Ice skating on a Pavement
Yesterday I went back to the ice rink. Just a try out before I take up lessons again. Put on my skates, stepped into the rink.
Oh er, why am I not gliding ? Is it to do with the protective covering ? But I removed it. If I had had it on, it would be slippery instead. But this, it’s weird. Why am I not gliding when I put my foot down ?
Golly by me, I might as well be skating on a pavement. The ice surface is so coarse that I might as well just walk on it. I tried anyway. Push off, move, make circles, go backwards.
Plonk ! Ouch.
That’s it. What kind of an ice surface is that ? Have they done a bad job of resurfacing the the ice during the intervals or are there that many people there that day ?
So much for ice skating. I wonder how the other higher grade skaters take their lessons. Painfully but that’s what I feel for them. How can one feel the joy of the glide that way ? They must have deadened their senses.
That’s a sorry state to be.
Get Up!
Get up! Get up! Yelled the teacher.
I try to get up while being tangled in whatever position. There was plenty of space to move. The other must have been in a somewhat unstable position too.
Get up!
I struggled to. Now how on the earth do I do that?
I exerted. Enghhh!
Get up!
Really…how does one get up? My god, how would a kid get up?
Wow so far removed am I from childhood whence getting up must be the most natural thing in the world.
Get up!
Sideways I was but gravity favours the other guy. Plop down I went. Still thinking how on tbe earth do I get up from a tangled position, sideways somwhat contorted without the use of hands on the floor to help.
That would remain the question throughout the day.
Later I asked a blackbelt teacher. How to get up? I was figuring it out on the mat. Yeah just like that. Scissoring.
Oh. Get Up means scissoring. Scissoring your legs, get your knees to the ground and your butt up.
Let me try that one.
Blogging and Postings
I have to rearrange my posts. How I write it and the themes. So far I have been posting minimally, just barely keeping up with the blogging. I have been sitting in a figurative whirlwind and by the time I have sorted out one thing, another arises. Or while something is still ongoing, something else comes up. It’s been putting out one fire after the other, or batting at whichever ball comes my way. Very interesting times. Very testing as to how I can keep my head together.
One other thing that has been influenced as well is my sporting life. Well, that is, besides the blogging since I have not been able to settle one thing to it’s reasonable conclusion to be written about before something else called my attention. This is at the level where I cannot reasonably find a subject I want to write about.
My sporting life, well I have been doing ice skating, which takes up much of my attention and energies because of the specific technical demands they place on the body. But all of a sudden, in this mad period of time when my fuse is much shorter with things and people in my way, I decided looking dainty and controlled on ice is not going to help me much nor vice versa. I mean how do you expect me to be growling and scowling and needing to look pretty and poised at the same time ?
So in that madness, I heard about a new MMA gym in town, huge and complete with the cage and a boxing ring, I went to check it out. And I joined. Just like that. Period of madness I told. I wasn’t even thinking much. I did regret and and had anxieties about possibility of a mistake coming from a rash decision because I had tied myself up for a year. The reason I signed up almost immediately was I had told earlier on that I had a small dream of joining the MMA. So when I saw this cage, I decided to make my dream happen since it is put in front of me. Don’t know how many years it will take me, but at least I have signed of for a year.
It’s quite cool because since I wake up with the sun, or even before then, as the cock crows, at the break of dawn, I am up already. And with nothing to do. Normally I go and have breakfast in a cafeteria, I like to read in that time, but the place where I am at does not open that early. So it’s great that I can go to the gym instead. Start my day early and plonk into bed all tired out.
I first joined the Thai boxing class. Found that it was quite tough with much cardio work, decided to try out the Brazilian jujitsu instead. And I have been doing it every morning since. My reason is that my body hadn’t fully recovered from the pounding and I felt the jujitsu is more about techniques so I can last longer in play. I just got into it. But the warm up is just as bad.
I do not enjoy sports that require a lot of skip hop and jump work. Or with a lot of cardio work. But that’s just saying I do not feel that my body is naturally built for it. Having said that, I know where to concentrate my training, a little at a time. The hop skip and jump belong to hip work. So does the floor scooting, also off the hips.
About the blog, I might have to split it into sports and music. For the past months, I have been rolling all these activities into one blog but now, perhaps splitting them up is a better idea, and a shorter post each time.
