I'm definitely not where I was musically when I graduated high school, but it's nice to know that your fingers wake up and remember when the old cello comes out.
Last Sunday, I played on my cello an arrangement of "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful." Next Sunday, I'm playing "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." I'm also singing alto in our choir for the Christmas program.
I can tell I'm rusty and have lost skill, but my fingers still know how to play. I wish I could practice more (and regularly), but I am just grateful that I can still play fairly well.
Showing posts with label Choir. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Choir. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Friday, May 16, 2014
That Time I Realized I Know Nothing About Music
My BFF Shannon is also our ward choir director. Even though I hate the time for practice, I love Shannon, so I try to go each week. Church is at 1 and goes until 4, and choir begins at 4:15. Sometimes we do not go if El is super tired or grumpy. But generally we go.
Shannon was studying percussion at BYU before she moved here. She has been a great choir director. She has a good ear and really excellent rhythm. She was focusing on timpani but also loves the gamelan (a Balinese instrument).
A new friend just moved into our ward. Her name is Lindy and she studied vocal performance at BYUI, meaning she is a trained opera singer.
For choir, we are working on "Come thou fount of every blessing," which we will be singing a capella. One day, Shannon brought in a paper with hand signals and "do re mi fa so la ti do" on it and told us we are going to do solfage today. Lindy started laughing. Everyone else stared at her with a blank expression. It is an ear training exercise (which is great for our choir because we are great at going flat) which they did at the beginning of her sight singing class. She had us start at "do" and go up an interval and back to "do". I immediately saw the benefits of it, even though I had never done such a thing nor heard of it beyond The Sound of Music. I thought, "wow, I know nothing about music." In my defense, I did not study music in college, but it was still amazing to realize how little I know.
Another time where I realized I know nothing about music, was when we had dinner with Lindy and her husband and daughter. She wanted to talk music. Ummm, yeah. I have never been to the opera, I have not played in a symphony for two years and can't remember my favorite pieces we played, I have never heard of any of your favorite songs to sing, I have never heard of solfage. Pretty much I know nothing about music.
But I have to amend that. I am a rather musical person. I just never studied it. I am definitely an amateur musician, but I think I do have some talent. I can play any hymn on the piano or organ, I am quite competent and expressive on the cello, I am a second soprano who can switch to alto when needed and not need extra help, and I know basic music theory and history. However, I know very little about music theory, compositional structure, vocal technique, and repertoire.
I would like to learn more about music---who knew there was so much to know until you "talk music" with musicians!
Shannon was studying percussion at BYU before she moved here. She has been a great choir director. She has a good ear and really excellent rhythm. She was focusing on timpani but also loves the gamelan (a Balinese instrument).
A new friend just moved into our ward. Her name is Lindy and she studied vocal performance at BYUI, meaning she is a trained opera singer.
For choir, we are working on "Come thou fount of every blessing," which we will be singing a capella. One day, Shannon brought in a paper with hand signals and "do re mi fa so la ti do" on it and told us we are going to do solfage today. Lindy started laughing. Everyone else stared at her with a blank expression. It is an ear training exercise (which is great for our choir because we are great at going flat) which they did at the beginning of her sight singing class. She had us start at "do" and go up an interval and back to "do". I immediately saw the benefits of it, even though I had never done such a thing nor heard of it beyond The Sound of Music. I thought, "wow, I know nothing about music." In my defense, I did not study music in college, but it was still amazing to realize how little I know.
Another time where I realized I know nothing about music, was when we had dinner with Lindy and her husband and daughter. She wanted to talk music. Ummm, yeah. I have never been to the opera, I have not played in a symphony for two years and can't remember my favorite pieces we played, I have never heard of any of your favorite songs to sing, I have never heard of solfage. Pretty much I know nothing about music.
But I have to amend that. I am a rather musical person. I just never studied it. I am definitely an amateur musician, but I think I do have some talent. I can play any hymn on the piano or organ, I am quite competent and expressive on the cello, I am a second soprano who can switch to alto when needed and not need extra help, and I know basic music theory and history. However, I know very little about music theory, compositional structure, vocal technique, and repertoire.
