mipiano 3Speak Podcast: Recent Episodes
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Listen and watch the latest videos from mipiano. Hosted by 3Speak.tv. The free speech video platform on the HIVE blockchain.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/hkdmohyv
A little over a month has passed since this concert. Summer has already shown its vibes, but I can admit to you, today is much warmer than that day in early July. This is due to the heat wave that arrived today, and the temperature outside is 40 degrees Celsius. After a morning spent on the beach, which was really refreshing, we are now inside, in a darkened apartment with the blinds down and the air conditioner on. But, it would be nice if we could take a walk later when the air is fresher and find a concert like this in the city again. In case that does not happen, i.e. the temperatures do not drop or we do not go to the city centre, or we do not come across any cultural and artistic program, then it would be time for me to at least look at these pictures again and listen to the short video I made from this concert.
The concert was scheduled to start at 10 p.m. at one of the squares close to the city hall, La Plaza de Arriba (The Upper Square). There is a little stage and several benches in front of it, to enjoy the concerts and other performances held here. The background is the most attractive! A huge mural, made by the artists from Doble 13 some years ago. It is so nice that maybe I could take more photos of it one day and talk about it then. It holds so many nice details, and for this concert, it was the perfect background, where the lights were projected. In front of it, on the stage, the musicians were already playing the first piece when we arrived. We were a few minutes late... 😅
There were no more seats... obviously, if you arrive late, you will watch the concert on your feet. 😆 We were not the only ones standing - the seats and benches were not enough, which was actually surprising. I thought people don't like concerts to that extent to fill a whole square, but I am glad I was wrong. There were also young people with little children, which is cool if the children keep quiet. However, a few of them were too playful.
Opinions may be divided on this topic. If you have a small child, a very small one to whom you cannot explain that they must be quiet for a long time, would you take them to a concert even though it might disturb the musicians or the audience from listening to the music in peace? On the other hand, if it is summer, and this is an outdoor concert, it might be a good opportunity for children to be introduced to the world of music and concerts in this way, even though it means that sometimes the voices of small children will be heard, right? How do you feel about this?
As a musician, I can say that I would rather forgive children than adults who, for example, rustle candy wrappers while I play. 😂
Oh, I haven't said anything yet about the music that was played at this concert. It was a guitar orchestra, the final concert of students after a guitar course, and there were other musicians as guests too, a violinist, a pianist, a flautist and a singer. The music they played was really nice, soundtracks of famous movies and Disney animated films, like Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, The Little Mermaid, etc. As I also play music like this, it was not new for me, but it was also good to listen to the same tunes I play, from different musicians. What I liked the most were the lights on the mural, which were changing from blue, purple, green, yellow, red, etc. I hope you can also enjoy a short part of this concert if you decide to take a look at the video. Happy musical, summer evening vibes. ;)
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/kkrqttdz
Yes, I know I am still under the impression and that my post may not be very objective. I mean, maybe if I remembered the fireworks I attended yesterday after a few months, maybe they wouldn't be so special to me. I don't know... in a few months, if I remember them and am still thrilled, I will know the answer to my question. But the fact is that now, at this moment, I am still full of those positive and hyped impressions that I would like to share with you. My post yesterday was shorter than usual because I was at work, and I had to start playing the piano. I was there to provide music during the dinner, but I decided to enjoy the part after it, the awesome fireworks show, in the same way as if I were one of the guests. And I don't regret it.
That hotel where I played overlooks the bay of the town of Altea, right from where the fireworks display was launched from floating platforms. Yesterday, more than 1,500 kilos of gunpowder were used. I smelled it in the air, but it wasn't an unpleasant smell actually. The sound... well, being so close to fireworks, you have to suffer a bit from the noise haha. I thought for a moment that it would damage my hearing, but luckily, I quickly dismissed the negative thoughts. I didn't want anything to spoil the mood and the spectacle.
For some time, I was standing close to the fence, in the grass area where the dinner was held. Until I realised, after some ten minutes of standing, that it would be better to watch the fireworks from a deck chair. There were many as we were around the swimming pool. So, I was lying down in that deck chair and looking at the sky. It was in those moments that I felt the real impression. I got emotional, quite a bit.
No, I didn't know that artificial fireworks could move someone so much. We always look at everything from an objective perspective. We know that it is just gunpowder, that they are designed lights, and that yes, there is a lot of work behind a spectacle like this. But the moment you forget where you are and imagine it is a meteor shower on a summer night falling towards you, things change. The noise doesn't bother you anymore either; all the shapes that appear in the sky, their rhythm, intensity, and the effect of surprise impressed me greatly.
I also stopped recording the fireworks and let myself be just there in the moment. However, I am sorry that I didn't record the ending part of the show, as it was the most impressive part of it. Not that I didn't want to... but my phone informed me that I had no more space. Oh dear... why don't I clear the storage on the phone from time to time? I was scolding myself. 😂
Today I deleted 20GB of unnecessary stuff from my phone! 😁 Now I need more fireworks, right?