Oh, I joined the gym because I had been feeling quite aggressive to unreasonable little things. Might as well take out my aggression in a more disciplined and productive manner.
The bouts of intensive warmup has been quite good, the results of which was demonstrated in an adhoc basketball game of which I am no player of. I could last a tad longer during defense, marking a good player of the opposite team. I played for only ten minutes because it was unexpected and I had to be somewhere else. Made a good impression too, although I was fouled a few times because I didn’t know the rules.
Go Trip
I am barely able to practice these days, till I am ensconced in my new home. My practice is cursory, I asked my teachers for little homework, technical practice rather than whole songs.
Even so, my guitar playing astounds me, for such little practice, the sounds I make comes out richer. I can hear it. It is discernible. With my pick, I must be improving too, I can control it a little better, creating softer sounds and hearing less of the scraping of the pick on the string. I am practising chord change from C to Dsus4 to D. Don’t ask me about music theory yet. For now I am more interested in getting technicalities right. My barre and left hand chord notes sound much better now. My grip is firmer and more decisive. My hands love being on the neck of the guitar. So what if it is numb elsewhere, but at the guitar neck, it feels like home. That is a strange feeling.
Drumming, it’s just about coordination. I do enjoy it. Rat-tat-tat.
As for my ice skating, my coach is on holiday. Whew. I do not think I can take any more. A week off is good. I could barely walk straight. The jumps have been placing huge stresses on one knee and that knee has been complaining loudly. But I finally got the idea. He told me not to jump yet. First poke a hole in the ice, then with the other foot out, reach to the further end and make a turn. Not by jumping but by striding. And that poking a hole in the ice with the toe pick, that is really anti what I have been training myself. That is, not to put any weight on the toe but more to the heel. I have a habit of scraping the ice with the toe pick when I do not have the confidence. Braking effect except that it is a most unacceptable way to slow down. Finally I figured it out. Essentially you are skating then suddenly you are required to jam your toe into the ice so as to make you trip, and in that trip, you use that energy to propel yourself forward and high up instead of a face plant on the ice. So I got the idea. Deliberate tripping oneself up. And I could do it with style too, the striding bit. I have not yet gone to jumping, my legs need rest. I told my my coach that day that anything little would set me into tears, so tired I was in my body, and so sensitive to pressures and pain.
Since I await my new place, I was thinking about having a platform built, to be a storage unit as well as an elevated floor and a huge bed as well all in one. I like building simple things, not all of them successful. Things do warp, topple or keel over due to the poor weight and length ratio. Since I have moved to different places, I have built different things using different materials. Mostly they were for trying out ideas and making places fit the way I want them to.
This time I was dismantling all that metal and wood shelving that I made for storage when all of a sudden I realized that I had too many pieces of those and what a waste it would be to throw them away. So I thought about reusing them and building the platform instead. By building I mean just sizing up, cutting , simple screwing up the pieces together and securing the planks on top. Simple set up.
So I took out some big and heavy library books about carpentry and building shelves and cabinets to get an idea of the basic stuff called, joinery and things like that. Very interesting read. Turns out that such sophisticated gleaming kitchens turns out to be wood based.
I like the idea of using different available materials than just solely wood because actual carpentry requires a workshop, generates lots of sawdust and too many dangerous equipment that have to be bought. I am not that serious.
Strum
Here’s how I know my guitar is going somewhere. On top of learning the barre patterns easily, I have now actually dropped a glass of cold water and broke it. My fingers have have callused tips which feels little and has little traction. I used to hold my glasses by the tip of two or three fingers lightly. Now I have to hold mh glasses like a bloke drinking beer. Total grip.
I am not very keen on chord strumming because I prefer very clear single note sounds but it is more acceptable now using a pick. My teacher now emphasizes quick and efficient chord changing.
For my drums I am learning 16th note patterns. Really loud. I put on ear muffs.
For my ice skating, I was having a very hard time with the Waltz Jump just a simple change direction jump. I was concentrating so hard that I barked at any one that broke it.
I did get it finally.
Up and Down and Up and Down
It is hard to speak of my frustration.
My teachers tell me to listen to songs.
Yes, so I listen to songs. My ears pick up the drums, the guitar, the rhythms.
