work on a song together, there's even more benefit for both of us. There's also the opportunity to teach him more about harmony, orchestration, and arranging as he works through writing a tunes.
Rachel and Brandon both enjoy listening - requesting that I play far more often than I play on my own. For every minute that practicing music takes me away from my kids, and the things I should allegedly be focused on, there's at least a minute of rapt listening, joyful dancing, smiling and watching, or gleeful strumming on their part. I'm sorry - how, exactly, is that neglecting my children?
There is also a selfish reason behind it: you see, my memory retention has taken a hit over the past few years. A combination of things, including high blood pressure, medications, and a deliberate dumbing down in response to feedback that I answer questions too quickly (so people think I haven't thought about them) and that I seem to have answers for everything. So in addition to whatever medical and pharmacological factors might - or might not - be having an effect, I've been purposefully trying to hold as little in my head as possible: I made Dory from Finding Nemo my ideal. Keeping all those tunes straight in my head is a way to work on my memory, and increase my abilities.
Musical To-Do List:
- Guitar:
- Smooth out the Requiem transcription
- Keep playing A Jug of This and Scarborough Fair
- Work on The Old Dun Cow melody
- Do something with A Jug of This
- Don't let A Rose in Winter Fields escape (again (again (again!) !) !)
- Flute:
- Find the book - or an online chart - so you can figure out which note is which
- See if you can manage A Jug of This
- Recorder:
- Pay attention to what notes it's capable of!
- Try A Jug of This if it's possible (transcribe if needed)
- Chanter:
- Limited number of notes. Figure out what's possible out of the tunes already grabbed.
- Find a simple one, learn on guitar first
- Violin:
- Find a string shop - see if it's worth repairing
- Maybe restring anyway, and get a cheap bow
- Hammered Dulcimer:
- Stop by a shop and get a piece of corian already
- Reassemble stand
- Figure out where you put the hammers "so they'd be easy to find"