Boredom

One of my kids had to write a paper entitled:  "China - Friend or Foe?"  Talk about vague, if not unspecific.  Apart from relief that I didn't have to write this paper, I am inspired by the concept and will call this post "Boredom - Friend or Foe?".

Growing up I was told that "The (my family name) children are never bored". Truly untrue if it had to be said.  As ammunition again this vice, my mother often referred to the fictitious "boy in the hospital".  He and he alone was allowed to be bored.  Actually we never heard what became of him, even fictitiously. I still wonder.

Anyway, boredom, growing up, was equated with ingratitude and overall lack of character.  There was a strong implication that bored kids were shameful, spoiled brats. Sigh.  Doomed from the start.

In truth, I have often been bored.  Yes.  Not even just mildly. Yawningly, cavernously, soul-gnawingly, voraciously and so on.  Bored with tired vocabulary, bored with lecturers on auto pilot, bored with people who never try anything new.  Bored with bland food,  bored with song arrangements, bored with routines, bored even with...gasp...reading instructions and spending so much of my life being responsible, reliable and practical.  Not that I am considering a criminal lifestyle, in case my mother is reading this.

Boredom, for the most part, has been a powerful and even useful force in my life.  It has motivated me to take courses, read books, and jump headlong into new social groups.  Boredom has driven me to learn instruments, take things apart to make new things (sometimes successfully), talk to strangers, ask questions and squeeze the last drop of humor out of or into situations that would otherwise be, well, boring.  A tremendous asset, I'd say...again for the most part.  Maybe sometime I'll write another post on the cons of boredom. If I'm still interested.

Piano Practice

I just thought I'd write a bit about how I practice the piano, in case this is useful to anyone.
Just for context, most of my performance playing is without written out music, just with chords in a particular key and improvised along with a band. To keep myself in musical shape between performances and when I'm not getting ready for particular songs, here's what I do:

I sit at the piano about 5 times a week and play even if it's just for 5 minutes.  Frequency is important.  I start with just one exercise from the Hanon exercise book which most piano students meet in their first couple years of lessons. It's like eating your greens.  Might as well get it over with since it's good for you even if it's not very interesting.  I do this with a metronome.  The metronome keeps my ears and fingers used to following a certain tempo and being steady, just like when I'm playing with other musicians.

Next I pick one key for the day to do scales. (Over several weeks I make sure I get through every key or at least the harder ones so I'm ok playing in any key if I have to.)  I play the major scale in that key with a metronome but pick a different tempo or speed from what I used for the Hanon exercise for variety and more ear/finger training.  If I have more time I play it as a minor scale and/or as a blues scale, which I've started adding to my practice in the last couple years.  Sometimes I'll play solid, then broken chords in that key or do arpeggios in the same key.  Now and then I'll do a chromatic scale starting and ending on the first note of the key I'm in.

Finally, and again if I have the time, I'll set the metronome to yet another tempo and do some piano doodling or improvising in the key of my scale for the day.  I don't try to be very fancy or tricky. I just relax and fool around in that key.  Sometimes I'll come up with some interesting things, mostly because I'm not trying to.

And that's it for my routine.  Not very complicated but so far it has served me well and has been manageable.

Illustrator Irina Vinnik

Check out this illustrator's work online. Fascinating drawings that I believe are digitally done but look like inked art.  I really like how she does some of them in earth tones like a Da Vinci drawing. The details and patterns are mesmerizing to me.  Below is one of her works.

Fiddling

Attended a fiddle concert at the music school where my youngest is finishing her 1st year of fiddle class, though it's her 5th all together of violin.  Amazing to me how much variety and "cross pollinating" there is within this genre, if that's even the correct term. There were pieces with South American rhythms, Ukrainian, Irish and early 20th century American styles.  Professional musicians/instructors from the school accompanied the students on double bass, drums and guitar.

I think the most inspirational to me was the adult fiddle class of four people. Two women, two men.  The youngest was probably in his fifties.  It was also their first year of fiddle lessons and they'd worked hard.  They seemed like an interesting group of people. One man around 60 was very tall and probably half native with thick gray hair down past his shoulders. With the fiddle in hand he looked like someone straight out of a western movie set.

It was highly impressive to me that these people were learning an instrument relatively late in life. When I complimented them later they said I should join them.  Tempting prospect, though honestly less for this instrument and more for prospective socializing with a new mix of people.  Guitar and/or cello appeal to me a lot more right now.

Lennon part 2

I'm further in my reading of the book Lennon Revealed by author Larry Kane.  This time what has caught my attention is from when John reunited with his wife Yoko. And to be frank about my ignorance, I had no idea until last week that she was an artist too.

Page 82 "John, free of the addiction that had tortured his life, was now high on the thing he did best - talking."    "...their reignited relationship was illuminated by the art of conversation."

The author also said here, " From my perspective, the most memorable and invigorating part of knowing John Lennon was engaging him in any kind of debate or verbal joust."

Caustic though John could be, it would have been interesting to listen in on some of these chats or better yet to be part of them.  "The art of conversation" is one of the most appealing and energizing to me in life, especially with other creative people.  Like extra, extra dark chocolate there's never too much....or even enough.

Lennon Revealed

I'm reading a book by this title.  The author is Larry Kane.  Again, I'm probably way behind most people in their knowledge about John Lennon (and most famous musicians of last century, though I'm catching up slowly).  So far what I've found especially interesting is reading about John's highly creative friend Stuart Sutcliffe, a very early band member, painter and immeasurable influence on John.

Page 46 says,"..it was Stuart who honed and sharpened John's instincts as an artist. And that led to even more development of both John's art and being."  "...He inspired and challenged John to become a better artist..."

Sadly, Stuart died in 1962 just before he turned 22 but friends said John never stopped talking about him for the rest of his life.  A story that is intriguing, poignant and not without its shadow sides.  I'm curious to research Stuart now and see what kind of art he did.

Ellipses

Total? Lunar? Solar? Or.....punctuational???  Today I learned a new word.  "Ellipses." Webster defines this as marks or a mark showing omission, especially of letters or words.  I realized I've been using these....in an everyday fashion, like forks and knives, without knowing their real name.  Or their proper function. Hmmmmm......(space for thoughtful pause).  Slightly doubting my education now.  What else did I miss in English that is obvious to other people?  True, even simpler punctuation hasn't been my strong point. (And don't start me on spelling...)  I vaguely bluff my way through semi-colons, colons and even some comma uses.  I think learning and remembering these rules seems way too tedious for me in light of more important things like vocabulary and just getting something said. Very possibly it's also a subversive form of personal anarchy....

Near Kandern

I painted this from a photo I took during a 3 day high school reunion 2008 in southern Germany.  Maybe a bit idealized but it reminds me of many memories I have in common with classmates and how this fairy tale forested farmland corner of the world framed our years and experiences there.  It's been over 25 years since we graduated.  I still take dream trips back.