But that only serves to frustrate me for when I play my meager few notes, what’s it like compared to the Palace that feels like a sky away ?
I don’t actually like to listen to songs then sometimes. I don’t want to remember how far I have to reach to get to that place like what I hear on the radio. I would just prefer to plod on and suddenly be surprised one day at having arrived.
I only mention this because I bought a few cds today having walked past the cd station to get to some sushi and got recommended some cds. I told them I want to hear guitar, bass and drums. I bought an electronica, it is about the beats after all. But after getting home, they are still in the bag. I have had to practice my guitar first, and then the snare drum technique. Yes, that’s the right priority.
I took up drums again, this time with another teacher. Boy, he is technically demanding. And he should be. He loves the drums and he records. He has a studio where recording takes place and that’s where I take my lessons.
So I have guitar lessons from a teacher who love sthe guitar and drum lessons from a teacher who loves the drums.
I noticed myself spilling stuff quite often. I wondered why. And because they are sometimes sweet stuff, I do get a bit annoyed. Then the other day, my right hand reached for a bright yellow thick mango lassi , milkshake like, the whole thing just dumped itself on me. I was dripping yellow. I won’t speak of how long it took someone from the establishment to come to my aid. I won’t speak of when the lady arrived, I was offered two pieces of serviettes. I won’t mention that I got very helpful comment that I could take my remaining kebab away with me. All this while I was still dripping shirt and and pants and shoes with yellow.
I wondered about all these spilling business. I don’t do things like that. I haven’t done things like that for a long time. So why are they happening so often and a full splash on me, that’s a bit much. Then I realized to my sadness, I had lost the feelings at the end of my fingers. My left hand and my right too. That is really sad. I love to touch, I love to feel. I love texture.
But I am not stopping my guitar playing am I? Perhaps with the use of the pick, I could retain more sensitivity in my finger tips. But if I wanted to play classical like, or latin american like, I would have to pluck the strings wouldn’t I ? I think I better play more with the pick. Be a good girl. I had told that I love to feel the strings and pluck them. But I will have to do much more pick playing.
My guitar teacher is teaching me ‘slide’ and ‘pullout’. Neat tricks. But what’s difficult at the moment is he is telling me to play the pick downside and upside. That’s a new thing again. Not just having to feel for the strings and pick only to strings to strum on, but also to remember to up and down and up and down. I don’t exactly feel like I am playing the guitar. Just doing this and that on it. Not smooth enough to call it a song.
I like my new drum teacher. It was unexpected. I have had two before him and he is the most technically demanding and I love it.
I have a whole lifetime to go before I get to performance level. So I will be so busy and therefore be out of trouble. I can no longer say ‘I am so bored’. I have no time to be bored.
For my ice skating, my coach is really pushing me. Every lesson I learn something new. I get to use new muscles. I can jump now. The waltz jump they call it, King and I style. Be thrown in the air and land on the other side. I don’t jump these days. I don’t have a reason to. I actually forget how to do it. Like how do you just jump high in the air? Not to mention spinning halfway and land on the other side. So I went running. Well striding, throwing my knee forward in big strides. One knee lifts, the other pushes. All the while the chest is out and forwards. My coach wants me to do continuous jumps one after another. Wow.
Oh I forgot to mention that he had me spinning so much that I was sea sick for the whole day. I got to the point where I wanted to puke and my stomach churned and I had cold sweats. Geez. Then I went to see some homes and almost got the heatstroke. The hot sun on my head, the glare of the air in the sun. Not nice at all.
Doing this other 3-turn gracefully makes me feel all the different parts of my body one atop the other. That’s because I can feel something or many parts out of places all trying to stay in that equilibrium where I can stay upright and move from one to another position.
Along with house hunting, I am keeping quite busy. House hunting has now been relegated to weekend activity. Not the prime focus. A curious thing is how suicide is such a common thing. One can hardly find an area where there are no ‘incidents’.
Pick
I have to play with a pick now. It feels really weird. I prefer to pick notes. The tones are warmer. But I do not like to strum chords with the back of my fingernails. That is why my teacher introduces the pick to me at this time. I like an intimate relationship with my strings. I do not like to have anything hard between my fingers and the strings. Not even the back of my nails. I cringe.
But I will get used to the pick. For chord strumming. It does offer a brighter and louder sound, though not so personal.
