I had a most unexpected musical activity today. Went to see Dad in the home where he lives, he has dementia. Took Kate as she has finished GCSE exams. We did some duets in Dad's room, but he was sitting in a garden chair in the quadrangle. I went and listened with him while Kate did her Grade 5 pieces, and the sound was amazing. It was like an amphitheatre, and was very lovely. THen we swapped and I played my Handel. The lady who does all the activities came into the room, and asked me to go into the lounge as the ladies wanted to hear me properly I had no choice really, it would have been rude, so picked up the music stand and played the first 2 movements. They were very nice to me, and I had no time to be nervous. They want me to do it again.
SO then this really strange thing happened...........a lady was helping her Mum to walk to the dinner room, and I Knew her face. It was a teacher from junior school, who along with another teacher had taught me recorder. She plays the flute I think. She said she takes her keyboard in sometimes, and said to liase to go together, and I get accompanied.
Bev

Well done Bev!

Taking Gumbo to the viola hospital...

Thank you. takes a bow.
I couldn't have done that a year ago, but 3 forum concerts and I'm anybody's

Indeed, well done Bev!

My musical activity : a concert this evening, with Deborah and Carl

What did you play?

We did a selection of clarinet trios for a charity do. Gershwin, Faure, Schumann...

It went very well.

Mine were as usual practicing

Plus we had music at school.

We have to compose a piece in groups. Ours isn't going so well, there are 4 of us and we keep arguing. We were all in a particularly foul mood today, especially ME

But then our music teacher sightread the basics of our piece (we really haven't got very far... because we argue so much) and added broken chords.

It sounded like magic. Suddenly we could all hear exactly what we had to do.

I just hope that one day I'll be able to do something as amazing as that, take a single line piece of music at the piano, which the rhythm in is uneven, and it's all messily written, and be able to add chords on the piano, and turn it into something amazing.

I wish I could too. Probably never will

That's brilliant! Good luck for next time

I bought my son Improvising Blues Piano and Just Blues because it's something he wanted to do once Grade 5 was over. Last night I had a quick look and really liked it and this morning I've been playing Baisin Street Blues and looking at the Improvising book. I think we're going to fight each other for piano time on this one

Your little story makes a riveting read, Bev and I am so pleased for you that all went well. I bet your Dad and the ladies really enjoyed Kate's and your playing. Very many congratulations on not letting performance nerves stop you playing for them . Looking forward to hearing how the next performance with an accompanist goes.

I have heard it said that attending forum concerts can be a life-changing experience.....

Piano practice,
Playing in a 'cello quintet for a school prom.

Collecting Gumbo from the viola hospital - he feels much better now he's had his neck shaved!

W

It must be the warm weather !

Long evening.
Orchestra rehearsal.
Junior band 5.30 til 6.30 then senior from 7 til 9.
We have our summer concert next Friday.

Practice, Practice, Practice.

I'm struggling to get motivated... I'm tempted to just watch a few DVDs and have a lazy evening

stressing about tomorrow's exams ...

All the best maggiemay

Today's musical activity : Kodaly dictation exam

ooh thanks! you too!

Hang on a minute, in your signature it says you have gr8 piano distinction, and gr8 oboe distinction too!

So don't go complaining that you won't be able to do that... cos you will. That's absolutely amazing for a year 11 (in my opinion anyway)!

Grade 8 just seems like a faint glimmer in the distance to me that will take aeons to reach

Ditto. We'll get there eventually though, keep on going!!!

The annoying thing is, that despite getting through Grade 1 pretty quickly, and knowing quite a few half-decent pieces from memory, I still feel completely useless I need a fast-forward button for real-life or a Matrix style download so I can play the stuff I like *now*

This afternoon I'm playing a gig in the local pub. I think. The organisation seems a bit chaotic. Been promised free food and beer as well, and since we usually spend the best part of Saturday afternoons in there paying for food and beer it's a result!

London Recorder Orchestra concert in Pimlico. Along with a fair few other Forums recorder players.

Have fun : sorry I can't be there in the audience supporting you all.

Scales, Broken Chords, Speeding up "Arabesque" and then driving to the countryside for a romantic lunch with myself in the sun

Lots of reed trouble... Concert tonight so has to be good reeds

Me too!

W

Not Arabesque by Debussy?!

That's my ultimate favourite piece ever ever ever ever ever on the piano. Seriously, that's like my aim for what I want to be able to play on the piano.

There are hundreds of demos on our clavinova, and I was flicking through them all, amusing myself for a good half hour or so, then it came to Arabesque and I just stopped and listened to the whole thing. I love it so much. But I can't find any versions on youtube that match the quality of the one on the clav...

3 hours of sight-reading Beethoven piano sonatas.... on the recorder.

The slightly worrying thing is that I seem to be able to be able to play them better on the recorder than the piano.

Nope, I wish!

J.F.Burgmuller's one.. it's quite a lot easier...

If you have the "50 greats" book that comes with the Clavinova, look at Song 35 (p158). You should be able to play it in a matter of hours and perfect it with all dynamics in a matter of about a week or less at decent tempo

Teaching (mainly clari and recorder), and whatever practice I can fit in...

last official oboe lesson with teacher:(

Lots of practise later hopefully - clarinet and piano lessons this week and away for weekend so need to practise!!!!

Do you ever feel the urge to break out into "Happy days are here again", "Congratulations", or something else innapropriately upbeat and happy?

Does having another panic count?

Am I weird for wanting "Ring of Fire" or "Disco Inferno" played at my cremation?

Yes.
And not only for that reason

"Smoke gets in your eyes" would be good for the part where my coffin gets rolled into the furnace

I've had a brilliant time playing clarinet duets with a friend. It's been a wonderful relief after all the practising for my exam yesterday.
Now I remember how much I enjoy playing the clarinet!

Piano playing
Going to a lunchtime concert at the cathedral. (it was a local youth wind band and a flute choir)

Mostly the study.
I've also discovered that the sight reading looks a bit trickier than I was anticipating.

I was told to play to a couple of classes of 10 year olds, while they were having refreshments.

I didn't really want to because I knew they wouldn't listen. Teacher frog-marched me over and demanded me to play though "everyone else has!" "Yes, but nobody else played on their own!" "Come on dear, just get your flute out, they'lll love it"

So I rushed through a piece. They all ignored me.

Then it was my two friends' turn who both played the saxophone. They pulled out some Disney music and blasted them out (even through it was supposed to be french music) and the kids all crowded around them. So I skulked off.

My piano teacher's just dropped round a copy of Debussy's Preludes (dated May 1964!!!) - I'm supposed to be learning number eight, "La fille aux cheveux de lin". It's in a stupid key (who writes stuff in six flats?) and will take me ages to learn... so I'd better get going soon!

so next time you'll know to take Disney....

Yeah, and get a louder instrument. Maybe strap a microphone and get a huge amp. It was playing outside, so noone could hear at all.

Interestingly, some bright spark had the idea of re-writing it in G major so 'it would be easier to play'

Surprise surprise - it turned out not to be.

Many of the note patterns sit much more comfortably under the fingers in Gb.

Enjoy!

Today is practising for Grade 3 piano tomorrow and helping Kate for Grade 5 flute tomorrow.