Harder Than It Looks

I am currently working on learning the chords and singing along to "The Parting Glass" which is a wonderful closer at the end of a night of making music. It's a lovely tune, and I'm getting better bit by bit. Mind you, if my autoharp hadn't gone all un-tunable on me I might not be doing this right now, I'd still be working on my repetoire on the more familiar instrument. String changing is a long weekend project, and since I just had to pay to repair a flat tire on my lovely little PT cruiser, I'm lacking the funds for the new strings anyway. So out comes the mountain dulcimer, on it's fancy new stand, which is just lovely, from Ray Lynn Woods. I actually bought the book before the dulcimer arrived last Spring, as I figured Slow Airs would be just my speed starting out.

As you know, I started with the Dulcimer School, and my subscription to that is about to end now that I have a few of the basics down. So I picked up the book and went through it again and found, what I thought, was a good song to start with. Each verse ends with the toast "good night and joy be with you all" and it looks as if I might actually be able to learn this one before the next music party. My fingertips are toughening up once again, and I'm practicing more now too. Now that the cool Autumn temperatures are coming in, I'm really looking forward to making music in my little cottage with my friends. I will be honest with you, I was thrilled with the beautiful cover art on this book as well, it is by the very talented Rachel Arbuckle. My thirst for music, history, song, and instructional notes is thoroughly quenched, and it even comes with a CD to give you an idea of how some of the songs go. This will give me hours of pleasure this winter, and I'm taking a staycation when October switches to November. You may or may not see me blogging about my progress here, depending on my mood. That will be ME time that I sorely need.

So the title of this entry is it's harder than it looks, because Neal makes it look so easy as he plays on a beautiful Folkcraft teardrop dulcimer, a couple of laments.

Beautiful, I have hours and hours of practice ahead of me, but it's music like this that makes me so glad I took up the Mountain Dulcimer.

A Mighty Wind

If you love folk music and haven't seen "A Mighty Wind" you really must. It's a pity that I didn't see it in the theatre, that would have been awesome. As it is, I own the DVD, CD and the music book. Yes I spoiled myself for my birthday just over a year ago, and I still watch the movie from time to time when I get in the mood. It's still holding up and I can't even tell you how many times I've seen it, probably about a dozen by now. At least. Tonight after watching it I decided to tune and practice my autoharp. So I tuned...and tuned...and tuned some more...and I started to practice and the poor darling was still flat. I've been tuning it at least once a week for the past month, thinking that it would get better the more often I tune it, but the strings are going flat by half a note or more between tunings.

I've had the 'harp for over two years now, and I've never changed the strings. I figured I'd have to change them this summer, but with all the fun things I've been up to I just haven't gotten around to it. Oh, I bought a lovely display stand for it, but buying strings means changing strings and that is a daunting task that will take hours and hours. Not to mention that the set costs about $65.00, more than double the cost of the stand. My other concern is that it might not be the strings, it might be the autoharp itself. You see, somewhere along the line, the support straps gave way under the chord bar area. You can't really see it above the chord bars where I strum, but the wood is sunken in pretty dramatically right before where the strings are attached to the fine tuners at the bottom of the autoharp. I think it might be time for my first dulcimer lesson from Karen and maybe she can take a look at my 'harp and let me know what she thinks. Because I just don't have the cash for a new Autoharp right now, I'm really hoping it's just a thing with old strings. Sigh.

Lucky for me I have my trusty mountain dulcimer, which is getting it's own stand courtesy of my darling husband as a belated birthday present. He's so supportive of all my enthusiasms. I haven't been practicing it much lately, so I think it's time to dive back into it and practice every day for a little bit, and re-watch all those lovely dulcimer videos on YouTube. But I have to share another video with you first, it's actually a deleted scene from the movie "A Mighty Wind" which features a song I've been trying to learn on autoharp.

Bringing Dynamics Back

Here's something that I need to share with all my fellow musicians, especially the ones who like to play plugged in: I hate loud music. Louder is not better, it is just more painful and damages my hearing. If you turn it up to 11 I will not sit through your concerts. Really. I will walk out if I need to. I have excellent hearing, I know because I had it tested where I work as part of my training, I work at a hearing aid company.