The pick it is.
Boom Boom Boom
I love my Boom Booms.
I love deep bass.
When I sit with my headphones on, thinking whatever I am thinking or doing whatever I am doing, I get lost in it.
I got me a new pair of headphones. Nakamichi is best. The trebles are not lost when the deep bass is on. Reasonably priced too for the quality it produces.
I’d get lost the same too on my new stereo. I must be on a music binge getting these new stuff.
And what exactly was I doing when the music was on? I couldn’t really tell you. I don’t remember. I must have been dreaming away. But exactly how was I dreaming? Was I doing something? I must have been doing something. I am not exactly the stare into space type.
That’s how powerful music is to me.
But I can also do with the sound of silence or natural sounds. Those are music to me too.
I was just thinking the other day, music is everywhere. In the malls, in shows, tv, films, ads.
So how come I do not know about music? So I owe. .. owe who exactly? I owe…. to know a little about music.
Which I feel proud to learn something called shuffle, blues, progression. Besides naming them, don’t ask me more. I only know that much and I am playing it on the guitar!
No Boom Boom
The thing about practising the guitar is that I cannot have music playing in the background as well unless it is part of my piece.
I bought an inexpensive but deep bass recently. It gives good vibrations even at a low volume. It’s a very comfortable settling vibration.
No boom boom music, so I’ve put on BBC’s Silent Witness instead. Series 13.
F’s and G’s !
The strangest thing about it was, it took me a while to get the F consistently. While I got it, I could not get the G which was the same pattern. I was downright frustrated. Fs were the reason that I gave up guitar in the first place many years ago. I still feel the same now.
Yesterday, I spent many hours on the guitar. A few on the Fs and Gs.
I still coudn’t get the Gs.
This morning I woke up and voila. The Gs were in form !
What happened in between ? I couldn’t get it, then I could. And I kept testing it. seems that it is here for keeps.
So I continue my lessons.
My teacher also decided to pay good attention to me. I had decided to walk out last week because he just wasn’t here. Answered phone calls and all that. He called me back and said ‘Now I know’ after I told him that he wasn’t respecting his students.
He taught me a blues shuffle. I sound like a pro already.
He wanted me to learn to use the pick.
I am now quite versatile on the acoustic guitar, folk guitar and the electric guitar. I have been practising on whatever that was available.
A friend wanted to listen to me play the guitar. I said I’d put on a performance for her. I’d need some time to prepare.
My first proper public audience. I am out to wow!
Guitar is here to stay. That was one miserable week though. I had contemplated giving up the guitar…. but since I paid up for the month, I was advised to let these few weeks by and see how I feel.
My teacher, if he wants to, can create magic for me.
Or he could create a repulsion where I feel so bad that I’d quit class.
He decided on magic. And it works.
F’s and G’s
Ah, to be able to put my foot up on the woofer speakers, feelings its vibrations as it projects its sounds. Listening to the regularity of the waves hitting the shore. Eyes into the sea and a class in canoeing outside. Sipping a cup of coffee and reading a book.
What is life. What a reward of life.
That is one great time. And I am sitting in it.
Oh what a Break.
Oh what a Breather.
I have finally gotten myself somewhat sorted.
Drums have had to stop. Guitar in slight danger of wavering. F’s and G’s didn’t help much. How is it that I can now get the F but not the G ? Doing G is like struggling with F all over again. The sounds that come out is quite unpleasant. I guess what does not give out the pure sounds of the metal strings would be to me unpleasant.
I wanted to give up in disgust. Yet, one day when I picked up the guitar and hit the F beautifully, every string made a good enough pure sound, I was enticed again.
Enticed by the purity of the beautiful sound, for its own sake. To keep at it, to keep continuing. If I could only just produce two or three more of these sounds, how satisfied would my soul be.
I was frustrated because I knew that I could not dedicate myself to totally just overcoming these obstacles. I mean, total attention till these damned obstacles are blasted away and gone forever.
I have other Priorities. Music is not for me Calling. It is a curiosity. Much as I would like to do just music and study it totally, it is not for me to do it.
I just cannot dedicate myself 24/7 to do it. I am that kind of a person. When I am into something, totally all of me is into it. \
But I guess in a way, music is teaching me to pace it. Not all of life is a dire Full-On.
