Mozart's Sonata

My wife challenged me to learn  a new piano song this year.  I normally like to choose songs that are way beyond my level, like the 3rd movement of "Moonlight Sonata", so this time I chose one that I might be able to finish in less than 5 years: Mozart's Sonata in C.  I'm making good progress on.

I snapped a vid of me 2 weeks ago on it, and will do one again soon, (on a camera that has a few megapixels but not a lot of quality), and will post them once I figure out how to edit video, so that I don't bore people to death with long segments of uselessness.

I also tried to play the Sonata on the clarinet.  That didn't work out so well at all.

Things to not say to dad:

I put on some reminiscing music from Star Wars.  Hey, the music's still good.

10yo: I bet you can't play that on the trumpet

Wife: Why did you say that?  You should know better...

Me - bring out the trumpet and play along.  Mind you, it was probably a grade III performance (higher number = bad), as I haven't played in a number of months, and I didn't bother warming up or whatever.

And for some reason, the 10yo was busting out laughing the whole time.

Clarinet returns

I picked up a wind instrument for the first time tonight in a while.  I was working with my 10yo (this is the same as my 9yo, who recently had a birthday) for her near concert.  I managed to go up and below the break with much greater speed than before.  Going down seemed to be easier than going up.  Not near good enough, but much faster than I can strum between chords on a guitar.

We learned various sharps and flats, and various notes over the break.  I tried to play the trumpet part of my HS fight song (I'm a geek, it's true; no surprise), and did a C above the bar for a bit.  Except it's impossible for me to hold only notes on the back of the clarinet with no counterbalance from the front, so I [incorrectly, I'm sure] held it between my knees.

Then, all of a sudden, I ran out of gusto.  Not gradually, but very suddenly (yes, that's redundant), I just couldn't play any more.

Song juxtaposition

So, somehow last week, my wife and I both bust into song right at the same time.  I started singing the chorus of "******* Perfect" (Pink), while she started singing the theme from "Big Bang Theory" (Barenaked Ladies).  Somehow they actually fit together, at least for the first five seconds, when we stopped and laughed.

Piano back.

We got our piano back last Tuesday.  It's awesome.  It's balanced.  It's even.  It's rad.

I miss my piano

So, my piano is supposed to be fixed tomorrow.  Normally, when I want a good pick-me-up, I go tinker around at the piano for a minute or two.  Now I guess I have to resort to chocolate.

Piano Repair

So, my piano's been bugging me that about 20% of the notes don't take.  Meaning, you hit a key and nothing happens.  Then my parents and my wife colluded to fix it for my birthday.  We brought in a lady, and she examined it, and she recommended a regulation.  It probably hasn't been done in 30 years - I was like "can't we just do a partial one? - but my wife said we might as well do it.

So now the piano lady has the guts of our piano in her shop, and we can't play it.  *whimper*

Pachelbel Rant

Not my idea, but it's hilarious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

Fight Song

I've been practicing my trumpet embouchure in the car on the way to work.  I know, it sounds weird.  Oh well.

Anyway, I played my old high school fight song almost flawlessly today.  It has a 2 octave C to C range.  Although, after about 5 more minutes, I couldn't sustain any notes about G and about 5 minutes after that, I couldn't play any more at all.

Piano tuning

Tuning a piano is a pain.  But just cuz it takes so long.  I do it to mine about every 6-9 months, and I can't bear to pay somebody $100, even if it takes me longer.  The first time I did it, it took me about 8 hours, but I was doing it by ear with a tuning fork, but then we got a digital tuner later, and then it only takes 2-3 hours.  Although, it still only registers the middle so the bottom and top have to be done by ear.  But that's okay, since we don't use those parts as much so I don't care if it's as perfect.  That and the bottom notes only have one string anyway.  (Stupid half the piano has 3 strings per note...)

Kids were helping for a bit today, and then did a bit more after they went to bed.  Still have 2.5 octaves to go.

Piano - 7 yo's recital

So, a few weeks ago, our 7yo had a recital.  I was surprised when the teacher asked him to get a family member to do a duet with him, and I was chosen.

If you know anything about me and piano, I can't sight read worth crap.  I can play a few songs (of level 3-4 out of 10, if one handed Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is level 1 and Hungarian Rhapsody #2 is level 8-9), but they took time to get.

