Reading the Notes

Just glanced at the blog and realized that there's no way I can keep that monk photo from the previous entry at the top for any longer, so I decided to write about, what else, singing.

I'm learning a song in Spanish called El Majo Discreto. After all this time of my Spanish knowledge interfering with my Italian, now that I'm singing something in Spanish I find that the Italian is interfering! Go figure.

My teacher suggested that I figure out how to play it on the piano, so I sat down and actually did the "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" and "FACE" thing to work out the notes and hand write them in on top of the staff. I even remembered the sharps... which I also had to figure out with the fudgeface saying. Then I sat at the piano and plunked it out. It definitely does help me to learn the melody faster than I would if I just listened to it. I actually like playing it on the piano. If I get myself into a certain state of relaxed awareness I can play along by looking at the music. Oh is that reading the music? I guess? But I have to concentrate and get to this place where my fingers just find the right notes on the keys. Normally I don't have enough time to myself to do that for long periods of time. And it's just the melody, not the chords or anything like that. But somehow my brain sees the jumps on the staff and can translate that to jumps in the keys with my fingers. I guess I can do it with my voice too. Wow... Am I actually learning to read music? I still have to count the staff to know the letter of the note, although I know where they all are on the piano without having to count from any specific location. Perhaps I just need more practice identifying the notes on the staff so I can do it at a glance. So maybe I've just suggested to myself that I learn to read music. Fascinating. Maybe I'll study up on that a bit. My problem is that I'll want to know all the fancy complicated stuff all at once, when I should go little by little. Then I'll get impatient, then frustrated with myself. Then I'll get over it, and then I'll learn it for real. Wish me luck.

One More Sing For Hope, Play Me I'm Yours, Thing

Musical family time!!! Jeffrey Biegel is a cousin of mine - I think we share a great-grandmother? We've gone over it many times but I can never remember. But the musical genes are in there and he got a TON of them. I remember going with my aunt (and no doubt my parents and brothers, but for some reason I remember only my aunt) to see him play at Carnegie when he was 18 and I was about 12. Anywhere, here he is now, at a Sing for Hope, Play Me I'm Yours piano. Incidentally, I believe this is the first time I'm "seeing" him play since then. Click through to YouTube if the blog format cuts off the video frame. Enjoy!

More Sing for Hope Stuff

A few months ago I posted a video here about Sing for Hope's plan to put 60 pianos around New York City for a month. It started last week I think, and already lots of videos are popping up on YouTube. People are even bringing opera to the streets! Click through to YouTube as the blogger format cuts off the video window.



You can see a whole bunch of the Sing for Hope pianos in use here.

I love love love this idea/project/thing. Love it. Love. It.

Sing for Hope

How cool is this? I wonder where these pianos will show up.



The blog format cuts off the edge of the video. Click through to youtube to see the whole frame, especially if you want to see what's-his-name in the shots with Papagena. I mean, with Monica Y.

It's Skypulous!

I have a distant cousin who is a talented pianist, arranger, teacher and general all-around supporter of the arts. His name is Jeffrey Biegel. He is always looking for new ways to share his enthusiasm, and he turns to the internet for inspiration. Or the internet turns to him! Last month he was called in last-minute to replace a pianist in Bogota, Colombia, all because someone knew someone who was friends with him on Facebook. The organizer sent him a message and the next thing he knew he was on a flight south. But he also takes the initiative - in this case, with Skype. Skype is a messaging system that has real-time audio and video, and after successfully giving piano lessons to a student in Singapore, he has set himself up to give lessons via Skype. How cool is that? So innovative! It opens up such wonderful opportunities, for example, for people who for whatever reason are unable to travel. Or it could be used for a regular student who is traveling and either doesn't want to miss a lesson, or wants a refresher before a performance or audition. Bravo, Jeffrey, for implementing this fabulous idea!