I say this because as I sit here writing some, playing some. My F’s improve, my G’s improve, even while I am here writing some.
It is a curiosity for me how I can’t believe I can do something. I keep doing it but pretty pessimistically, unhappily because I just can’t get it. It doesn’t help that being pressurized by other aspects of life makes me feel even worse about the Fs and Gs thus a projection into my career with a guitar. Ya ya, that’s how my brain would go.
Then suddenly, I get it. Just like that. There is no gradually. You gradually get better, but still nowhere close, then suddenly you get it. all your fingers get it. That’s that unbelievable Gap which mystifies me.
So I plod on.
***
My Ice skating ? My coach invited me to join the Level One competition for my age range. It’s to be held in six months.
Hum.
Wind Change
After that sudden whirlwind, of which Downtime was a must. I have recovered now from it, and see what’s going on.
It seems that now I have to pick up pace and change directions somewhat.
From a plodding leisurely pace, to an active initiative phase for more important urgent matters.
This means I have to drop a leisurely pursuit, the drums because it is no longer leisurely.I no longer have that luxury for the time being. No luxury to be fully immersed in it. I am not that kind that can split my mind for simultaneous full immersion in too many different things.
I drop the drum lessons because I am much better at it and the kit is less mobile.
Guitar, I have lots of things to figure out. And the sounds coming out of my fingertips are quite nice. Let’s stick to it. It’s supposed to be leisurely, so I still have a hobby, to do something for its own sake and no more.
So you see, even when I chill and stare at the ceiling, it is a meaningful chill !
WordPress, a sight for sore eyes.
Today’s post is a hodge podge of stuff. Just like my mind. I might need a few days to pull myself together. Totally lost the plot.
So let me just recount one item at a time.
I was sent this link from my friend because she knew that I was learning the guitar. What we have in common is that we hate big bullies. Sometimes we think quite depressedly about what we can do, sue them ?
Here’s United Broke My Guitar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=5YGc4zOqozo
***
I have been house hunting. That’s what actually threw me off my game.It can get quite stressfully traumatic.
***
I don’t want to do anything but sit and chill and get me back together again. I don’t even want to beat the drums. I just want to read my books, disappear my mind into them and go back to my comfort zone. Get me back together again.
My teacher says that I learn fast because I am dedicated in my practice. But I really do not feel like doing anything now.
No mood. Really really no mood.
***
My Galaxy Note is so new, and I have been fiddling with it that I lost the internet connection without knowing what I’d done or if it was me. I didn’t look like I was bothered but wow, I really didn’t feel like anything at all. Because my phone is also currently a wifi hotspot for my laptop, so I was disconnected. That wasn’t very nice. I wasn’t very comfortable at all. I mean. I just wasn’t quite comfortable without my connection. Without being able to connect to WordPress.
Till I had the ‘smart idea’ that I could call the provider and ask them. Yes, that is how ‘smart’ I am currently. How straight I am thinking. Duh.
So I got my connection back again. Phew. At least one part of my world is right again.
I think this is great. I got to find my foot again. Yea, one foot for starters. The other would follow suit. So let’s move real slow for now. Find my rhythm again.
WordPress is a sight for sore eyes. A comfy home of sorts.
One Little Bar
I wondered why it felt like I had done some vigorous exercise. I don’t remember doing any sport that makes me this sore. Sore in my calf. Yes. One calf. My right one, sore in my shoulders, both elbows, like tennis elbow, like carpal tunnel. What’s up ?
Oh, just a little bar of One and Two and a Three ee and a Four ee and a.
A little tiny bar that changes from 8th to 16th on a beat rate of 104.
A little tiny bar on that song sheet.
Just a little tiny bar.
And I spent 6 hours on it.
Talk about endurance. Now I understand what they mean.
That was a curious little bar bringing me all sorts of misery and mumble grumble.
I’d only ever been practising 8th .
16th means twice the speed. It’s not just the rat a tat tat factor. It’s also the factor of change. I mean suddenly you have to break into the 16th 6 times then back to the 8th again.
And you’d have to listen for 3 to make sure the time is right, and the ‘a’ to make sure the 16th entry is accurate. Now how does one hear it and get in between something so fast ?
Six hours? Yeah. It took me a whole day. I refused to leave till I got it.