If you feel the need to play loud, you are probably concealing a lack of understanding of dynamics. When I was a little girl I learned how to play music in band, and there were different levels that we learned to play with. The dynamics would vary according to the musical notation on any given song. It takes skill to learn how to play at different levels, and if you want it all loud all the time you are missing that. Really.

All that is happening is you are making noise. I want to hear and understand the lyrics, I want to be swept away by a melody, I want to LISTEN. Too loud music has me covering my ears and leaving the room. This is why you are more likely to see me at an unplugged event than a plugged event. Because I listen to folk instead of heavy metal, you would think this wouldn't be a problem. But I can't listen to some of my friend's bands because the music is too damn loud. Come on people! Louder is NOT BETTER! You know who you are, and I challenge you to play with a greater dynamic range and make the loud parts dramatic, and make the soft parts enchant me.

By the way, if you love to play that loud music, you and your family probably have measurable hearing loss because of it. Your fans as well. If you can't hear soft music, you should probably have that looked at. Loud is not an intelligent lifestyle, it's harmful to the quality of music you are capable of creating as well as your quality of life. And I am not a fan of yours or your band. I won't be going to your shows and buying your records. It's too bad really, because I give really good audience.

But don't just think about me, think about the 6.5 million teenagers with hearing loss. Most of this is preventable by playing their headphones at a more reasonable level. By the way that number is 31% more than it was a decade ago.

Ever notice that in a really good dramatic movie you have to listen closely to the dialog sometimes? The actors are speaking softly so you have pay closer attention to what they have to say. It's called drama. Loud isn't dramatic it's just obnoxious. Being obnoxious is being hateful to your listeners, and causing permanent damage to their hearing is just foolish. This is not cool. Really.

Finding My Heart's Ease

Tonight is a time for me to sit in my room with kitties, to relax and to meditate. I don't do this often enough anymore, it used to be more of a habit in the evening after dinner to take some time to be quiet. Quiet is my soul's food. With so many things demanding my attention, it's nice to slow down and have a date with my soul. Even though I have listened to the album many times, I never thought to listen to Marc Gunn's Heart's Ease as a meditation CD. Not all the songs are super quiet or super slow, maybe that's why I never tried it before. But tonight it seemed like the thing to do. Accompanied by the cool breeze after a summer rain, it is the perfect way to end the day. The flame of a single votive and a small stick of Japanese incense complete the mood for me.

I really love this CD, it has a variety of moods. From sweet melancholy to joy among flowers, the tunes take me on a magical journey each time I listen to it. My intention was to bring a little bit more calm into my day, but I have found a smile as well as I contemplate while listening to Wildflowers of Party Field. There is a feeling that wells up from deep within that music can tap into for me, and this album tosses pebbles into that well until I feel the ripples calming the chaos and setting my mind at rest. Marc Gunn is really a wizard, and his magic dances from his fingers, through the strings of his autoharp and out into the world. There's no other way to adequately describe this album.

As an autoharpist, it is an inspiration. As a Reiki Master it is the perfect accompaniment to my practice. As a lover of fantasy, it ignites my imagination until my mind starts to travel to Hobbiton and beyond. It was a lovely addition to my CD collection, and one that I will surely treasure for years to come. It can be yours too, just buy Heart's Ease: Instrumental Autoharp Music by Marc Gunn from CD Baby. Do it, I dare ya.

Long Time Gone

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post! Time goes by so fast when you're having fun. Well, I survived my first week long camping trip, and had a wonderful time as well, even in the rain. Yes rain. Most nights brought rain and several misty mornings kept the instruments in their cases. I was able to pull them out to practice a bit on Monday, but not again until Friday evening. I had to re-tune the Autoharp both days due to the humidity, with my higher notes being between 1/2 and a whole note out of key!

