My first happy is that my little-little Bella passed her Grade 1 Theory. 93%. Fantastic distinction. She's only 8 and I'm very proud of her.

And my second happy, happy, very, very HAPPY is that little Bella's Guide Camp has been abandoned. Little Bella is now back home. Warm, dry & safe. The River Taw was flowing through her tent! I think her sleeping bag, mat & kit are now in the Bristol Channel. And I really could't care less! But that chocolate cake really hurts - I spent hours on the icing!!

My best friend got married today

seeing lots of lovely forumites later

I'm accompanying three of my clarinet teacher's pupils for their Grade 1 and 2 exams today. She was let down by her usual accompanist at the last minute and although I was very nervous at the prospect at first, now that I've rehearsed with them all I'm looking forward to it - all those years of learning piano finally put to some use!

I had a practice with my accompanist yesterday. It went very well, and I now feel confident about the exam next week.

Stalybridge event, it was fab

Where's the 'like' button???

I think they need to upgrade the software on this forum by about a decade...

lots more lovely sunshine

Invision Pro-Boards (the provider of these forums) has been through at least two upgrades since this forum was created in 2003...

Delivering a sermon this afternoon in my capacity as Lay Reader......to a Bishop

.....and not falling apart!

My daughter is also a Lay Reader, and sends me copies of her sermons (She is 180 miles away), which I often read on Monday morning, always gives me a smile !

The knowledge that I only have one more afternoon at Tuff Skool this term..

Well you tell me how this has happened .... aural tests - I can tell what chords are being used, cadences, decipher the bottom / top line, tonality etc. Yet I could do NONE of it when I last took an exam. I can HEAR what intervals are being used from listening to the tonic note. Seems all I really need to learn is how to sing out the note I hear in my head - any tips? I can hear if what I'm singing is wrong.

I am delighted with Mattie our poodle. We took her to the poodle parlour today and the girl got the cut absolutely right. She looks like a dog, not a clown - but she looks really cute and obviously feels comfortable. And I am even happier because on Thursday a very dear friend is arriving from England for a few days and he hasn't yet met Mattie so he is in for a suprise. Not only that, we have nearly finished the pre-visitor housework, I have finished cataloguing all my piano teaching music - and the sun is shining.

Wish it was sunny in London!

band last night, lots of lovely sight reading

Got a tweet read out by Sarah Mohr-Pietsch this morning within a minute of sending it! (my twitter name is GizzyGee@gizzygrey: like a lot of people I am named after my cat. Identity crises abound in our household )

Well, it was yesterday really ... flowers from my son on HIS birthday.

What a lovely thing to do

a phone call

Going to see Ice Age 4!

Going to Chester tomorrow (Saturday) with SB Junior and the choir. We will be singing all three main services over the weekend (Evensong on Saturday then Holy Communion and Evensong on Sunday), whilst SB Junior also gets to do some of the organ playing.

SB

YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS Can't wait for September, that is all ...

Firstly, my first singing lesson in years and years.

Secondly, I have achieved my first ever distinction in an ABRSM exam - grade 1 viola. And a high merit for grade 1 tuba!

Well done pcf

my happy, ermmmmmmmmmmmm, new edition of Country Walking purchased this morning and the promise of sunshine tomorrow.

pcf!

I had a great time with my extended family at the Olympic Torch event in Guildford.

The thought of my first Saturday off for several months. Lots of work to do at home but at least no crack-of-dawn start and no teaching!

Sympathise - no orchestra tomorrow so no need to get up at 6.30 on a Saturday morning for the first time in several months!

well done pcf.

My happy - a good final gig and a nice meal with a band I've left after 14 years as lead clarinet.

A little existential affirmation.

I had a very scary evening last night
It was the end of term concert with the community orchestra, so as you'd expect, I was playing cello.... cue conversations of about 4 weeks ago:

#1: "TV you play viol don't you?"
TV (warily): "Yes...."
#1: "XXX and I would like to play some recorder pieces but we haven't got anyone on the tenor line - would you play with us?"
TV (worriedly) "Hmmm... can I see the music please?"

Get presented with several pieces by Handel in three parts, but arranged for recorder. Sits very badly on the viol - awful lot of multiple string crossings (adjacent notes three strings apart etc). Not wanting to let people down, I agreed we'd give it a whirl.....

#2: "TV - you're a singer aren't you?"
TV (in horror) "Choral singer yes, I don't sing solo - never done it and lack the confidence to do it (even though I can sight read quite proficiently to a decent standard and I can sing pretty tough repertoire - BUT at more than 1 to a part!)
#2: (persistently) "Oh good - I've written this song and I want you to sing it with me... someone is arranging it for me and there will be a violin part as well. We'll get together next week to look at it..."
TV:

So....

Although the recorder music is fairly straightforward, it's not written for the tenor viol (should be in alto clef) and was quite difficult. So, I had a big think about it and worked out it would sit better on the BASS viol - the E string making life much easier than the F string on the tenor. So we had a trio of descant and treble recorder with bass viol, playing the tenor recorder line (reading treble clef and transposing down an octave at sight). First two pieces went very well, third was fine from the recorders.... The audience seemed to like it - they loved the sound of the bass viol and the recorders.

That was my first ever public outing on the viol - of any size!

So, I was brow-beaten into singing. This really did scare me! The tessitura was wrong for my voice - I'm a baritone. The range of the piece (being folk-style) was narrow, the fifth from A - E (A at top of bass clef). These notes are in my compass and I'll happily punch holes in wood with top Ds. But I'm not a tenor and sitting up there is tiring....

So, lady playing guitar and singing alto, me baritone pretending to be a tenor, and a solo violin line too. I was shaking like a leaf at times - I've never sung solo - ever. Audience seemed to like it.

Oh - there was the little matter of playing cello for an hour - last movement of Beethoven 5, Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue - minor things like that!

Feel the fear and do it anyway, Tenor Viol! Sounds like it was all successful.....and now you only need to beware the further invitations that will come flooding in for more of the same!

Car has shiny new brakes

Half a day out in York where I bought another load of music from Stone Trough bookshop. Warm and sunny.

Great theory workshop session, with laughs and fun.

Very good idea in a local town - they had a local activities day. They set out the stalls used by the farmers' market and asked local society's to take a stall to promote themselves, so my choir did. It was very busy.

Hearing one of my pieces sung in Coventry Cathedral...can't honestly stop grinning

Well done Tenor Viol - sounds like it went very well. I've just come back from playing at a garden party - I was similarly talked into it. I was quite horrified when I arrived to find that everyone was sitting listening and it wasn't just background music. I also only found out when I arrived that I had to introduce my pieces into a microphone.

Fortunately I survived. It wasn't good but it wasn't absolutely terrible, I got through them, mainly came in at the right time and kept going. I've just about stopped shaking - so my happy is that it is OVER!

My OH filmed it for me, I need a drink before I can face watching it though!

Congratulations, Seer Green! I can't even begin to imagine how special that must have been!

Probably slightly surreal really

Congratulations SG! delighted for you.

Well done TV, SG and flobiano

Well done, SG!

Well done to TV for having a go And the audience liked it

Well done to SG, that's just amazing

I'm pretty sure you don't want to have shiny brakes But I know what you mean

a lovely walk around a local reservoir followed by coffee straight from the flask

How does coffee straight from a flask work : is it a magic flask? Surely you have to make it first