And boy, what went through my mind. Talk about boredom. Talk about wanting to be somewhere else. Outdoors for example. Talk about wanting to get out of my stool.
Finally I got it. Evenly and cleanly in and out of the beats. And could play the whole song reasonably well. At least that one bar is alright.
The other parts, sometimes I did one bar too many, sometimes less. I mean how does one keep track of how many repetitive bars that just went by?
But at the very least, that one particular bar is Done.
Surprisingly, because this was so difficult to coordinate and very tiring, the other previous difficult transitions became a breeze.
Rat tat tat tat. Cool.
The Secret that is 12
I can do the F.
I can do the G.
Barred.
And continue counting my ABCs
Downward.
I know my ABCs
And my Do Re Mi s.
I know my 7 + 5 = 12
And from that 12 notes
The 12 scales
And the respective chords.
The Intervals
The hop skip and jump
All is named minor 2 to major 7
Before we start all over again
The next Octave.
The 12.
From there
The whole wide universe
and womb of
Western Music .
A Formula of 12
created
by the
Ancient Grandmasters
The Rules of their Harmony
Handed down to us.
This and That
I really like WordPress.
I like the blank piece of white that awaits me
that woos me,
invites me
to Write.
Now with Android,
on the go,
it’s even more fun.
I think it’s the Potential of it
that keeps me very interested.
****
Now about the smart phone, I have never owned any sophisticated one my entire life. I did buy a cheap one years back for a try out but I hardly ever used any functions except make that phone call. At most, SMS. So I didn’t bother looking at anymore phone technology after that.
So what possessed me to buy that Samsung Galaxy Note on the whim ?
It was like this, I had gone to the cheapest phone company that I passed by, just because the biggest phone companies gave me plenty of crap and crap service plus not excellent reception over the years. Now enticing with this and that, and locked in for two years and calculating rebates backwards and this and that. But when it comes to the fine print, We Know.
So I went into this shop enquiring about their charges and conditions when all of a sudden I noticed this Mr handling his brand new phone just out of the box being tested. Wow. Big. Wow, the colors. Wow, generous size and colours. Wow.
I asked ‘How much?’ and said ‘I want it’.
And that was it. I waited two weeks for mine. My contract is only for a year. I like that.
I don’t often spend a huge amount of money on technology. I don’t use them and they are usually not very user friendly. Having lost phones before, mobile things, I kept to the cheap phones, good for phone calls. I don’t even use it that much.
But the phone I was using had gone wonky. I dropped it so hard a few times, It must have gotten knocked out and damaged. I badly needed a replacement but because there is so much choice, my decision would be no decision.
So I got this nice Galaxy Note.
Nice it is.
And I discovered how much fun it is. The smartphone market has matured some, therefore stabilized. So one generation to the next will not be that huge a gap. This one has much memory plus SD card.
Plus the carrier says unlimited internet use plus wifi connection. It can even be its own wifi hotspot!
I had this phone for a while, someone introduced me to Whatsapp. I said what app? Last time I used messengers was ICQ that was the funnest time I had. Uh Oh ! Msn and Yahoo couldn’t beat that time.
So I got the Whatsapp. I didn’t use much of it. I wondered why I spent so much money on it. But I liked that it’s big. I can see things in it more comfortably than a normal phone size. And it is handier than the bigger tablets.
So WordPress was one of the earliest apps I downloaded. I use it to post quick short blogs.
I used it once to take pictures and post it right up, but it turned out upside down.
Ah but……..ever since I discovered the music apps, it became a fun and very useful piece. I learn to listen to Intervals on piano keys. I play games to guess that tone that I hear. I name my guitar frets and its tones. I use it so much for music. It even contains my score sheets. But it’s a tad small for that, but better than nothing when I forget to bring my music notes.
I am glad I got it. Fast, much memory. Simple to use.
Well forget about being paranoid with privacy issues and such. The permissions they ask for is akin to liberties to know where you are, who you call, who your friends are and what you use your phone for. Scary isn’t it?
But for the sake of my learning music, it’s fine.
***
My music ? It’s getting to be a whole lot of fun. The teacher got me to jam to the Wake Me Up before September by Greenday, which I was learning since the beginning on my guitar, which caused the cramps and the difficult Bm. I learn the drums for it. Pretty cool. Not smooth yet but pretty cool. I can sing along too !