So Friday evening I did play around the campfire the six songs I knew by heart on the Autoharp. It had to be the ones I knew by heart because it was too dark to see my chord sheets. It's a start at least, and they were well received. In fact if I go back next year I can have my own concert slot! :O I need to put them off for another year, because we have other plans that week for 2012. What can I say? I like to plan things in advance.

Back home under a real roof, I haven't picked up either instrument since. Scary, I know, I've been all about ATS bellydance again. But don't worry, I will get back into the groove again, I love it too much. To help me with my practicing habit I shall invest in music stands for my babies, that way they will be just sitting there looking pretty rather than shut away in their cases where I can ignore them. Also, the place I was going to do Open Mic night at has been shut down for repairs due to a tornado going through. They don't have a re-open date as of yet, no news in 3 weeks on their website or facebook page. It's too early for my next music party, but if we can at least pencil it in, that will give me enough time to concentrate on learning a few more songs by heart, and maybe even a couple on the mountain dulcimer.

Strum Flower Songs & More

Tonight I played my Autoharp, which had been sitting neglected in a chair until last night when I tuned it. The base notes were all sharp while the middle and high notes were exceedingly flat. It took about a half an hour to tune it, and now that I've played it for a while it probably needs another good tuning. What it actually needs is a new set of strings, but that's next month's project, after the house gets painted.

After taking a break from the 'harp to work on my new mountain dulcimer it was nice to come back at it. Some of the harder things I had been frustrated with are magically much easier. I'm completely convinced that picking up a new instrument has made me better at the old one, and appreciate it's attributes much more. Like the ability to stand up and walk around with it. My little dulcimer has a strap, but it's for keeping from sliding off of my lap. I've got a lot to learn before I figure out how to play it standing up.

My autoharp is for singing with mostly. I love the quality of it with my voice, and I'm learning a bunch of songs that I really love. But since I'm taking her out in public, I need to work on some more of my favorite sing-a-longs. Making music with a bunch of like-minded individuals is a very good thing, and I get to do a lot of it. It's mostly folk music I'm learning, of the popular '60's variety, and some traditional standards as well. There are still a couple of songs that I'm re-learning since I had my chord bars moved around last fall, but those are making more sense with the standard Bryan Bowers arrangement. Much easier for me to work with, and I recommend it to any player.

I'm trying to get a few sets of three songs, for the purpose of playing at open mics. I love the idea of having some kind of theme, but I need to learn a few more songs to round them out. I think I have a Wildflower Song Set almost ready to go with:

• Wildwood Flower
• Wild Mountain Thyme
• How She Could Sing the Wildwood Flower

I also am casually looking for another song with the word "damn" in it, as I have two already for my Damn Song Set. I am learning my second "death" song for my Death Song Set, "The Death of Queen Jane" and I still need to get the chords figured out for the third. Clearly I plan to be prepared for every eventuality at an open mic night. Who knows, if I get the hang of it, I might actually tell people in advance to come see me. Maybe next year sometime.

A Few Words About Pixies

For some reason, maybe it's the Spring flowers in bloom, I'm all about pixies at the moment. Bear with me, there is a musical finish for the patient reader. Anyway, on my way to my ATS class last night, I decided to get my girlie girl on and get that tube of lipstick I've been planning on getting. Now you wouldn't think that lipstick would be a decision I would put off for months, but that was the case here, as it's a little more pricey than your average tube. But that's OK, because it's Vegan and Peta Certified Cruelty Free. Seriously, I'm going to be slathering my lips with this stuff every day, I don't want it to be filled with gross stuff by a company that tortures bunnies.

My beautiful new lipstick from the Elixery is named "Pixie" as in

The Pixies know no sorrow, the Pixies feel no fear... _ Nora Chesson, 19th century English poet

This now leads me to the second pixie, and the third and fourth. They are together, Tricky Pixie and have written some very beautiful and fun music together. I absolutely love the Dryad's Promise from their album Mythcreants, so I'm sharing that here:



Hopefully I will be in all the pixies good graces from now on. Because they can be very tricky at times. I really want to learn Dryad's Promise on either my autoharp or my dulcimer. I'll have to take a lesson or two with Karen and see if we can work it out together.