I remember, two years ago, we already talked about the topic of fireworks here in Hive... Definitely, it is not a pleasant time for small animals. Many dogs and cats are afraid of that noise, not to mention the wild animals in the area. Poor creatures... It would be great if these shows were without that loud noise, wouldn't it? Because the lights are, without a doubt, brilliant.
For me, last night was not just a visual entertainment, not just some lights that filled the space above us. They touched my heart and filled my soul with joy, something I didn't know fireworks could do to such an extent. 😃
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/sbhxysqf
If Caturday is a special day for cats, how could we call a day where insects are the protagonists? Little bugs...
🤔
Maybe Bugday? Yeah, let's call it like that. ;)
So, this Bugday, the temperatures in Spain were quite interesting 😂. Like in an oven (now I know how the food we put in an oven can feel...), so if there were no air conditioner, the day would be quite difficult to survive.
Even though it was nicer to be inside with that cooling appliance, we decided to go out for a walk or anything in the afternoon. To take a ride, actually, as my son passed the driving exam and got his driving licence!!! He wanted to give us a ride, to practise and show us how he drives! The young chauffeur did so well; he drove from our home to a place in the mountains. Then he parked and we left the ~~space shuttle~~ car, congratulated him and were happy to arrive in one piece at our destination. 😁
Already using our feet for moving around in nature, we walked among the reeds and many shrubs. The place was also full of Nerium plants, which were so pretty with their pink flowers.
This wooden board reveals the place where this Bugday happened. I visited it a few months ago and posted about it. Water is life, as someone wrote there, and indeed, lively nature showed itself through little flowers and plants while we were hiking there.
However, the main protagonists, as I already suggested at the beginning of the post, were the bugs. Butterflies and bumblebees, so many of them, but for me it was not easy to capture them nicely.
They were flying, climbing the stems of the plants and pretending to be busy, so I could not take a nice photo of them. 🤷♀ That's life...
Oh, wait, I can make a little video where they can be seen! That was the solution. 😁
Btw, the air was so good outside, in nature... much better than being inside with the air conditioner. Even though I didn't meet any cats today for Caturday, I am glad these little insects came here for the Bugday. 😆
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/ieylbzku
So, it happened!
My long-standing dream of riding this means of transportation came true. For the very first time, I enjoyed a funicular ride in Graz, about a month ago. 😍
I was reminded about it yesterday, when we had a rehearsal with the students of the music school, and one little girl played the piece called Funiculì, Funiculà, by Luigi Denza. She played it in a simplified version, for piano, but if you want to hear the original version and sing along, you can open this YouTube link where José Carreras, a famous Spanish tenor, sings it. I really can't choose which interpretation I like more, his one of Luciano Pavarotti's... Well, both are great.
As the funicular ride was great too!! Too quick in my opinion haha, I wanted it to last for more time, and in that moment I thought I would go back to the top of the hill and do the funicular ride once again. 😆 In the end, I didn't as we were quite tired from the morning activity, which was the cleaning challenge and later in the afternoon we had a guided tour through the city centre. We decided to go to our accommodation and have a short siesta before getting back to the whole afternoon/evening activities.
As you could see in the post where the topic was the cleaning of the Schlossberg hill, the views were so pretty! I still have a few shots, as I was amazed and took several photos from different spots.
The city of Graz can be nicely appreciated from here, from a distance - from the top of the hill, although the guided tour in the afternoon made us learn from close about its history, traditions and architecture.
The Schlossberg hill is not missing its history either. Already in the 10th century, there was a fortification here. Later, another fortification that was built in the 16th century was demolished in a war at the beginning of the 19th century, but luckily, the tower clock survived!
The whole area is so nice and clean, of course it is, as some very dedicated Hivers thoroughly cleaned every corner of the path leading to the top of the hill, as well as the whole park on the hill.
As it was a Saturday, the number of tourists strolling around was high. We added to that number of people, with our Hive bags, Reach Extenders, garbage bags, and from time to time, taking photos too. 😁
It was really nice and interesting for us, and after the announcement of the winner of the cleaning activity and our lunch, we were supposed to go down the hill. You could go on foot, by elevator or funicular!! I immediately knew that was what I wanted.
I was already hyped here. 😂
But now the real one! We entered the carriage that was already waiting with people inside, and the ride started a few moments after that. I think we were the last ones who hopped on that ride. If I am not mistaken, it goes on every 15 minutes or so.
The man in the blue shirt was as excited about this ride as me haha. He was also taking photos and videos. 😁
Here you can see that the other carriage was ascending and that soon we will meet it.
The moment it passed by us. I think I was like a little child, finding joy in such small things like seeing the meeting of two funiculars... Silly, right? 😆
And the ride finished... sniff, sniff... too quickly.