I would like to learn more about music---who knew there was so much to know until you "talk music" with musicians!
Monday, April 28, 2014
A Sunday of Slightly Stressful Song
This weekend was supposed to be musically low-key. Supposed to be. And this isn't a complaining post. It's funny that nothing seemed to go right or easily for me.
I play the organ for Church. There is another organist and we switch off playing every two weeks. It makes it nice. I get to sit with my family, can go on vacation, don't have to have that stress each week. This week, the other organist called me and said she was very sick and wouldn't be able to play without having a coughing fit. We organists are here for each other. So I said I would play.
I realized after I said I would play that we had to leave for Church in 30 minutes if I wanted time to run through the songs before and play prelude. I hurried into my dress, threw a lunch together for El, and woke her up early from her nap (NOOOO!!!!). And off we went to Church. I looked up the songs I had to play. They were easy, familiar songs that wouldn't be challenging: "Praise to the Man," "I Stand All Amazed," "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet," and "Joseph Smith's First Prayer." So that was good news. But when I started to play, I immediately realized that someone had changed the stops. And I hated pretty much every single one. Since I am a pianist who just took a seminar on playing the organ, this becomes a problem for me. I was annoyed and am pretty sure I know who it was of the other organists in the other wards. Then I felt flustered as I tried to find the most appropriate stops for each song and memorize which number it was so I wouldn't accidentally sound like a circus organ. Feeling flustered that the prelude was not awesome and neither were the songs with the congregation. Ahhh, life.
Then, the normal Primary pianist came up to me after sacrament meeting and asked if I could fill in for her in the third hour. I said yes and knew it wouldn't be a problem. It was funny that I was filling in last minute for everyone. I love playing in Primary. I was really sad when I got released, but it makes my Sundays a lot less hectic to not have to be playing all day. I came in and found out I got to play two new songs I had never played nor heard before. That, fortunately, went well and the kids all applauded for me.
After Church, we have choir practice. It is pretty much the worst time ever for choir. We go to Church at 1 pm, it lasts until 4, then choir from 4:15-5:15. It is awful. But since the director is my BFF Shannon, I go anyway. And then I remembered that she asked me to switch from soprano to alto in "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." And we are singing it in two weeks, acapella. Awesome. I learned the part but it is really tough to not have that piano with us when I'm not super confident.
Basically, this is a story about how I was very musical on a Sunday that was supposed to be relaxing and not terribly musical. I lived and music always makes for a good story, right?
I play the organ for Church. There is another organist and we switch off playing every two weeks. It makes it nice. I get to sit with my family, can go on vacation, don't have to have that stress each week. This week, the other organist called me and said she was very sick and wouldn't be able to play without having a coughing fit. We organists are here for each other. So I said I would play.
I realized after I said I would play that we had to leave for Church in 30 minutes if I wanted time to run through the songs before and play prelude. I hurried into my dress, threw a lunch together for El, and woke her up early from her nap (NOOOO!!!!). And off we went to Church. I looked up the songs I had to play. They were easy, familiar songs that wouldn't be challenging: "Praise to the Man," "I Stand All Amazed," "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet," and "Joseph Smith's First Prayer." So that was good news. But when I started to play, I immediately realized that someone had changed the stops. And I hated pretty much every single one. Since I am a pianist who just took a seminar on playing the organ, this becomes a problem for me. I was annoyed and am pretty sure I know who it was of the other organists in the other wards. Then I felt flustered as I tried to find the most appropriate stops for each song and memorize which number it was so I wouldn't accidentally sound like a circus organ. Feeling flustered that the prelude was not awesome and neither were the songs with the congregation. Ahhh, life.
Then, the normal Primary pianist came up to me after sacrament meeting and asked if I could fill in for her in the third hour. I said yes and knew it wouldn't be a problem. It was funny that I was filling in last minute for everyone. I love playing in Primary. I was really sad when I got released, but it makes my Sundays a lot less hectic to not have to be playing all day. I came in and found out I got to play two new songs I had never played nor heard before. That, fortunately, went well and the kids all applauded for me.