So we play a 1-page duet, his part is 1-2 notes at any time, and mine is the same with 8th notes.  I was nervous.  He did fine.  After a few weeks of practicing, I have my part mostly done, but couldn't really get the whole way through without stopping or without a little mess-up, and that's how our performance was.  I only missed the left hand on a few of the measures though.  He learned how to listen to my part out of it, and we learned to play together.

Piano

I depressed myself a few days ago: I'm a somewhat grown man, and a mediocre musician, and will probably never be to a level to perform in public, so what's the point.  Well, the two answers are this:

• If you want to someday, then PRACTICE MORE, you lazy butt!
• Do it cuz you enjoy it, not for everybody else

Well, I guess that satisfied me enough.  

So we bought a used $300 piano about 5 years ago.  It's a good piano, but once the kids get out of the "hey I'm going to destroy all your stuff phase", we might have to upgrade. (I think they spilled some stuff on the middle keys last week and some of the keys kind of stick sometimes, so that got me kind of not wanting to play as much lately.)

I've been trying out the following songs recently:

Schubert's Serenade

Mannheim Steamroller's God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (rock 'n' roll)

and yesterday my mom asked me to do 

Pachelbel's Canon in D

Results: I'm about 80% on Serenade.  At least the 2-page version,  My mom has a book with a 4-page version, and since I only see that at her house, I don't practice it as much.  

Gentlemen is a little harder, but I've been trying some new fingering techniques lately - involving planning ahead a measure or two to prep where your fingers won't have to move as much, and I've gotten better at this one.  Typically I only practice around Christmas time.

You should also now that I have a pipe dream of mastering Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata - 3rd movement.  I've played the 1st movement (decently) for years, and the book has all 3 movements.  Personally, though, I think the 2nd movement is boring, but if you've never heard the 3rd, here's a cool video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqSulR9Fymg

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8nQ3ZBSuEY

Well, that one I can play at about 50% accuracy and about 33% speed.  In other words, in about 20 minutes, it will sound terrible.  And I've spent about a year practicing it (about once every other week).

Clarinet Intro

That being said about the trumpet, I've started to play my wife's clarinet.  I like to do things my wife can do for two reasons:

1. Because I want to do everything she can do, and
2. Because when I do those things, it kind of re-ignites her desire.  See, right now, she's practicing rudiments.

I should also mention that she teaches a band class at the local elementary school, and that my 9yo daughter is also learning clarinet in that band class.

So I've played about 5 times now, for maybe half an hour a piece.  I've gone through most of my daughter's level 1 book.  I find it odd, though, as I'm used to the trumpet, for the following reasons:

1. I have this big old welt/callous on my right thumb
2. On the trumpet, you're encouraged to press the keys with the fingers bent so the fingers go straight up and down, whereas on the clarinet, you need to keep the fingers straight(-er)
3. It seems you follow a different pattern when raising a half step than on the trumpet - following similar patterns on the trumpet would take you down half a step.

So right now, I can go from G below middle C to A above the staff.  My wife says it's not because of any natural clarinet talent (bah!) but because I already have an embouchure developed.  However, it takes me about 30 seconds to transition over the break.  For instance, I tried "Star Spangled Banner" in C, and it took me about 10 minutes for all the times I had to do that.

Trumpet Intro

So, I played the trumpet growing up.  I was probably best in the 9th grade, because for some reason I didn't practice often in High School.  I could play all right in HS, but I could never sustain notes above an F after having practiced for more than about 20 minutes (like I could in 9th grade).  However, I had a nice tone, articulation, and other stuff.

Anyway, my wife played the clarinet, and oboe, and all of the saxes, and for some reason, she didn't lose her musicianship after we got married.  I picked up my trumpet for the first time in about 5 years, and I could only play a few notes.  Well, I can play about to the level I could in HS again now, because I occasionally am called upon to play - I've had 2 occasions in the last few years where I played Tijuana Brass numbers for a church party (I did these all right, because I practiced every day for about a month and was able to play most of the high notes), and 2 occasions where I've had to play "Taps" for grandfathers' funerals.  So I play about once a month just so I can maintain such that if the need arises, I can practice for a month and get what I need to.