Thursday 10th November - Still on top of things - How long can this last?

Ten days into November and I'm still roughly keeping on top of things.

Admin; writing up and emailing the note for yesterday's piano lessons, posting the notebook for this month's swap (my notebook partner's book dropped through the letter box today - hooray!)  

Housework; washed the windows in the small bedroom which catch the morning light and annoy me when the sun is shining and shows up every mark and smear. The cobwebs were something to marvel at - all due to that big black spider that scuttled into the crevices as my wet soapy cloth came near.  

Sewing for the post card project; it is a minor marvel that I am already part way through this month's design. 

Knitting; I'm suffering from second sock syndrome, you know, the sock I was going to finish last February? I've had a torrid time with it and in the end started again.

Christmas; What?!? I hear you cry! I've wrapped a couple of presents ready for a family meet up in a few days, so save posting them as one is heavy and the other flimsy.

Other stuff; I had a brainwave, and waited until I was alone in the house to explore my plans for a major furniture reshuffle involving me new desk, the ailing Roland digital harpsichord, my stationery trolley on wheels and a small filing cabinet on wheels. I managed to get everything measured, drawn up on graph paper and little shapes cut out for the relevant items before He returned from his work to find - well, it could have been worse. I had managed to restrict myself to paper cut outs, and not physically move anything while he was out.

The harpsichord needs a replacement power supply (Roland don't appear to make that particular one  anymore) and the power strip it plugs in to needs replacing as one by one the individually switched sockets have stopped working so only one is functional. 

So step one will be source the power supply, step two is a biggy, because the lead for the power strip goes BEHIND the tall cabinets to the socket behind the furthest one - there is a hole cut into the back of the cupboard at that point (are you still with me?).

As a gesture towards this, I have given up my wastepaper basket to become a home for all the knitting needles which were in the way.

But now, where shall I deposit all the little snips of paper and stray threads? This is perfect. Youtube to the rescue.

And here are the instructions. If, like me, relentessly chirpy cheerful musak drives you mad, you can perfectly well watch it with the sound off. Although there seems to be a cute little giggling baby on the track at one point.

Friday 4th March - Supercilious Sheep

 Today's window - or should it be a hatch, I wonder in my Noah's Ark is of the most supercilious sheep I have seen in a while.

 Sheep in the plural - they both look remarkably stupid. Which is not surprising when I looked up the accompanying Bible verse;

For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

My class at school was regularly made to sing the verse 'Perverse and foolish oft I strayed' in hymn practice by ourselves as a punishment for chatting instead of obediently singing like the 'good' pupils. The only thing worse than this was to be made to sing the verse in a small group, or maybe by yourself. 

(the rest of the verse draws to a happy ending, which was not always the case with hymn practice).

It is the annual World Day of Prayer today - friends went to the service (the church was packed!) and brought back the service booklet for me, and a packet of seeds which has handed to everyone. I shall read through the service tonight and discover what the seeds are about.

The box with the Postcard Project arrived today - Ang has made an amazing 'stamp', sewn to the postcard, The camera on my phone is not cooperating so no picture yet... (I'm hoping it just wants charging or restarting or something).

There were also a couple of pieces of cloth for me to practice on - I mentioned that I was looking for some. I spent the afternoon unpicking the part-completed stitching on the tray cloth, and then washing both pieces in very hot -  ow! ow! ow! - water and Shout! stain remover. My hands have never been so clean! The outlines have lifted from the tray cloth and faded from the other piece, so now I can think about how to arrange the practice stitching.

before washing

after washing (I've turned the smaller piece over)

Music!

I've started playing again! I'm teaching a student to play the Bach Fantasia in C minor

I was trying to demonstrate how it would sound on a harpsichord (I have a Roland digital harpsichord)

 so I swept the accumulated dust off the keyboard and onto the floor - and discovered that I was completely at sea! The keyboard is much shorter than a piano keyboard and I couldn't find my way around. 

So I have promised to learn the first 16 bars by her next lesson on Tuesday. I will be playing it at a far more sedate speed than the recording! My main problem is that I will have to memorise great chunks as I don't have time to look at the music and focus on the notes through the correct part of my varifocals and then look down to the keyboard and find the keys through a different part of the lens. I've been searching for a solution to this problem for years, trying different lenses, glasses, bifocals, reading glasses, everything. 

I've been working on this piece for two days using every trick that I know, including colour-coding the different sections, and I've got the first 12 bars moderately secure. Four more to go, and then try and put the sections together. It's a challenge!

Aha! Panic over - the phone was too flat to operate the camera. All's well. I give you... 'the Queen'

Tuesday 27th July - Nearly everything on the list...

