I’ve been lucky enough over the past several weeks to find myself with enough time to devote daily sessions to practising not only my drums, but also rediscovering the xylophone (which I hauled with me to PEI, finally, and set up in my new music cabin here), and attending to the trombone, which I started playing last year, in order to be able to complement Alex (French Horn) and Simon (Trumpet).

As my practising has become more consistent, I have noticed a distinct pattern: Spending sufficient time on warm up exercises each and every time I practise, and playing for at least 20 minutes total, have both led to a noticeable improvement in my playing. I know I’m improving with the trombone, because I am now able to hit notes I could not reach a few weeks ago (this afternoon I finally played high F for the first time!!), and also because my teacher recently told me that my tone was “really coming along”. :-)

When working through Stick Control exercises at the kit, my double sticking feels much smoother than it did a month ago. A benefit derived from drumming regularly (at least three times a week now) and for a minimum duration of 20 minutes each time.

My xylophone skills are slowly but surely returning to the levels I was attaining in Grade 13 (yes I am that old!!) when I played Flight of the Bumble Bee for an exam. I know this because I have been working on Bach’s Violin Concerto in A Minor (First Movement), and am inching my way closer to my desired speed on the metronome, with considerable accuracy. Both my speed and accuracy are also improving with the Gallop Solo, which I still have memorized from some 30 years ago, and which I have also been practising, for fun!

Working in a focused fashion on “boring” warm up exercises for all three of my instruments, and repeating sections to perfect accuracy, speed or tone, is (re)teaching me valuable skills which I hope to transfer to my professional life once I return to work later this month and leave my music cabin behind for another year.

For more discussion on the benefits of different approaches to practising, check out this article (with link to other articles) I found online.

I had a day to myself today. Kids at their dads, and Tats on a 3-day pairing out of town.

This doesn’t happen often, and when it does, it’s dangerous. Invariably, I abandon my long list of projects and “to-do” items that have been piling up over the previous weeks (and in this case MONTHS), and waste a whole bunch of time on some sort of frivolous drivel. Almost without fail, my big plan to build a website or manage a project and practise my music and read a book and have a nap and go for a jog with the dog and do some yoga turns into 5 hours of scrolling through instagram in my jammies, or, more dangerously, getting dressed and going shopping.

I am proud to report that today’s adventures were fairly tame, through I did end up dropping about $14 on iTunes.

It was critical, I felt, to build up the “reliving my youth” playlist on my iPhone. The luxury of being able to instantly download and own forever a whole song that I would in former times have had to listen to hours of radio before successfully capturing with my uncle’s external mic onto a cassette tape was just too much of a temptation to pass up.

Listening to the whole intro right from the beginning without the tail end of some radio announcer’s voice is a delight that sends thrills down my spine.

My own LP collection as an elementary school student consisted of about five albums: The Mini Pops (No judging — it was a birthday gift people!!), Cory Hart, the Muppets rendition of the Frog Prince, Englebert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, and 101 Dalmatians.

The rest of my early musical tastes were acquired via the ghetto blaster my mother had installed on the sideboard in our modest dining room. Mostly it was CBC classical music and a little jazz. She also played CDs that she bought in Cuba (“Dancing with the Enemy”) and at the CNE (“Borgey’s Banjo Favourites”). If I wanted “pop”, I had to go to a friend’s, or lock myself in my room and turn my uncle’s radio on very low and try to record from there to an external tape deck using a detachable mic., I kid you not!

This past summer I took a road trip to NFLD with my kids. The “mom’s classics” playlist was short, since it consisted of mainly music I already had on my device. Between that and some Stan Rogers I wanted to expose my kids to, we soon exhausted the tunes (it’s a long drive, folks!! I underestimated!) and I was forced to listen repeatedly to Africa by Toto, which had made a comeback, and which my kids had decided they needed to listen to about 17 times a day!!!

So, inspired by my recent viewing of BoRap with said kids, I decided to spend a few of my precious hours today downloading more music for the “classics” list. $14 is not bad, I’d say. And I only lost an hour to that. Well, and the subsequent 2 hours I spent reading up on Boy George after I downloaded some Culture Club (did you know he DJ’d for a while? And how did my 12-year-old self not get that he was queer? Man we 80s kids were in some heavy denial around LGBTQ+issues!!!)