The guitar? I learnt something exciting. I knew that it’s easy to spell out the ABCs along each string on each fret. It’s exactly laid out like the piano. But I could not figure out the chords. Today he taught me to Barre. When you Barre F to G it holds the same shape. WOW ! And you keep going down the frets holding the same shape. That is real cool !
He said something about you can’t do the shape with open strings. So you Barre them, so that you can do it. You add One. Now that I am home , I want to ask, why add one ? What is that one ? But it is exciting that I get that piece of knowledge. There goes my new flesh again, unused flesh to be thickened. Ouch. F hurts because my finger sides have not been thickened. Just the finger tip.
Well I still have to get the sounds out of the F but it is really exciting to know.
***
My Figure skating ? I learnt to do the half turn jump. I did it successfully without much ado unlike everything else that required the ado. It turned out to be similar to the 3-turn that I so painstakingly corrected.
My feet no longer cramp up. My only limitation to how long I can practise is the small deep muscles of my right butt. They still cramp, and tire out the fastest now.
And then someone else came to talk to me. I suppose since I can do the half turn, I qualify to talk to them and join their club ! They are more advanced than I.
Figure skating was not my sport, but it turns out to be so engaging and so interesting.
**
That’s a pretty long post for today.
Beats
Writing from the little android device, I had not realized that I put the wrong post into the wrong blog. So I moved it there and deleted the post from here.
I have many projects at hand and coming up. I am so fortunate to pick and choose and be busily involved.
Guitar and drum, no turning back now. The hardest part of the guitar is over. The pain and the wondering what it is all for. Well, I will always have new pain for new positions and new chords but I am getting used to it now. It doesn’t bother me as much and I no longer get frustrated while wondering if I will ever get it. I have, so I know I will too. My music education is on the way. Today I learnt the word pentatonic. I learnt the Am pentatonic scale and I learnt to play it. Don’t ask me more than what I just said. I wouldn’t be able to answer you. Not now. All I know is, I can sound good right now !
My drums too. I am busy with the concept of Independence. So practising that way. Left foot does what it does, right foot, and the paradiddles etc on the snare drum. Ok. Basically on my practice pad with the sticks.
Whenever I hear music, on tv, or in the mall, my ears start picking up the rhythms. If it comes with bass guitar, even better. I am interested in the calypso beat for Jamaican Farewell, from there interested in the different rhythms. My mental interest drives me forward. My practice follows. My teacher keeps me going.
I’ve got a website to do, writing, a talk to give. I am happily busy. Even my heart is busy being curious about people that makes it skip a beat.
F, Bm, Rudiments and Edges
For my guitar, I can more or less press out the Bm note by note according to the song. But my next challenge is the F. I feel the pain, the cramp and the forced deformity of my fingers. No matter how much or how hard I press, I cannot get all three or four of the notes together in a clean sound. My teacher advised me to cut my nails ! But I had that kind of a problem before with string E pressing notes on frets 3 5 7 and the Bm, which I can reasonably do now with average sound, meaning not crisp and clean. So I guess in time, I can get to the F.
I told my teacher I can’t confidently see myself as a guitarist at all, not if I can’t do the Bm, and F chord notes that are so basic. Unlike the drums where I have every confidence I can go very far in it. I have the talent. The guitar, I am not sure I have the Physical ability to do it. But I will stick to it for a while yet. I can play a few songs now, and surprisingly, even though my tempo is not yet there, because I have to feel for the notes sometimes, the sounds coming out of my fingers get cleaner and crispier, I did not think it could get any cleaner and clearer than what I got, but, I did. It is a beautiful sound.
Besides the F, my teacher is also gearing me towards Bass guitar strumming, 1 2 1 2 with the index and middle fingers. He says I am doing fine with my left hand, so now mind a little of the right.
I bought me a little travelling electric guitar, so small and so light that I can carry it everywhere with me. The neck is normal sized. Just the body has been reduced and the place where you tune the strings have been placed on the body. That and plug earphones into it, and no one gets disturbed. It is cool, black and futuristic looking. Speedster it is called.
I begin to be interested in the notes I was playing. I begin to be interested in the theory. I still don’t get it but I figured if I see those explanations often enough in myriad sources, I might piece together what they mean. Major scales? Chords?
