My Newest Thrill

It's called the "Next Blog" button, folks! Try it. It's at the top left of your screen. I am not very blog savvy. I wish I were. I wish I could find countless blogs of middle-aged women studying music in graduate school. Alas, I don't know how to search for these things. I wish dozens of women like me could read my blog and comment about how they relate to what I'm doing. But hardly anyone reads my blog. I thought, "If I start reading and following other people's blogs, maybe someone will start reading mine." I know, it's a long shot, and I'll probably always wish for and never have a really strong blog following, but in the meanwhile, I'm really enjoying "Next Blog". I have stumbled across some really freaky stuff (not good, lol), but I've found some great blogs, too. I found a guy who posts videos of his rock band. I kind of like them! I will follow him anonymously, though. I found a lady who drives a bus in Minneapolis and blogs about all her adventures; I really relate to this one, since I took the bus to school and back every day for 4 years (yuck). I found a blog of a pretty good artist. I have read about people who test pans for All Clad (How cool is that??). I am really enjoying it. Something funny about this is all the Mormon moms who are bloggers. You can tell right away that they're Mormons, and they very often have quite clever entries. Maybe I need to post a temple photo on my blog? Just kidding. It wouldn't quite go with my nude Apollo sculpture. This blog is about music. LOL It's late. I'll stop there.

Progress

It seems like it must be time for another post. Last week I passed my Music History Predictive! Mostly. There were three big sections, with three subsections each. If you fail one of the big sections, you have to re-take the corresponding undergraduate music history course. Worst case scenario, re-take three semesters of undergraduate music history. I studied really hard for the renaissance section, and hoped some of my life experience would come through for me and I'd pass portions of the others, which I did. I passed 7 out of 9 sections altogether. I'm going to have to re-take one portion of the classical section and one portion of the 20th century section. I think if both of the sections I failed were in the same era, I'd probably have had to re-take one of the classes. This is a very good thing, because if you haven't passed the history requirement, you aren't allowed to register for your graduate recital, so it would conceivably have extended my program by a $emester. I'm very pleased with myself for doing so well!

Now, I'm getting ready for the concerto/aria competition. Last semester I learned the Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 4 in G Minor. The competition is a month away. I have it mostly memorized, but still have a ways to go. Listen to how cool my teacher is: He's going to play through my concerto with me every day next week. Normally we meet twice a week. Next week, we'll meet five times. I'm so grateful! He said, "You just need a jump start." Talk about incentive to practice. I'm going to have to make noticeable progress every day next week. Yowza. Think how great I'll be a week from today! Don't you just love Rachmaninoff?

Grace

Here's a beautiful poem I found on Writer's Almanac this morning. I read it, and I knew it was about a real woman! I have many such friends. I am in awe of what it takes to be a woman and maintain any semblance of a practice schedule, because usually, unlike this poem, mommies don't get to practice for 3 hours straight; they usually accomplish their work 15 minutes at a time, in between solving the troubles of their little children. Enjoy!

Grace
by Frannie Lindsay

Praise my plain young mother for leaving
her husband's bed at four in the morning
fumbling around for her bifocals
carting her stained velour slippers
down the raw-grained stairs not tying
her robe sliding her violin from between
the magazine rack and the firewood
easing past the mantelpiece scattered
with wedding portraits

praise the caked galoshes drying beside
the basement door swollen away
from its frame and the top step's narrow slat
praise her large bare feet
their tough and knotty bunions
the cool of her hand on her sheet music
praise the scotch tape on the spine
of her Bach and its weakening glue
her penciled maiden name

praise the steadfast ladderback chair
and the music stand there in the basement
the set tubs the damp socks
and undershirts draped too close
to her shoulders praise her shoulders
limber and painless for three brief hours
praise the rosin's glide down her bow
the throaty fifths the sacrament
of her tuning

praise the measure she counted aloud
and the downbeat's breath-lunge
praise her calloused and lovely fingerpads
the noteprints the sixty-watt bulb
the mud-plashed screen through which
the unsorrowing ends of the night slipped in
and although she did not ask to be touched
praise how they lifted up the brittle
wisps of her perm.

Becoming Blog Savvy

Occasionally I get messages from people such as the following: "I can't figure out how to follow your blog." Or, "I can't figure out how to leave a comment on your blog." Since I love followers, and I love comments, this is a little disappointing, in addition to being a puzzlement. I was just recently looking at a blog entry that someone posted a link to on FB. I clicked on the linked, read the entry, and went to find the "Follow" button. It wasn't there! BUT, when I SIGNED IN, and went back to the page, I could both "Follow" and "Post a Comment". So if you don't have a blog-spot login, go ahead and create an account and join me in blogging bliss!

E.S.P. or Serendipity?

Last night I had the coolest experience! My brother called. We used to play piano duets together all the time. We did a full recital together every year for nearly 10 years. We even were featured on the local news once. He called me and here's how the conversation went:

L: "I was just driving down the road, minding my own business, when GUESS what they played on the classical radio station? Guess! You'll never guess!"
Me: "What? I'll never guess. Tell me."
L: "Just guess!"
Me: "Ummmm, Samuel Barber's Souvenirs for piano, four hands."

And would you know, I was RIGHT!!! We just wailed and laughed and laughed, that I was able to guess this very obscure piece of music that we played once together, probably 20 years ago. I haven't heard it or played it since. Last week I had been looking through my duet music, choosing duets for my piano students, and had stumbled across my score that I was able to pick up on sale a couple of years ago. What are the chances that I would have that piece on my mind, and that he would hear it on the radio and call me, and I would KNOW that was what he was experiencing, too? When we used to play together, we had something special; we could anticipate what the other would do without even having to signal the other. In fact, in practicing, we would sometimes stop in the middle and start at the same place without even discussing it. We totally had E.S.P. (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, whatever you want to call it), and you know, maybe we still do. I have played with a lot of people, and I have never come close to finding what I had with my brother, in terms of really knowing what the other was going to do without cues. It would be fun to play those pieces together again, now that we are older and know how music oughta sound.

Do any of you experience this within your musical ensembles? I'd love to write a book about this someday. Tell me your stories.