Nevertheless, I also managed to knock off a bunch of the tasks on my “to do” list for a youth aviation event I am planning. All while Walkin’ on Sunshine and listening to “Like a Virgin” (OOoooh!) and “Careless Whisper”. I Never Surrendered to any other distractions. Every little thing I did was magic. I even practised my trombone!

It was a New Sensation, having all this time to myself. What a wonderful Sunday afternoon.

It's funny how things go sometimes... the hunt for a speaker which I had taken to a workshop I was presenting last night and forgotten to return to school today soon turned into an exploration of music that would interest Sneakers (Nexus's Xylophonia and Amazing Space both peaked her curiosity).

 What attracts the dog also attracts 11-year-old boys, it seems, and Simon was soon on the scene, which resulted in a collaborative musical meander through my various playlists and favourites of his on Youtube (Rayman soundtracks).

His video game soundtracks reminded me of Joe Satriani's "The Extremist", and from there it was on to Neal Morse and Porcupine Tree.  Soon, we were dancing to Return to Forever and Romantic Warrior -- what could be more exciting than Stanley Clark and Chick Corea??!! 

​I was reminded of some oldies but goodies, though we didn't go as far back as Bach or even Beethoven and not even close to Hildegard von Bingen... and we didn't move into the now with Malosetti (though I just found out Satriani has a new album!!!)

Nevertheless, I am inspired to gift the boys some music along with a set of decent headphones ("the puffy kind, Mommy!") for Christmas...

Some time ago, I blogged about textual lineage.  One of the things I most enjoy about our family summers on PEI is the time my boys and I spend developing their textual lineage together.

Two examples stand out this summer:  A book (or rather, a trilogy) and a movie.

As I was reading the synopsis on the back ("The Breadwinner is set in Afghanistan, where 11-year-old Parvana lives with her family in a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul. When her father is arrested for the crime of having a foreign education, the family...") another mother noticed the book in my hand and exclaimed, "oh, that's a really, really good one!  My daughter liked it so much, in fact, we're here picking up the third book in the series today!"  

This was accompanied by a vigorous head nod and confirmational smile from said daughter, who looked to be about Simon's age.

I looked quizzically at Simon, who had accompanied me on my quest to pick up suitable summer reading material, and he said, "sure, sounds good, let's get it".   So, we purchased the book, and packed it away for our annual tradition of reading together while on PEI. 

Interestingly, when I first pulled the book out upon arriving on the island last month, I was met with groans and complaints of "Awww, do we have to?  It looks so boring!"  It didn't take long, however, before they were hooked:  As I often do, I asked my boys to give it a fair chance, which we agreed means stick to it for three chapters before deciding whether to abandon the book.

We needn't have negotiated beyond two:  From the get-go, the kids were hooked, and whenever we read (we're currently four chapters from the end of the third book), Alex and Simon beg for "just one more chapter, PLEASE, Mom!"

I must confess, it's hard for me to say no to that request, regardless of how late it is.  The Breadwinner really holds ones interest as it graphically and yet age-appropriately introduces the young reader to a world well beyond what most Western children will have ever experienced or imagined.  Ellis' work has exposed my Simon and Alex to new ideas, and is helping them to make connections to prior experiences.

Needless to say, we'll be making a trip to Chapters again soon, this time to hunt down the fourth book in the series, My Name is Parvana.  And now it will be my kids doing the sales pitch if we see someone else considering the series!

Amadeus

The second piece of textual lineage this summer involves Mozart.

The boys had seen my Director's Cut of Amadeus in our DVD bin in previous summers, and had inquired about it, but due to the mature themes and sometimes frightening scenes and music, I had told them that they needed to be a little older before we watched that one together. 

(I remember having watched the film myself when it first came out, and being quite impressed with Constanze's rather ample bosom in one of the early scenes in the movie.  And when it really gets into the requiem later on in the film, I had my share of nightmares.  Also, as the parental advisory on IMDb notes, "Mozart is very crass and given to scatological humor".  But then again, so am I, so it would be nothing new for the boys!!)

