Music Tuesday! Me and my piano :-)

By now, all of my friends know that Tuesdays are my piano lessons with my Russian Piano Nazi.  I’ve written enough about her and I think most people can forgive me all my political INcorectness!   In my defense, she really IS Russian and I COULD be right about the whole Nazi thing.  lol  In reality,  I actually really am starting to like this girl.  My main problem was that she’s 20 and I’m 46.  While I’m VERY willing to give credit where credit is due, even to someone who’s younger than most of my wardrobe, I have a hard time explaining to her that my fingers don’t work like they used to work. She just doesn’t get it.  It’s okay.  I’m going to break her if it’s the last thing I do!  Maybe she’ll learn to love my excuses?  That’s what I’m hoping.

I’ve complained before that I’m just not FEELING the music that she chooses for me.  I realize I need to learn theory and there’s a variety of pieces that can help me achieve this.  I can’t complain if I don’t want to put the work into it, right?  THIS week, I put the work into it! YAY me!  Here’s how it’s been going;  She’ll pick out a couple of pieces and a whole lot of theory and finger strengthening exercises and I’ll learn them and more.  This week was no exception.  She’s been telling me that I’ve “nailed” it and that I can skip FAR ahead.  This week, I learned all my pieces in both books AND a couple of pieces she didn’t assign.

new music came today and not a second too soon!

Now THIS, my piano instructor will be SO excited about!  She’s been making me do exercises where I spend a half hour each day clapping and stomping out the time because I didn’t use a metronome.  lol  I felt like I knew how the song should sound (at least in my OWN head) so why did I need one of these?  I’m a little scared of this thing….

I’m just getting bored with the music.  FINALLY, my Amazon order came in with my new sheet music!  AND my metronome.  I’m SO very excited and can’t wait to start learning.  They look a little too easy though.  We’ll see.

I’m off here to go start having some fun 😉

Introducing my littlest “Mini Me”….

I’m privileged to be able to spend a lot of time with my nieces.  This is my 3 year old niece Esme’.  She’s a handful and a half, most of the time, but aren’t these kinds the most fun?  Besides, she wouldn’t be a “mini me” if she WEREN’T a handful!  lol  Here she is, SO proud of herself for making up a song.  She actually has an ear for music and her “made up songs” sound like they really COULD be songs 🙂  Look how proud she is of her little self!

 

 

I could listen to her play all day.  This is how they get started.  Don’t limit them or make them stop… keep their interest playing anything that sounds good to them.  I wish I would have started  piano at 3 years old.  I played from the age of 8 to 16 years old, and I quit for 30 years.  It’s a little hard to get back to the level I was BUT it’s coming back to me and it takes me to a world all on my own.  It’s the cheapest form of psychological help!  lol

I’m actually getting ready to take Esme’ to my lessons with the Russian Piano Nazi (my instructor) now.  We’ll see if she sits still long enough to let me do something.  HA!  I think it will be good to teach the Piano Nazi some patience.  😉

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Viktorya Yermolyeva
Getting ready to order this arrangement from her for a small donation 🙂 She makes all of her own arrangements. I can’t imagine how much time it takes to do this! Oh that I would ever be this good! lol

Goodbye My Old Friend…

They tell me that my piano was used during the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.  You know the movie, right?  Judy Garland’s “Meet Me in St. Louis” where the song, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” became famous?  The older gentleman who tunes my old friend tells me that he believes this to be true.  I adore the history behind my piano and as a piece of furniture, it’s just my speed.  HOWEVER, did you know that a piano is only meant to be used for 100 years?  That is unless it’s a baby grand or a grand piano, in which case they can be completely rebuilt.  I was under the impression that MY piano could be rebuilt.  Not true.  If my piano repair man was any less honest, he would tell me that it could be done for anywhere between $500 and $1,000, depending on the quality of the wood behind the strings.  Truly, I WANTED him to tell me that it could.  I was ready to pay whatever he asked.  Shame on him for telling the truth! He wouldn’t take my money for fear of what he would be getting into.  There’s the possibility that nothing would work.  SO, for today, the kindly old man tuned my old friend one last time and complemented me on the nice quality of furniture I had.  It’s just not practical to rebuild her and it turns out she’ll never sound right. It’s time to look elsewhere for a NEW “old” friend.  My problem is that I don’t like the uprights that are only half this tall.  I like them to be tall like this one.  I think the only piano’s that are this tall will be all over a hundred years old.  Awe well, at least my guy didn’t charge me a penny.  That’s the only bright spot in this very sad day.  Lol  This one still sounds acceptable so I’ll practice on her for a little while more before I make my final decision on whether or not to put her out to pasture 😦

Goodbye Old Friend…