Music and more
Cold and breezy late spring in lower part of North Island but i'm enjoying good food, local rose gardens and good musical company :)
Large Gingko tree must be over 100 years old and seems happy here in cloggy acid soil
This evening we went to see the Ben Elton play "Silly Cow" - contemporary with an uplifting delightful comedy unexpected ending! Followed by a meal at the best Indian I know in NZ (and best garlic nan bread *anywhere in the world*)!!.. then back to the house to do a few more practices of Verdi Cries (Natalie Merchant)... I even got *both* hands worked out and was playing the intro on the piano (with G playing guitar and R working on fiddle bits)... so tomorrow is my last evening here before i start driving northward. We will have to nail it and we're still a bit dodgy in places (oh yes!) but it feels GOOD cos i haven't really read music or learnt to play something on a keyboard in decades (ok I resorted to playing by ear after awhile cos it was just doing my head in reading all the flats! and trying to remember the name of notes in both clefs etc) thank fuck for the interwebs and R having had some music lessons when she was a kid! I'm sure i used to know this stuff but really if you don't use it, you lose it! yes I'd totally forgotten that the keys on a piano go in alphabetic order A - G ! yes really! I found middle C almost straight off but I had to look the rest up from there!
G and I sang at the local folk club last friday at their 50th birthday party - but that's easy compared to learning to play something on a piano w both hands in one afternoon when you've not attempted such things before and never had lessons :D no doubt i'll forget it, just like the intro to Nothing Else Matters on the guitar :D
Large Gingko tree must be over 100 years old and seems happy here in cloggy acid soil
This evening we went to see the Ben Elton play "Silly Cow" - contemporary with an uplifting delightful comedy unexpected ending! Followed by a meal at the best Indian I know in NZ (and best garlic nan bread *anywhere in the world*)!!.. then back to the house to do a few more practices of Verdi Cries (Natalie Merchant)... I even got *both* hands worked out and was playing the intro on the piano (with G playing guitar and R working on fiddle bits)... so tomorrow is my last evening here before i start driving northward. We will have to nail it and we're still a bit dodgy in places (oh yes!) but it feels GOOD cos i haven't really read music or learnt to play something on a keyboard in decades (ok I resorted to playing by ear after awhile cos it was just doing my head in reading all the flats! and trying to remember the name of notes in both clefs etc) thank fuck for the interwebs and R having had some music lessons when she was a kid! I'm sure i used to know this stuff but really if you don't use it, you lose it! yes I'd totally forgotten that the keys on a piano go in alphabetic order A - G ! yes really! I found middle C almost straight off but I had to look the rest up from there!
G and I sang at the local folk club last friday at their 50th birthday party - but that's easy compared to learning to play something on a piano w both hands in one afternoon when you've not attempted such things before and never had lessons :D no doubt i'll forget it, just like the intro to Nothing Else Matters on the guitar :D