Inspired by Tom Chapin's Mozart Duet, which we listened to in the car on the way to and from Ch'town numerous times this summer, the boys once again asked if we could watch Amadeus.  This time, I relented, and -- over the course of two evenings -- we took in this masterpiece, pausing often to clarify what was happening, and to talk about historical inaccuracies in this award-winning but often fictionally liberal film.

As was I so many years ago, the boys were very impressed with Mozart's music, and with the lavish sumptuousness of the European court scene.  They had many questions, and I answered them all, even reading aloud two online commentaries about the movie after it was over, one of which was quite scathing.  ("Come on, Mom, keep reading!" from Simon, when I attempted to skip over some parts in the interest of getting everyone to bed sooner.)

Textual lineage: The texts (music, words, etc.) that form our schema and influence who we become.  I'm delighted to have had the opportunity to share two such rich "texts" with my children this summer, and I look forward to next summer's intellectual adventures, as well as all the ones in between!  (Intellectual adventures, not summers.)

I'm not much for paying big bucks to hear an instrumentalist in a large concert hall setting, but when I heard Chris Botti was coming to town, I figured I'd spring for tickets so that I could take my son who's been learning to play the trumpet this year to hear what excellence can sound like.

Although I like trumpet okay, I typically spend my brass listening time on things like Holst's Military Suites or Louis Armstrong's jazz wanking... but I think I may have a new favorite instrumentalist!!  As soon as as Botti played the opening notes of his first piece (9:30 here), I could see why thousands of people had paid good money to hear this amazing performer.

His flawlessly lyrical treatment of ballads provides a poignancy I have never before heard live or on a soundtrack.  Within seconds of Botti putting his lips to his instrument, I was choking back tears, so deeply and instantly was the effect on my soul.  And his band is no bunch of slouches either:  Although he was backed on some tracks by the TSO, Botti also brought with him a slew of stunning performers, including the mesmerizing violinist Lucia Micarelli, who joined him on Emmanuel and a few other pieces as well.  I was also blown away by the vocalist who scatted Botti's trumpet parts while he played (check out 4:10 and later, here; very cool)!!!

It is easy to see why Chris Botti is currently the top selling instrumentalist in America.  Thank goodness some people still have musical taste! 

Not since I discovered Arturo Sandoval at the Toronto Jazz Festival in my early 20s have I been so excited about a trumpet player! Determined to hear more, I searched Chris Botti on the internet and found several delightful concerts, including this show from the Newport Jazz Festival 2013.  

Of course, it's not the same as hearing the man in person, but it's still something.  Something pretty special!  

Although Simon was somewhat less enthralled than I was (at least outwardly), I know the experience left an impression on him as well. I'm so grateful for the evening we spent immersed in sound together last night at the RTH.

Behind the scenes in the East Common Room at Hart House on Sunday afternoon, November 30th...

I don't know about you, but when it comes to music theory, I've always had more trouble with the bass clef than the treble.  For some reason, it takes me at least twice as long to figure out the notes on the bass clef when sight reading.  Enter Bass Cat by LMuse, a fun app designed to teach and consolidate the learning of notes on the bass clef!

The notes are introduced one at a time, and practice in the form of a game is offered.  The challenges in each stage are locked until the previous challenge has been successfully completed.  A perfect score gets you three stars; with two stars you can move on or repeat the challenge, as desired.

One thing I really like about this app is that it provides scaffolded learning; the challenges within each stage offer just the right amount of challenge, without becoming overwhelming.  There is a gradual release of the responsibility to the player as notes are first labeled, and then eventually, just have to be recognized by their position on the staff.  Also, in the early levels, only one or two notes at a time are used in the game, and they move fairly slowly along the staff, whereas in the more advanced levels, three notes need to be recognized, and the also move more quickly along the staff, helping the player to develop automaticity in note reading.

Another thing I like about this app is that it exposes students to a diversity of musical genres and styles: From Jazz to waltz and everything in between, a variety of music plays in the background while students work on each challenge. (And for those who prefer a silent experience, the sound can be turned off.)

If you're looking for a fun but proven way to improve your bass note reading, I highly recommend bass cat!