So nice red carriage, taking us down from the hill. :)
The slope was this steep. 👇
And here is a short video from the ride. I hope it will upload as 3Shorts as I have no idea what I have done there while uploading it. 😅
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/tonspisn
There are train stations that stand out for their beauty and historical or logistical significance. Some of them are inspiring and sometimes awaken the imagination to write stories, make films or compose music set in that space. But there are also train stations that are nothing special. I mean, they are just normal ones. Of course, they also serve a good purpose, which is to provide a travel service to all passengers who decide to use this mode of transport, on the rails.
One of those is the station in Linz (Austria), quite ordinary but excellent in its purpose. To bring some more vibes, there were two guardian lions in front of the entrance, a fountain with water and some statues. Water creatures, probably. And people could enjoy themselves on the lawn in front of the building while waiting for their train, I suppose. First, we printed out the tickets we had purchased online the previous day and then settled down on the benches in this small park.
As we still had some time, I went to buy a bottle of water and some snacks for the ride, and I found something we had when we were children last time - soft drinks packed in this way. I bought two, just because of memories about those times. I had the orange-flavoured one.
Here, in this green area in front of the train station building, my friend found out that I have some dark sides... oops!! I was tempting her with a chocolate croissant! Without mercy! Well, her reaction said everything, and since then, she has mentioned the discovery of this dark side of mine a few times. Mainly when I was joking and showing them on purpose again in the next few days. 😂
The chilling time passed quickly; we had to enter the station and search for our train. That is where we printed out our tickets before the chocolate croissant event happened. This time we just checked the number of the platform where we should find our train and passed through the station.
I forgot to take a photo of the train from the platform! 🤦♀ We entered, took a seat and then I didn't go out once again just for the sake of the photo. But this is how it looked inside.
I didn't press anything here - I promise. I can have my good sides too, and behave. 😁
The train ride lasted for three hours, actually a bit more, but it was so beautiful! Everything was so green, we passed by meadows, fields, houses, rivers, forests, mountains... This ride was a great intake of green colour into our eyes! I recorded a very short part of it, but imagine three hours of beautiful landscape. ;)
Here we arrived at Graz, the place where we met already that afternoon a few other Hivers!! 😃 Hurray, I remembered to take a photo of the wagon in which we spent this green time! 👏
Graz train station! No bomb alerts that day, hahaha, and from here we headed to our accommodation, which was a few minutes away.
If you have never visited Austria but decide to do that, I think you will not be disappointed if you take a train ride. 😊
Music used in video by Julius H. from Pixabay
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/gsfwsfqv
People are constantly coming and walking away from the courtyard of this sealed face,
full of eyes bathed in rain,
and sun.Do you know where we are?Just a few steps further, the domes challenge me!
Can you too keep your crosses straight to the sky like us?A conversation frozen in time that has never happened beyond that bench,
maybe neither there......yet, in Kraków, where the weather plays its tricks and heavy sculptures rest on benches,
there was a performance of a piece of music played in The Kingdom
that has never been heard beyond that room...
I have started this post with some photos taken in the city of Kraków in 2023. Indeed, the little concert I played in the Kingdom has never been shared with anyone (at least not by me), just that photo of me playing the piano appeared here. I thought it was not good enough, like not perfect; but what silly thoughts are those!?! Why would we expect ourselves to perform perfectly when it comes to live performances? Our whole life is not perfect. And things that happened in the past are how they are. We have to let things off, perfect or imperfect ones.
This video? Belongs in the latter group. The reason why I didn't publish it at first was that my playing had some mistakes or missed notes; I was ashamed of them. Later, when I listened to it again, I thought it was not that bad (like I could survive if others heard it 😆) and that maybe I would publish it one day, even though it is just one piece and not whole, the beginning of it is missing. And then - I forgot about it, until now when I found it.
I remember asking @hallmann whether there were chairs without arms (as I saw some photos with an armchair in front of the piano). I felt sorry that I wrote him the message late in the evening, but it was not a problem, as he was awake until 5 a.m., which is when he responded that there were other chairs I could use for playing the piano. I needed some additional cushions, though. 😆
The only thing that was perfect in this recording... was the audience. 😇 Hivers at HiveBeeCon!
I am grateful to all those who were there listening to this Waltz in E minor by Chopin, among other pieces. And I am also grateful in advance to those who will maybe happen to listen to this video. 🎶
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/qvfficgn
Just a week ago, we enjoyed wonderful weather and time in Austria, meeting up with other Hivers under the blue and sunny skies of that European country. Although the schedule was quite dense, I felt like it was a real vacation. We had presentations, walks, chit-chats and other activities, but even then, now it feels that it was super relaxed, compared to this week I had. Full days of work, rehearsals and a concert - that's my reality, mixed with household chores, and some additional work we have to do around our home. I started to paint some furniture (probably in the only 30 minutes of free time I managed to find haha), and my husband converted himself into a bricklayer to fix the wall of one room and the shower cabin as the work that the technicians did some months ago turned out to be worse than we thought. While I am rambling now around, I feel I am converting this post into a rant hahaha. Actually, I just miss those days from last week, so much that I lost my mind and unthinkable things have been done by me. I even became a trespasser. Yeah...