 I'm back to playing my Roland digital harpsichord again - it's probably been gathering dust for nearly a year, but what with one thing and another I haven't been playing the piano or anything much. Until I drastically cut down on the teaching back in March last year, I was hardly doing any playing in the evenings and weekends, although I usually did a ' piano project' over the Summer holidays.

this isn't me!

This Summer's project is to try and play some Bach - starting with the Partita in B flat and the Goldberg Variations. I'm not aiming for any great mastery of the Variations - but if I manage get hack my way through each one I shall be very pleased. I'm making more of an effort with the Partita. 

The drawing book - 'Learn to Draw in 30 Days or Less' - continues to astonish me! The last two lessons were on single point perspective - not something I've ever bothered too much about before.

Yesterday's was on how to draw a room;

and today's was drawing a street;

I'm up to lesson 23. Tomorrow I tackle 2-point perspective....

I just follow the instructions, and out pops a picture - how does that work?

Also  a painting - I saw some leaves against an evening sky for just a couple of second on television the other evening, so I did the background one day, the leaves the next, and today added some lines using a pen that has brown sparkly ink.

 The sparkles don't show up much...

The two knitted pot-holders went through the washing machine at 40 degrees as instructed at the end of the knitting pattern, and came out completely felted. The larger one is using the pattern, but I suspect that somewhere along the way things went astray because it is meant to be flat. I made a simplified version for the smaller one. They do look amazing - I shall make some more!

Finally, I am gradually typing up poems written by my grandmother when she was young - they are from around 1910 - 1920. The idea is to collect them into a booklet so that anyone in the family who is interested can have them. (I knew there was some purpose to learning to type at the beginning of this year!). There is a whole box full of her poems, memories, talks to the Mothers Union, stories...

At the moment I am working through an envelope labelled 'Youthful Poems'. At first I found the writing quite tricky, but I am beginning to 'get my eye in'.

Nearly everything on the list, I said - no hoovering, cleaning, tidying, you notice...

Wednesday 10th April - Several small wins

This morning was dealing with small and time-consuming errands - queuing for a routine blood test,  banking a cheque, depositing some cash, collecting prescriptions. The weather today has looked marvellous, but there is a bitter cold wind which has caused me to change my mind several times about sitting outside.  

It took me most of Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday but I have finally cracked the Granny Square. It is a mildly soporific way of passing time; sort of meditative. I was glad to have taken it with me when I wen for the blood test.

I've unravelled a cowl I knit a while back as I want the yarn for that mitred square blanket I am knitting. The wool is 'out of print' or whatever they call it when you can't buy it any more, so I reckoned that I'd rather have a bigger blanket than the cowl.

Then it was time for tea; so, while the kettle was boiling I managed to get the dining room table from this; 

to this;

then, while the tea was brewing I cleared some more;

and finally, while I was waiting for it to be cool enough to drink I tackled the books piled up on the piano stool.

Ta-da!

There's still a heap of papers and stuff at the end of the table, ready for the next cup-of-tea-challenge.

My medium-term challenge is to consider taking a harpsichord exam at the end of the Summer Term - shall it be Grade 4 or Grade 5? That's the highest grade I can do on an electric harpsichord. Himself was blithely agreeing that it might be a plan until I pointed out we would have to transport the instrument to the exam centre. "Ah. I'll need to do some measuring." All things can be solved by careful measuring, I have found.

I don't have a harpsichord teacher at the moment, so I am having to use my initiative when working out how to play the pieces. Grade 4 might be simple, but the phrasing and interpretation is quite counter-intuitive for someone who has spent the last 55 years learning to play the piano. No more can I bring out a melody or shape a phrase by using 'loud' and 'soft'; it is all choosing which notes should be played smoothly or detached. I'm finding this takes a lot of concentration to play 'harpsichordally' and not 'pianistically'. 

And having had a good look at the harpsichord, I reckon it will take several cup-of-tea-challenges to sort that lot out.

To the left, paperwork, to the bags of wool and knitting projects and so on. I'm quite grateful for the heavy shadows concealing the worst excesses.

Tuesday 2nd August - This'n'that

I've spent most of today switching between watercolour painting and practising the first Goldberg Variation.

It works like this: I paint in a wash of colour, but then it has to dry completely before the next step. So, I just turn round,

and get to grips with the next bit of Bach. That distracts me from trying to carry on with the painting too soon. 

I'm messing about with watercolours - something that I keep returning to every couple of years. My mother tried to get me interested in acrylics, but I just didn't like the gloopy feel of the paint. Watercolours have a surprising congruence with playing the harpsichord which I wasn't expecting. It's all about the precision of articulation and phrasing, balancing the tone, leaving clear space between colours and sounds. There's a lot of work to be done on both the painting and playing.