After Church, we have choir practice. It is pretty much the worst time ever for choir. We go to Church at 1 pm, it lasts until 4, then choir from 4:15-5:15. It is awful. But since the director is my BFF Shannon, I go anyway. And then I remembered that she asked me to switch from soprano to alto in "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." And we are singing it in two weeks, acapella. Awesome. I learned the part but it is really tough to not have that piano with us when I'm not super confident.
Basically, this is a story about how I was very musical on a Sunday that was supposed to be relaxing and not terribly musical. I lived and music always makes for a good story, right?
Monday, December 16, 2013
Slogging through Mud
El decided it was time to play at 3:00 a.m. That is not playtime. That is also something she has never done before. After an hour and a half, Drew finally got her to sleep. I did not make it to the gym at 5. I got up at 7:30 and cleaned the bird cage. Everyone else got up at 8.
Fortunately, it is a warm day and not raining, so I took El out for a run in the stroller. I was tired and haven't run with the stroller for a while, so it was a pretty tough 3 miles.
I did not want to go to choir practice yesterday but I did anyway. I just felt so blah about them. I do not really love or feel excited about any of the songs. My favorite is probably, "Shepherd Leave Thy Sheep," a song I had never heard before. It is simple and sweet. I do not like the song I am conducting, "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear." I would not have picked it had it been up to me. It is set to the tune of "Let Zion In Her Beauty Rise," a perfectly fine song. I do not like them together and I think the piece is too difficult for our choir given the number of pieces we are learning. So choir has been blah but I keep going to support Shannon, our director who is going out of town (which is why choir members are conducting the pieces). Anyway, singing feels like slogging through the mud lately.
I cloth diaper El and the zipper on the wet bag just broke so now I'm using disposables until I get a new diaper pail and reusable liner. It makes me feel so wasteful.
At least I ran today, right? That always gives me some extra pep in my step.
Tomorrow I will have a free personal training session at Vision Quest. It is also my last day of the free trial. The free monthly personal training is the thing most intriguing to me about this gym. I will let you know how it goes!
Today's workout
3 mile run, 33:36, 11:09 pace
Core
Have you ever worked with a personal trainer before? What was your favorite thing about that? What should I pay attention to?
Do you feel blah or do you feel amazing today?
Ever considered cloth diapers?
I really like them. They are not as bad as you fear!
Fortunately, it is a warm day and not raining, so I took El out for a run in the stroller. I was tired and haven't run with the stroller for a while, so it was a pretty tough 3 miles.
I did not want to go to choir practice yesterday but I did anyway. I just felt so blah about them. I do not really love or feel excited about any of the songs. My favorite is probably, "Shepherd Leave Thy Sheep," a song I had never heard before. It is simple and sweet. I do not like the song I am conducting, "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear." I would not have picked it had it been up to me. It is set to the tune of "Let Zion In Her Beauty Rise," a perfectly fine song. I do not like them together and I think the piece is too difficult for our choir given the number of pieces we are learning. So choir has been blah but I keep going to support Shannon, our director who is going out of town (which is why choir members are conducting the pieces). Anyway, singing feels like slogging through the mud lately.
I cloth diaper El and the zipper on the wet bag just broke so now I'm using disposables until I get a new diaper pail and reusable liner. It makes me feel so wasteful.
At least I ran today, right? That always gives me some extra pep in my step.
Tomorrow I will have a free personal training session at Vision Quest. It is also my last day of the free trial. The free monthly personal training is the thing most intriguing to me about this gym. I will let you know how it goes!
Today's workout
3 mile run, 33:36, 11:09 pace
Core
Have you ever worked with a personal trainer before? What was your favorite thing about that? What should I pay attention to?
Do you feel blah or do you feel amazing today?
Ever considered cloth diapers?
I really like them. They are not as bad as you fear!
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