Between some lessons and my lunch break, I still had 15 minutes to grab a coffee from the coffee machine in the Cultural Centre, where we would have the concert with the choir in the evening. Well, as I was already there... I peeked into the hall... the stage was already set, and the sound technician was doing his work around the microphones.
Lady Kawai was wearing a cool floral decoration made of dried leaves and flowers. I took some photos and decided not to be shy. Why wouldn't I play a bit? No one was there, just the technician who had nothing to do with the piano at that moment. I even sent a photo to the choir director, just the photo, without words. His reaction was priceless. 😂
¿Qué haces ahí? Está prohibido el paso!! 😂😂💕
For the English speaker: What are you doing there? Entry is prohibited! 😂😂💕
Well, well, well, maybe not for everyone! 🤣
Some people can even touch the piano and press some keys, make the strings vibrate in the air and record some parts of a song. We usually call it just practice or a sound check of the piano. The technician and I started to talk when he came closer, so I stopped recording. Btw, this is just the piano part of one of the songs we played in the evening, Torna a Surriento. We miss from here the mandolin, the cello and the choir.
The background sound we hear in the beginning is from the air conditioner and also from the laptop of the sound technician, which was right next to my phone; later, I took my phone close to the piano. I liked to mix the two angles of the video footage. Anyway, this is how I committed this big and unforgivable trespass into the concert hall while having a coffee break. 😁
In the evening, it was no longer considered a crime! 😁
! [Hidden Spoiler Text]
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/yxgnbpyp
The moment of our arrival at this place, with the sun coming through the clouds, is what you can see here. No, wait. You can see my boys too, in the role of fishermen.
The wild geese knew that it was not easy to catch a fish here... I guess they usually talk with the underwater population of these waters. Look, the proof, they immediately went to warn the fish that under no circumstances should they eat the corn from the hooks.
These white winged creatures weren't the only animals I saw yesterday during my walk around the Pantano de Crevillente (Crevillente Water Reservoir). My boys settled nearby, took out their fishing rods, and I left them there. I went off on my walks and explored the surroundings with the flora and fauna of this area. I can't say there was a forest (because there wasn't any dense forest except some Eucalyptus trees), but there were plenty of bushes and low vegetation, such as esparto grass.
My first stop was this tall rock, looking toward the mountains in the background. Such a peculiar colour that the waters of these reservoirs have. Something between blue and turquoise.
It is not allowed to swim here, but I don't know why. Maybe because you can't see the bottom, so it is dangerous for those who are not good at swimming? Knowing that some decades ago, there was no water (this reservoir was made in 1985), just the same rocky surface you see around, maybe it is indeed not advisable to swim around here, as you don't know when you can hit a stone in the water.
From this spot, I noticed a ruin on the other side... the walls with graffiti. That was my next destination, to explore that ruin, but I had to go up to the asphalted road that surrounds the reservoir and approach it from the other side.
I walked on this road, with uphill parts and curves. From here, we see a part of the road and some cool views toward the reservoir. I would call it a lake, but then, as it was man-made, with a dam on one side to retain the water, it is a water reservoir. That takes away the romantic touch, haha, but oh well - it is reality. 😂
Private road with no exit:
Back to the water and heading to the ruins. Here I could descend the rocks.
The ruins must have been a house (or a mill) that became unusable after building the dam. Not much is left from it, just the base of the construction is here and some old, concrete pipes. Nothing special, but what was very nice was the area around it. A line of Eucalyptus trees that made awesome shade. Btw, my shoulders are sunburned because I was wearing a sleeveless shirt and we didn't put on sunscreen. Ouch.
The part of the Eucalyptus trees I loved. 😊
You can feel calm just looking through its leaves toward the hill...
...as well as toward the water.
Here, my real adventure starts. I met a man who passed there with a puppy, a three-month-old spaniel kind of a dog. She was adorable and very playful, a bit crazy, haha, but I asked him if there were hiking paths that I could take. He showed me the direction from where he came and said there is a rocky ridge that is worth climbing.
Ok, I followed the path. Dragonflies, butterflies, bees, mosquitoes and birds accompanied me... until a large lizard quickly darted through the bushes. I screamed in surprise! WOW, I wanted it to stop, but it ran so fast that I couldn't take a picture. Now no one will believe me, because I can't figure out what kind of lizard this could be. 😂 No, it wasn't one of the small, common ones, although I have seen those too. This one was like the ones you only see in zoos, behind a glass wall.
I reached the beginning of the ridge surrounded by water. It seemed cool, but from here I couldn't imagine that each step would lead me to even more beautiful views. And the ridge was growing in height... I was climbing and sometimes checking the cliffs.
