I immediately got out this sea turtle. I love sea turtles. Well, anything to do with the ocean.
Category: Music
I have to admit that three furry babies take a lot of time and energy. Even when they are the best audience and supportive friends. I’m surprised at my slow progress on everything.
See what I mean?
So here is the best of my Warts and All. Please don’t feel obligated to listen. I know it’s still way slow and bumpy. I am enjoying learning bluesy songs. Classical is predictable; key signatures make sense, rhythms aren’t wonky. Sure, I still make mistakes but I understand why. Modern, blues, jazz I understand in theory but my hands don’t get it sometimes. It doesn’t flow. Modes instead of major and minor throw me off. The one and three beats of classical are now the second and fourth as main beats. Sorry. A lot of excuses for why I’m not perfect. My purpose of this blog and YouTube is to veer away from perfection that is in our faces everyday. So here is God Bless The Child.
Bless you!
One of my favorite things to do in life is to sing. All my life!
When I was a kid on the swing I was singing. My favorite swinging songs was To Dream the Impossible Dream.
I set up classmates to reinact the Wizard of Oz. Somewhere Over the Rainbow is still a favorite. I’m teaching myself a new version to play so I can sing with it later. In fact, Ash Grove, Beau Soir, Shilo, Just the Way You Are, God Bless the Child and Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man of Mine, among others are piano accomplishments I’m learning while I’m trying get my voice back. I’m doing the vocal warmups I learned in voice classes and lessons I took for a couple years.
Allergies are messing with my throat but I’m doing my best. I miss singing. I used to do solos in churches. I was terrified when I first started but I grew to love every minute of it. Whereas the piano playing with any audience made me feel I was going to die. But the singing would take me to another world.
What a busy but good week.
My new air plants found pinecones for homes.
Some things like the bike are hard to show progress. But my feelings about the tasks should be the quantifiable attainment. The gold star sticker is the happy accomplished feeling.
I’ve been working on “Shilo” on the piano in honor of
I keep a practice journal and some pieces shine with my own praise of how well it went, others I actually draw faces sticking out the tongue in raspberries. I keep promising another ‘warts and all’ session. Stagefright keeps stopping me. Soon.
Duolingo is still fun for me. I do it while on the bike as the 11AM local news plays. I think movement while learning helps.
Well here’s to the weekend!😁
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “crackle.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
So, yeah. That snap, crackle, and pop and trio of groans are from my son, my brother, and I after rearranging Dar’s Dabbling Den. It was a LOT of work. But worth it.
Part of this is for the exciting thing I don’t want to jinx by speaking it.
Also, I wanted my keyboard to work on improv and composition for this year’s goal.
I’m going to be happy with this new room. My body is going to hate me. I’m so blessed to have David and Dana here to help out.
Can you hear the crackle of my bones?
The poor basket weave hat hasn’t progressed at all so, no pics. When it can show off on its own, it’ll share the limelight.
While Sammie is happy, we got a phone call from my son with good news for us. And I hope for Sammie. I’d tell but I don’t want to jinx it
Today I went back to Phantom of the Opera. I used to play and sing these. Thirty years ago. Not for an audience, just for fun. My friends and I gathered at the grand piano on stage after voice class and sang our hearts out with these. I was surprised at how much my fingers remember, though there was a lot of sight reading. I can’t sing at the same time, yet. Soon. I am doing daily vocal warmups now.
Anyone out there go through this? I find a saturation level on pieces and put them aside for other songs. Those seem to draw my passions and energy.
So I have a couple books teaching Japanese on one side and my ‘How to Play Piano Despite Years of Lessons,’ on the other side. Thinking about the possibility between Hiragana or Kanji characters or some incredibly boring music theory term, what else could I use?
I immediately looked down at my cell and closed my eyes and pointed. But my fat finger seemed to straddle two lines of Linda’s prompt page. The top word was ‘incredibly’ and the word below was ‘else.’
But my thoughts took me to the incredible difficulties of learning the pentatonic scale in the penultimate measure of Going Home with the added timing complication of duplets versus triplets. What else can I do but grumble and practice some more.
And the YouTube lesson trying to teach me:
What else can you do? It seems simple but it is incredibly hard for me. Time for a nice cup of tea.
YAY! My brother likes his socks!
Just for review: these were Turkish cast-on. Chiaogoo needles Two at a Time socks. Then arch ribbing. Fleegle Heel, my favorite.
I thought I was finished at a 2″ cuff, but my brother needed a longer one for his boots. Otherwise, I would have been finished on his birthday.
Towards the end I had to rely on Advil and Aspercreme. But now my hands can rest a bit.
I found a bunch of unfinished WIPs. Here are a couple calling me:
I’m nearly finished with Smiling Turtle!
I think next week I’ll record my favorite songs. I’m loving Going Home, God Bless The Child, Just the Way You Are, and a few more. With my new enthusiasm for improv or composition I now have a keyboard within reach of my every perch. (Recliner, bed, Dabbling Den)
I didn’t get ‘Dar’s Dabbling Den’ rearranged yet. I want to make more room for my Yamaha keyboard near my piano. Maybe this weekend?
I’d like to make it easier to switch gears, bring in violin, ukulele, recorders, art challenges, podcast or book narrations.
Since COVID months ago, I’ve not been able to get faster than 5 miles in 35. But I’m still trying. And now that spring may have arrived I need to find walking time. Still a work in progress!
Oh, and I am three book reviews behind.
Duolingo still plugs along. I seem more focused on Italian. It’s easier. I still visit the other languages when the spirit moves me.😉
Smiling Turtle is nearly finished. This last bit, at the top, but worked upside down, bottom may take a week. I better find a new project, soon! Oops! Found a sunset DP in my project box to open. Yay!
In my musical world…
Big changes coming this weekend, I hope.
My weekend project is to move that hobby shelving unit will go on the old dining table behind my DP table. It’ll work as a room divider, so folks in the kitchen don’t distract me as I play the piano or Diamond Paint. That empties the spot under the window to put up my keyboard. More help towards the improving/composition goal for the year.
Along those lines I pulled out my Miracle Keyboard to play chords and such while in the living room. Now, no matter where I land there are ivories to play (okay, no elephants were harmed for these–unless they are plastic pachyderms 😉). At least with the keyboards, I can don earphones.
By the way, did any of you have the Miracle Keyboard that attached to your computer. The lessons were games. My daughter learned to play using that system. I looked all over to show you the cute games it came with, but it took a deep dive for very little enjoyment.
Anyway, that’s what’s finishing me this Friday. How are you all doing?
My music is coming along. I just don’t know how to quantify or make pics. Some of the times it seemed my eyes and fingers were on different people! So maybe that I got through the week mostly playing with practice hidden in there, and I didn’t kill anyone, I am still in love with the pieces I’m working on, and I look forward to my next sit down should count as progress. Right? I’m working on another Warts and All recording soon.
Oh, and by the way…
Darswords 
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