Hello DD... That's an adorable name...

I paint (water color, acrylics, and water mixable oils) .  Right now doing large portraits of 3 nephews & 1 niece (siblings) - children of one of my elder sisters. 

I also create & sell jewelry in 2 online stores (Etsy & Amazon). 

Sewing?  I wish.  But I muff up any machine I even look at and they never work right again.  I crocheted years back but cannot remember how to do it. 

OOOOH, you play piano ??  I love piano music. 

WELCOME !!

 

Sia - I don't do canvas painting, tho I think about giving it a try.  One never knows if one has hidden talents that have yet to be explored.  I paint models, so to speak - right now, I have making a birdbath out of a supersized clay pot (it has a relief on it) and an oversized tray.  I love, love, love crafting Halloween decorations - it attracts the little kids to my door (they are so cute in their costumes!) and the older kids (love having fun with them as well).  I have skeletons (admittedly store bought), carved pumpkins (of course!), tomato cage ghosts and spirits, a pirate's treasure chest (bought it unfinished and finished it to make it look old), snakes, am currently making a pumpkin head scarecrow and am planning a graveyard with a life size grave digger (made out of burlap which is very creepy), am planning on some life-size ghosts, maybe a witch and/or devil. . . . Halloween is the chance to be a kid again and have lots of fun without the stress that so often comes with Christmas.

Pikes - Thank you!  I can read music, but my sight reading skills need work.  I think ear training is essential and does not get enough attention when it comes to formal training.  Playing by ear is a good exercise for tuning up one's ear - just grab a song that one loves from any CD, sit down at the 88s, and give it a go.  It's also fun to tweak the music and give a try at one's own arrangements.

I also go to youtube, look at instructional videos, and change the arrangement to my pleasure.  Exploring all avenues is the best way to become a versatile musician, I think.

I am trying to recapture my skills as they once were - when I was a kid I had plenty of time to devote to music but as an adult, the demands on my time interfered heavily.  Now that we are empty nesters, and I no longer have my ill parents to care for, I have more time.  

I heard that the great Pavarotti didn't really know how to read music.  He would hire a musician to play a piano and work with him to learn the piece.  Have you heard the same?  He was such a great natural talent, IMO.  I am not a big fan of opera, but there are selected pieces that I do enjoy.

Last edited by dancing digits (6/22/2019 9:20 am)

dancing digits wrote:

Pikes - Thank you!  I can read music, but my sight reading skills need work.  I think ear training is essential and does not get enough attention when it comes to formal training.  Playing by ear is a good exercise for tuning up one's ear - just grab a song that one loves from any CD, sit down at the 88s, and give it a go.  It's also fun to tweak the music and give a try at one's own arrangements.

I also go to youtube, look at instructional videos, and change the arrangement to my pleasure.  Exploring all avenues is the best way to become a versatile musician, I think.

I am trying to recapture my skills as they once were - when I was a kid I had plenty of time to devote to music but as an adult, the demands on my time interfered heavily.  Now that we are empty nesters, and I no longer have my ill parents to care for, I have more time.  

I heard that the great Pavarotti didn't really know how to read music.  He would hire a musician to play a piano and work with him to learn the piece.  Have you heard the same?  He was such a great natural talent, IMO.  I am not a big fan of opera, but there are selected pieces that I do enjoy.

Synesthesia is a word for hearing with the eyes and seeing with the ears. Not all people "read" music the same way. In fact I realized such skills are as unique to us as our fingerprints and voices. Everyone has a different balance between use of ear and eye. Most favor one more than the other, but no two are alike. 

You Tube is a wonderful teaching forum. Do you know most US schools block it? The irrational fears this society has about children seeing inappropriate and wrong things! Most of the rare recordings of early 20th Century pianists are there- Lhevinne, Godowsky, Hofmann, Schnabel, Cortot et al. Operatic discussions of voicing there are absolute top quality- Metropolitan Opera quality. From time to time, I put up such a piece- usually with some historical significance. 




I am glad you are stretching out. Rubber bands aren't useful until stretched. Same exists for us. 

I am a composer and put my work on You Tube as creative commons.