This was the end of the ridge. I spent some time there, sitting on the edge but in a safe place, enjoyed the sun and waved to my boys who were on the other shore. Yeah, you know how it finished, first time being on sun for several hours after winter... In the meantime, clouds had to come to cover the sky.
The views, as the man said, were worth coming up here.
As you can also see, esparto grass is the predominant vegetation here. This plant likes dry, rocky surfaces, and it forms a kind of blanket over the rocks.
It has been widely used since ancient times for rope making, paper pulp production, or handicrafts, among other uses, especially basketry. It grows even on the top of this ridge. But...
...but, it seems that esparto is also loved by the huge lizard, as his playground!! He was again here, omg!! Was it another one or the same, chasing me? 😱
The thing got serious, I was scared hahaha, so run mipiano, run back to the fishermen and don't move from there! Wednesday Walk finishes here. 😂
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/ckbjnzqi
Easter mornings have always been special. When we were children, we would look for the nest (made of green grass the previous evening) in the morning and check if the Easter Bunny had brought us presents and Easter eggs. I know it may sound funny, but those were the joys of childhood. The point wasn't even the gift but the feeling of the surprise itself. Of course, breakfast was also special. We would eat boiled ham, hard-boiled eggs, lettuce, green onions, horseradish, and bread. We often had this meal on Easter Eve, the evening before Easter Sunday.
It is how it happened in our family this year too. As I had my scheduled Sunday morning gig (my turn is always on Sunday mornings - it doesn't matter whether it is Easter or not), we had the traditional meal of hard-boiled eggs and ham yesterday evening. This morning, we woke up early and left our home without breakfast.
However, this is exactly what I am bringing today in the video - the breakfast one can have as a guest of the hotel where I play the piano. Once, I posted a guessing game about the ingredients of a smoothie I took; that post was accompanied by photos of some of the stalls with food.
Here you can serve yourself whatever you want. Just take care... if you decide to take too much food, you could have trouble with this fish. 😂
Of course, this was just a joke. 😁
Today, in the sweet section, I saw a traditional Spanish Easter pastry. It is called Mona de Pascua, originating from regions of Murcia and Valencia. It is like a sweet bread, or a simple cake which contains a hard-boiled egg in the middle, but there are also modern versions where a chocolate egg is placed in its centre.
I bought a similar Mona de Pascua yesterday for my son; it was not in this round shape but made as a lizard... and it lasted for less than a few minutes. 😆
What is the traditional Easter breakfast at your place? Is there any typical dish or cake that you eat during Easter time?
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/ijnvgxxp
When the winds blow hard on the coast, the sea becomes very rough. The water is dirty, grey, and murky, as you can see in this photo. Yesterday morning I walked along the seashore, and that's how I found that sea, which sometimes overwhelms us with its beauty and crystalline waters, reflecting that blue sky you came to know... Well, not this time. The sea can also have different days - but it is still the sea and we still love it, right?
From Thursday to Friday, I stayed very close to it as I spent the night at a friend's house. In his piano studio actually. I asked him for this favour to save me a trip home because I had a full day of lessons and a performance on Friday anyway. He loved the idea; we could finally chat a bit and see each other after a long time.
Cuando el viento sopla fuerte en la costa, el mar se agita mucho. El agua está sucia, gris y turbia, como pueden ver en esta foto. Ayer por la mañana caminé por la orilla, y así fue como encontré ese mar, que a veces nos abruma con su belleza y aguas cristalinas, reflejando ese cielo azul que conociste... Bueno, esta vez no. El mar también puede tener días diferentes, pero sigue siendo el mar y nos sigue encantando, ¿verdad?
De jueves a viernes, estuve muy cerca de él, pasando la noche en casa de un amigo. En su estudio de piano, de hecho. Le pedí este favor para ahorrarme el viaje a casa, ya que de todas formas tenía un día completo de clases y una actuación el viernes. Le encantó la idea; por fin podríamos charlar un poco y vernos después de tanto tiempo.
I found out he also has a little owl that practices the piano from time to time, like @elbuhito's Buhito. This little guy had to continue his piano studies, and I had my lessons; however, before I started with my work, I went where the pebbles live and bath in the waves. Grey water, as my hair is grey too. Should I blame the wind for my hair being that colour? I think I am slowly starting to love that shade of my hair, although my son told me I should tint my hair ginger. 😂
Descubrí que mi amigo también tiene un pequeño búho que practica el piano de vez en cuando, como Buhito de @elbuhito. Este pequeño tuvo que seguir estudiando piano, y yo tenía mis clases; sin embargo, antes de empezar con mi trabajo, fui a donde las piedras viven y se bañan en las olas. Agua gris, porque mi pelo también es gris. ¿Debería culpar al viento de que mi pelo tenga ese color? Creo que poco a poco me está empezando a gustar ese tono, aunque mi hijo me dijo que debería teñirme el pelo y ser pelirroja. 😂
Well, let's leave the hair colour issue behind - you can see it in the video anyway, as well as Miss Wind's attitude. Let's focus on the upcoming dates. The coastal towns are preparing for Holy Week, when they receive a flood of tourists as if it were summer. It's a place where many spend the week before Easter, mainly because of the good weather that usually prevails around that time in the Mediterranean. As we can see, yesterday's weather still didn't offer this kind of hospitality, although this may improve in a day or two.
