A very musical day...

January 29th, 2016

Up early, showered and breakfasted and casting about for something entertaining to do!!!

I tie a few knots on the dummy warp ( will I EVER get it done) but my back complains bitterly....

At eleven I will tune into the Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall to hear Fisher conduct a rendition of Gustave Mahler's Symphony No 3, but what to do until then??

The ukulele leans against the piano, looking appealing.  I pick it up, cradle it in my arms, and think how nice it will be when I finally know how to play it properly.  Experience tells me that 'practise makes perfect', and so I go hunting on the PC for a teacher.  I have been there before.

Teachers of the ukulele are either old guys or bright young fellows, and of the two I have to admit I find the bright young fellows make it easier for me to learn.  Not because they are bright and young but because they talk slower, are more aware that beginners need gentle guiding, and explain things in much more detail.

So I find this bright young fellow who promises to make five ways of strumming on the ukulele fun and easy - and after an hour when we had finished the lesson and I had practiced as admonished, I had to agree he had met his goal.  Hopefully I will be back for a second lesson tomorrow.....

I can now strum D D U D D U  or D D U U D U D, or D d u d u D u (where D stands for down and U stands for up, and small letters stand for 'do not emphasis - but I'm sure you knew that...) and I know that a ukulele is strummed differently than a guitar, with a nice loose wrist-turning motion.

After a little action in the kitchen it is time for the concert, which was most enjoyable and took me a bit past lunchtime....

A little rest, a little strumming and I went to the piano and an old book of classical organ music, looking for an alternative to Wagner's "Here Comes the Bride" which has evidently lost popularity with young couples now getting married.  Things like Bach's Air on the G String, Pachelbel's Canon in D,  some of Chopin's Preludes  and a Cantabile or two.  The price on this book was $1.25 - you know how old it is.  Too old to have the Canon in D, - Pachelbel is a recent favourite, but among the crisp, yellowed leaves I found pages I had added at the front.  Amongst them was Weber's Last Thought (Carl Maria von Weber) which I was once entranced with but have not played in a long, long time.

So that's how I spent the last of the afternoon, losing myself in Weber's Last Thought, trying to make my fingers familiar with it again, and wondering if there was any way it would fit into our granddaughter's wedding....and hardly noticing the grey skies  and mist that engulfed the valley.