Tag Archive: #Finishing Friday
Yay! I can actually report one finished project.
My other socks took a sideline as I finished the slippers. So I’ll take pics next week.
I feel better about my piano. We have love/hate moments. I do learn a lot with each sit down. I play not practice. I do work on problem areas. I work on my concentration. I see my playing as meditation. Here’s a thought. Check. Don’t dive in. A slight thought given attention can bring about a mistake tornado. Distraction of any kind can throw off the fun.
Take for instance, today I wanted to analyze the few pieces I shared last week. By thinking about key signatures my fingers lost their groove.
I’m much happier about the ukulele now. Being able to sing while playing makes this instrument far more fun than piano or recorders.
Recorders seem to be helping my breath control. Note recognition between the soprano and the alto instruments is getting better. I still have goals of playing duets with myself. I need to learn how to record like that.
That’s about it for now. Time to get to Duo, and the recorders and uke.
Remember way back when I mentioned I might start a podcast? I can’t remember what I thought I’d call it, but a new title comes to mind as I started day # 3 of piano reawakening. “Warts and All”
We are so used to seeing the end result of endless practice. That makes sitting in front or with your art impossible. “I’ll never be that good. Why try?” So many negative things we tell ourselves, and because of that, we will never know what enjoyment we might bring ourselves or others while waiting for perfection. Follow your passions. God, muses, whatever you may call it, gets the credit for your curiosity drive. Do we dare let our defeatism lead the way? So I’m taking you on the ride. I took piano lessons since I was 5. I rebelled my way out around 16. After marriage at 21, I had to wait a while to get my old piano. My second son was teething when I got my piano back. I was rusty but could still enjoy the below pieces and much more, nearly totally memorized. I would play so hyperfocused that that piano had teething marks as the poor baby begged for my attention. So, I had to keep the practice to light bits.
When we moved to my first desert, Antelope Valley, the house was so small I had to keep the piano in a chicken coop. It was an old upright grand. It looked quite at home there. I would get up and go out in my heavy coat and gloves, scarf, and cap. As I did the scales and warm-ups, layers were released. I was starting to fall in love with my kidnapper. Stockholm Syndrome? There was a lot of angst from the psychological damage that practicing piano imposed on me.
A few decades later, after letting myself enjoy other music, singing, playing the recorder, and playing the ukulele, I felt like I wanted to try to bring it all back. Three days ago, I figured out a time of the day I could schedule my piano time. My first day was a lot of cleaning my baby. We get a lot of dust out here. And the darned mice. Lots of cleaning. But hey, that old piano in the chicken coop was pretty bad, too. And I love this piano. How I got it is another story. So cleaning it was, is now, a work of love. I did start playing that day for a few minutes. It went well. I kept it to 15 minutes. For some reason, yesterday’s practice made me want to cry. Today I decided to start recording myself and sharing the mess and progress with you. You are not required to listen to these as if they were elevator music. It is merely how it is when you try.
Enough of music. I’ll share the uke and recorder progress later.
Passion is imperfect.
It’s been an interesting week.ย I’ve been busy and am tired. So the bits I can grab and report are these:
Now it’s time to play uke and recorders. Have a great weekend!
There are a few more projects. I just ran out of writing energy. I did finish “Leave the World Behind.” The review hits Sunday.
I’m halfway through the new Sudoku book.
Hey, the part that is the hardest and happiest: I’m learning Imagine by John Lennon. I’m not very good but here’s how I’m learning it.
My fingers have developed calluses but that is bad for recorders because now it’s hard to tell if the little holes are closed tightly so I get more squeaky noises than I did before picking up the Uke. Ah, well, I’m having fun.
That’s not all but all I have energy to report.
Oh, my hair is growing and I’m adding messy bun hairpieces to my short ponytail.
Viewing Shogun all day today was a valiant effort. We binged all ten episodes. So soon after reading (listening) the book, it was interesting to see how well it was interpreted. Now, on Monday, I should receive the older version with Richard Chamberlain. I advise if you can, to read the actual book first. I did in the 80s. But I wish I had read it more recently. But my vision isn’t good enough for the printed volume.
Meanwhile, I have a bunch of socks nearly finished. My hands have been hurting with the weather changes. So not a lot of progress on any of the projects. But here ya go:
Now off to recorders and ukulele.
None of my music pursuits are quiet. But I need to get busy on them. So I have to quit writing.
And oops! There’s
I start my morning watching shows and knitting. I want to pay attention to the show and knitting is a busy hands pay attention hobby, mostly.
And now it’s time to strum and recordize.
Finally Floundering February bids us adieu. And right on the Mark March brings ideas to move forward.
A couple years ago my cousin sent me a tape recorder and asked me to write (record) my memoirs.
I chickened out. Plain and simple. But I did write my memories. So here’s my idea (and I’m already a day late!) I will record, read aloud and edit the memories and edit as I go. I put it in NaNo as this month’s goal. I added my last Nano novel. Both books are 15k each. I plan to read aloud and edit that one, too.
I may have bit off more than I can chew. Maybe I’ll prioritize the memoir. No more Floundering, just get busy!
By the way, for those who tried,thanks for playing ๐
In other news we have winter starting now. Alaska is sending us a cold front.
Meanwhile, for Finishing Friday:
I finished The Mammoth Hunters but haven’t had the chance to write the review. I’m loving reading the series again.
It’s snowing again. It’s so pretty. I’m glad the rodent was wrong!
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