Bueno, dejemos de lado el tema del color de pelo (ya se ve en el vídeo, al igual que la actitud de Señorita Viento). Centrémonos en las próximas fechas. Los pueblos costeros se preparan para la Semana Santa, cuando reciben una avalancha de turistas como si fuera verano. Es un lugar donde muchos pasan la semana anterior a la Pascua, principalmente por el buen tiempo que suele reinar por esas fechas en el Mediterráneo. Como podemos ver, el tiempo de ayer no ofreció ese tipo de hospitalidad, aunque puede que mejore en un par de días.
And you, where are you spending Holy Week this year? Do you usually travel or do you prefer to stay home? I will have to work three days, and then we will see if the grey hair will visit the grey sea or not. :)
Y tú, ¿dónde pasas la Semana Santa este año? ¿Sueles viajar o prefieres quedarte en casa? Yo tendré que trabajar tres días, y luego veremos si la cabeza con el pelo gris visita el mar gris o no. :)
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/eicjctpo
The other day, our dear elegant lady with a parasol, @lizelle, posted a Three Tunes Tuesday post where she mentioned the song Beauty and The Beast. You can see her post by clicking on this link. I didn't comment there because I wanted to respond to her post in a different way. Through a challenge-not-challenge called Spread the Vibes.
That was my first impulse after seeing her musical choice in that post, to bring the same song in piano version, the version I played the day after Valentine's Day at Abiss. I got caught by her musical vibes and wanted to do the same: spread the beauty the music (music in general but that song too) offered us. But Miss Time is a beast 😂, seriously! I don't know if you have noticed, but she steals all your moments, the free ones but also the busy ones, and you find yourself on the bus, travelling, and the Spread the Vibes post is still not written/published. Maybe I can change this fact, although writing a post this way promises a lot of typos and spelling mistakes... I hope they will be ~~forgiven~~ and ignored.
What a bumpy road, shaking hands and shaking laptops! 😆
I also hope the length of this post can be forgiven, in the bus I am travelling with there is no plug I could use to charge my laptop while I am writing this. Its battery will have to last until I finish the post and the video is uploaded. If not... then there is no Spread the Vibes post. 😂
Btw, I am going with the choir to Teruel. That is the town where we will have a concert tomorrow, so we will be there from today (when we arrive) to Sunday. I hope to bring you some updates from there if I don't freeze completely down. ❄️
Back to the Beauty and The Beast business. I usually play this song in those gigs that contain soundtracks and romantic ballads, and the dinner in Abiss restaurant was also perfect for that kind of music. I played there last year too for the same occasion, then I took just two or three photos and no recordings. This year, I made some recordings and no photos hahaha, but the place looks exactly the same as last year too.
The melody itself already has the power to enchant us and take us to a fairytale. The pace is calm and slow, although I notice that I have played it a bit quicker than the original should be. The story behind it... I must have read the story as a child, and of course, we have all encountered this story many times, but what can it represent on another level? Maybe breaking away from stereotypes and established norms. Impossible loves, or simply writing a post from a moving bus. 😆
If I manage to upload the video to 3speak from this place, from my seat, you will hear one part of that song that is here to receive and spread some musical vibes, Beauty and The Beast. And in case you want to wake up the challenge with your participation, you can read about the initial idea here. :) 🎶
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/laeuhdtr
Is anyone in the mood for some piano music tonight? It's not classical music, nor serious topics, but short excerpts from some famous songs... The band - I think you would recognize it without my intervention, but here, I will give you a little hint - it has four letters, an acronym of the names of the members of this Scandinavian band that was super popular in the 1970s of the last century. Just combine the letters A and B, and you have the answer.
ABBA, you are right. :))
If you remember this post, then you know that I had a week to prepare a new repertoire for a gig. A week in theory from the day I started preparing the songs, ideas and material, but the reality turned out differently. I practised intensively on Tuesday and Wednesday, on Thursday I was already quite busy, so I didn't have much time left to practice the piano. Friday dawned with a migraine and a full day of work, choir rehearsal and an extra performance that was not planned. On Saturday another unplanned performance arrived, so the entire planned week of rehearsal was reduced to fewer days and hours. Thanks to all of you who gave me ideas and suggestions in the aforementioned post, I hope you enjoyed being my guests. However, it cannot be left like that... I suppose I should share with those who were interested in the matter the experience and the result of how it went. 😉
Despite the time I had to prepare the new repertoire I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to organize it combining new songs and old ones that needed just a scan or little practice. A new repertoire is always a risk to play for the first time in front of other people but I was more than satisfied with the way how they turned out on the evening of the performance. I mostly talk here about the new ABBA songs that I practised and played. While I was studying them I realized that the pianist guy from the band knew how to play this instrument... the piano part is not easy but it is very well written so it gives a lot of joy to play it.