For the drums, I bought a practice pad which can be strapped to the knee seated so that I can start practising my snare techniques. Rudiments they call it. 26 of them.
Now this post would be more complete if only I would pose my new toys for pictures here. Well, I do not want to wait to post. Those pictures could take forever, knowing me.
***
My figure skating keeps improving. The physical technical challenges leave me hooked. I mean just the basic stuffs, the glides, the edges, the turns. Doing it powerfully, gracefully and with ease. I have not begun any jumping yet. Just a little Bunny Hop.
Nuances
It’s the nuances.
As I go through my boredom of not getting a part right again and again,
I play through the whole song again and again.
Again and again I play. All of a sudden I hear the other instruments. I hear their beat in their melody. My hands go by themselves, my feet too. And I am so in my zone that I miss the next bar coming up.
But it is the nuances that give me the pleasure. It’s almost like a secret revealed.
This is the drum practice.
Cringes and Pleasures
I was quite reluctant to pick up the guitar. I was supposed to be at the drums. Schedule change. I found myself reluctant to pick up the guitar.
I picked it up anyway, I could feel my fingers cringe. Cringing at the anticipation of pain. and Pain there it was. I wasn’t very happy.
But I played anyway since I was at it.
Surprisingly I sound even better. Coordination too. After some warm up, the pain went away. But it was time to go for the drums.
When I play, sometimes I get very sick of the same old songs. But because I still could not make a perfect piece without losing a note or timing here and there, I pushed through my practice. Not particularly joyful. Very purely functional to get my fingers and coordination as close to perfect as possible. Just keep doing it. Sometimes it pays off, when I play on the park bench, I play like I want to play, the way I want to play it.
Oftentimes I find me getting bored easily, I hurry through, push through and practice through so much more. So that I can get the pieces perfect and we can explore another song. It does feel like a long ways away.
Practice, practice, practice.
****
My ice skating? I am on another level. I found out how to weight shift deliberately rather than falling accidentally from one foot to the other. It looks more graceful too. I have so much fun on ice. I got addicted. Until the next day, when I can’t move from oohs and ows. Then I am no longer in the mood and wonder why I like to skate.
There is no stopping me now. It is so much fun and exhilarating on the ice. The speed, the grace, the maneuverability, the danger, the precision.
Botox for Music
My teacher told me to gloss over mistakes if I were playing to music, exam or for the public. If I missed a beat or hit a wrong note. Don’t ever stop, or make a big ado about it.
So I zipped up my lips. No expressions of Oops. Oh dear. etc.
But then I found my Eyebrows speaking so loud.
I told my teacher, if I were to have no expressions to my wrong doings, I’d need a Botox!
Plodding on
Music.
I really up till now do not know what to think of it. Perhaps I have not had enough dabbling into it, let’s not even talk about immersion. I am only doing what I am told. Reading the notes and playing, making sure my fingers work, my coordination work. It is now mostly physical. I do not think there is much of a musical element involved just yet.
I do not know if I will ‘get’ it. Music that is.
But let’s plod on. We shall see.
Practice, Practice
This guitar thing, I have no idea what to think about it. My fingers hurt over and over. Just when I thought I got my calluses, they peel off leaving me with raw new skin again. I feel like I slicing my flesh.
I am still hard at work on the B minor.
I got scolded by my teacher. It has been a long time since anyone has done that. A long while. I feel like a kid again. Unable to do anything right even though I wanted so badly to please. Really, honestly, for the life of me I am unable to explain my stupified responses during my lesson. Pinky, ring finger, middle, 5th string 3 fret , I was unable to count or differentiate what I was told. I mean I was blank. I’d even used wrong fingers even though I had spent hours and weeks being right. I has even forgotten his instructions and he called me up on it.
Wow. What a bad day. So I determined even more to get things right. No more such nonsense.
I must say I have been awed by my teacher. I mean he had such an effect on me that I am so conscious of him and self conscious at the same time. Wowzer.
This means I am putting in the hours drums and guitar to get at least one piece right for each instrument. Bm included.
Testing
First photo with text attempt failed on Android. I clicked myself out and could not find my way back to my post again. No ‘previous’ page button. No draft option. No save option.
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