I've tripped across a website where every week they put up a list of ten words to react to;  

The game is to follow each word with whatever comes into you mind first.

If you want to have a go, without being contaminated by my answers, stop reading now, as my responses are below.

I'll just fill in the space with the explanation from the website. You can take it with as much salt as you please.




"Free association is described as a "psychoanalytic procedure in which a person is encouraged to give free rein to his or her thoughts and feelings, verbalizing whatever comes into the mind without monitoring its content". Over time, this technique is supposed to bring forth repressed thoughts and feelings that the person can then work through to gain a better sense of self.

That's an admirable goal, but for the purposes of this exercise, we're hoping to have a little fun with the technique. Each week I'll post ten words to which you can respond to with the first thing that comes to mind.

Rules? There are no rules. There are no right or wrong answers. Don't limit yourself to one word responses; just say everything as it pops into your head."

Here are my replies:

Substandard - Not there yet
Rude - Mechanicals
Equality - not to be grasped at
Smile! - no
Presidential? - Like Trump?
Fish - nor fowl
Cloudy - Rather pleasant little piano piece by Christopher Norton that I'm teaching at the moment called "Cloudy Day"
Wondering - maybe
Thought - deep
Calculator - articulation

Monday 9th November 2015 - A full day with unexpected pleasures

Yes, I did manage to remember EVERYTHING!

Starting at 8:30 this morning, I taught six brand new piano beginners their first lessons today, and had remembered everything that I wanted/needed to take.

then

I rushed off to my harpsichord lesson. That was an intense hour, and have to say that my concentration collapsed toward the end. But, I did bring my music. And he did say that I was "beginning to develop the right style". I dawdled on my way back to the car, because I had the opportunity to watch the Christ's Hospital School marching in to lunch, while their band played. Quite a sight. I'd love to go back another time (when it isn't so chilly!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ%27s_Hospital_Band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brUX1pkFeio

then

along the back lanes to the next school.  I took a fifteen minute break in the car, where I munched through my packed lunch (a ham sandwich, some cucumber sticks and some cherry tomatoes) at speed. While I chomped away, I took time out to notice the effect of the watery autumn sunshine on the village church tower, warming the colour of the stone, and turning the red berries on a nearby tree to an improbably fiery red. It was all so peaceful, quiet, gentle....

then

I taught a hectic djembe lesson to a class of lively young children.

then

I drove back into town for the final two classes; ukulele and choir - and, amazingly, I had packed all the right music and equipment.

then, I summoned the energy to wheel everything back to the car on my trusty sack trolley and load it all in.

I arrived home to find supper minutes away from being served - just as well. If I had been left to my own devices I might have just made a bowl of porridge, slurped it down and gone to bed!

However, food is tremendously reviving. Especially when you don't have to prepare, cook, serve and clear it up yourself.

Finally, I was called by one of the parents from this morning to say how much her child had enjoyed his first lesson. I don't think that has ever happened before.

Sunday 8th November - Nearly Forgot

Once again we had made our mugs of hot chocolate (a small one in my case), fed the cats, shut them in the kitchen, gone upstairs - and then I remembered I hadn't done the blog post.

That's three nights in a row - am I trying to tell myself something?

Today has been a day of sort of sorting things out ready for tomorrow.

And I am sort of sorted - I shall know how successful I was after delivering 6 piano lessons (remember the registers, teaching materials), having a harpsichord lesson (remember the music and the money), lunch somewhere (remember to make AND take my packed lunch, delivering a djembe lesson (remember the djembe), and ukulele lesson (remember the uke and the music) and finally leading a small choir (more music)

I'll let you know...

Friday 6th November - It's harder than it sounds. Or Looks.

I'm wrestling with this as the moment.

well, not the original manuscript; not even a nice copy in a book. I've downloaded it from an "out-of-copyright" sheet music site.

I'm learning the slow movement in my harpsichord lessons, at such a slow speed that even a tortoise would struggle to keep in time.

Oh, didn't I mention that I'd become the proud possessor of a digital harpsichord? Digital, because the real thing would take up the WHOLE of the dining room and needs constant "fettling" and tuning, whereas the digital version is the size of a small side-table and copes with changes in temperature and humidity without becoming all temperamental (that's an "in" joke).

When I turned up for my lesson, my teacher had been called away to another class, so I spent the hour practicing.

By the end of the hour I was able to place the first line - that's the bit before the tune starts - they way I wanted it. And it took the whole hour to achieve it.

Eventually, it might sound like this? Well, one can dream.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIhteTLwwqs

Keep listening; he does the Goldberg Variations next...