Is this a blurred photo? Pffff, I just see it now, but I promise I didn't take any alcohol when I took it. 😂 I had a cup of tea and a bottle of fresh water. The guests (luckily not too many in total) were chilling in the lobby part when I arrived and placed my piano in this circle part. I was too shy to put it in the middle... I placed it in a bit more hidden part and connected the piano to the speakers. To my relief, the guy who was responsible for the sound set the volume to a level that would not bother anyone as the guests like to talk. It is not a concert, a show that requires attention and active participation. The idea was to offer them some tunes they could love to hear, but still have their own time and stay there for a drink if they fancy.
I made two parts. In the first part, I didn't enjoy it fully because of the sound. I didn't hear the piano as I would have liked to, it was a weird feeling if it was not me playing it but it was just a matter of time before I got used to it. In the second part, I already got used to the sound and just let myself feel good with what I did. 🎶
I didn't know I would have some recorded material to share with you, but the person who was there to check the sound made and sent me a few short videos. I put them together so you can also hear a little part of three songs... I think I don't have to announce the names of them, they are very popular and you will easily recognize them. This was still the part where I was just too focused (but surprisingly not nervous at all)... after the little break and when I received some really nice feedback from people telling me they liked it a lot, I relaxed more.
This was a different evening for me because of the place (the open, lobby bar) and repertoire, but a challenge as it was also a personal test - could I prepare these new songs in a short time and play them in public!? Are there things that could be better in this place and with the whole concept..? Probably yes, many, but if I am posting this... it means that I was content with the result of my test. 😁
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/lzgtsxvq
Morning has broken on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea around eight. I woke up just a couple of minutes before seven, it was still dark but from the windows of my B&B accommodation, I saw that the sky announced this colourful show. And there I was, standing on the pebbles that made their music and the black was slowly becoming blue and purple. The change lasted for almost an hour but I couldn't stay until the very end, I had to go back and get ready to go to work (work on Sunday mornings means playing the piano during breakfast in one hotel). I worked there yesterday evening too (you know, the same work which means making music through the black and white keys. Oh, it happened that I had the same work on Friday evening too. Busy weekend, almost fully offline mode that makes good for the mind from time to time.
Btw, I am joking about the Bed and Breakfast because it was a friend's apartment where I slept and had breakfast. Since the place where I played last night and this morning is relatively close to his home, I slept there so I wouldn't have to drive more than an hour to get home at night and then drive the same back this morning. He was invited to his friend's party so I had the whole place just for me. What a luxury, a "real" B&B, and free for close friends on top of that. 😁
I made a little video from this morning walk, and this time it will be uploaded although, in the beginning, my hands were shaking a bit; I guess it was because of the cold. Or as I am getting old, who will know? If you decide to watch it you will see that there was a tree close to the parking lot of the marina, full of singing birds. We can't see them but we can hear very well the concert they made. It was magnificent; a great performance! 😉🎶
Indeed, as the words of the song Morning Has Broken say...
Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird...
This morning, this sunrise reminds me that it is a very nice song I should probably include in my repertoire. 🎶
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/htuefphe
Christmas is almost a thing of the past, it seems far away even though it hasn't even been a whole month since we celebrated it. Those of you who read me regularly will surely remember this place, the lobby of a very nice hotel. It is called Villa Gadea and is located in Altea, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Well, I came here one day to try out the piano and I told you about it here. And then, on the night of December 24th, I played for those who were having a drink in the lobby. I started with some songs suitable for the holidays, that is, for Christmas but I alternated with my normal repertoire too. That is a thing I like to do in gigs, although I have organized and planned the songs that would be suitable for a certain event, I always watch the people who are around and try to figure out which songs they would like to hear. Sure, I can't read the minds of others, but I draw conclusions based on reactions.
So, one of the songs I played is called Historia de un amor and it is one of the favourites of my retired student. Truth be said, he loves everything I play and when I sent him the recording of Silent Night I promised to send him more recordings and mentioned, among others, this song - Historia de un amor. Bad me, I haven't edited the videos yet, though the petitions for the rest of the songs are already arriving haha.
It is a reminder for me actually to edit the videos I made. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I didn't record everything but pushed the record button from time to time, randomly. Now I have to check what can be used from that mess. To start with, this song is coming today to Hive as well. Of course, I will send it to my student too.
The song you can hear (of course just in case you want to listen to the video) was written in 1955 by Carlos Eleta Almarán. I looked him up assuming I would find a great opus of many songs this Panamanian author created... oh, a surprise! What I found out is that he was a self-taught musician. He played "only" by ear, but what a beautiful song he wrote! The trigger to compose it plays a very important role here since this Story of a Love, which is the translation from the Spanish title Historia de un amor, was not even his love story but an experience he felt while seeing a tragic event that happened in his family. It is the story of his brother's love. Carlos' sister-in-law, the wife of his brother died of polio... A loss like this can stir emotions and provoke the writing of songs (and can be implied for other artistic expressions) like this one. Isn't that one of the great powers that feelings and empathy for others possess?
This piece of music has been played and sung by countless famous musicians throughout the decades. What's more, it is considered the most recorded and performed song of Panamanian origin internationally. Did you already know the story behind it? Maybe you already have your favourite version of this song? In that case, feel free to share it with us in the comments. :)
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/iwasqljz
I don't speak French, maybe I can understand only a few basic words that we all know - bonjour, merci, amour etc... Besides them, I know very well how to say a traffic jam. I know that from experience, already for a few years. Le bouchon.
Today is the second day of our road trip of driving back to Spain. Yesterday - the first day we spent eleven hours on the road because the traffic was heavy on one part of the route, but it was more or less expected. Today - the second day of driving got complicated. Only 700 kilometres were planned, which meant 7 and a half hours of driving in total. Reality: we've been on the road for 10 and a half hours.
We were hit by two traffic jams for more than an hour each. When we saw the first one on the navigation, it was only an hour and a couple of minutes of delay. As we got closer, it grew longer, and even while being in the traffic jam it was getting a more desperate situation as time was passing. That was still in Italy.
screenshots from Google MapsThe estimated time of arrival changed a bit...
Well, it was accepted and we continued our trip as if almost nothing happened but then the second traffic jam befell us in France, again a loss of an hour. Since we would still waste this time stopped on the highway, in the traffic without moving, we decided to leave the highway, drive on the regional road, and return to the highway where the traffic was clear again. Go with the flow, that's what they say, right? We tried to use that hour to see something else - to get to know the traffic in a small French town whose name I don't even know now hahaha and then through a really beautiful landscape, mountainous, through greenery to "skip" the nervousness caused by an hour's delay on the highway.
That's the road we chose. Warning - this can result in carsickness!I hope I will be able to upload the little video from the hotel room where we are staying. And I apologize for the short post today, but my message in short: obstacles are never in the plan, but when they appear you have two options: endure with patience and beat the obstacle or simply choose another path and take it, even though you won't get faster to your destination lol. {does it make any sense? 🤔} In our case we did both options today. 😂
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/ozfiypzp
This is not another post of mine about rocks, I promise! 😁 The object you see in this first photo is here just to accompany a music post. 🎶The other day I found this interesting rock on the beach and I took it home. It depends on the angle we look at it from and we can see a familiar shape. A heart. Although it has holes... I am sure that every person in this world felt at least once having holes in their heart. For any reason. It can be the simplest thing or the most complicated situation, it can bring some pain there in the chest.
However, people are sophisticated creatures, so they find ways to soothe moments when they feel hurt or broken, and perhaps the most powerful way to do this is through art. It's nothing new. We also see it in Greek tragedies that served as a kind of purifying emotional release. Catharsis.
When we fast forward a little in the history of mankind we arrive at musical forms that served to create an emotional effect on the audience. What is also interesting is that musicians used this form of artistic expression to compose music to alleviate their emotional struggles. They also wanted to leave their mark both through instrumental music and music that contained lyrics.
It is easy when there are lyrics in music to see what a certain musician/songwriter has wanted to express. Sometimes they write from their own experience and give their best to that music. What I don't know is whether the English singer-songwriter Adele wrote this song Someone Like You from her personal experience or not, but I know that she left a mark on many fans. Maybe she had holes in her heart so this popular song was born.
She also has real fans here on Hive, did you know that? I wanted to play this song for a long time, and then some very short parts appeared in another video of mine from a wedding. Today it comes as a complete song, played on my digital piano at home. But there is also a reason why it arrives exactly today. The trigger was my son who will have a small performance this Thursday and started practising today, nothing serious (no classical music or exam or anything else) just popular songs... he said like Adele songs, etc. 😁 That's it - the inspiration came from him, the rock accompanied the first part of the post and here comes the music:
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/zqpckqzb
Some things are not meant to happen. That simple.
The exercise that life serves us, to learn, grow, and accept things are granted though. I don't want to start this post with a rant, not to focus too much on that but the truth is that I have felt overwhelmed by some things that we are going through these days and weeks, which is why I have been a bit absent from Hive as well for the last few days. It is when things got even more intensified. Maybe time was just swallowed by a black hole. 😂
Anyway, I am here today, with a little rock that was almost swallowed by a similar black hole too. But just almost, if you are able to see this post and the video. I set my phone to a phone holder and started recording the video of painting Snoopy.
Between the layers of white paint that I was applying I always paused the recording. That is when I was drying the paint with a hair dryer. After having some 13 minutes of recording the phone notified me that I have less than 10% of battery. Ok, it usually works for some time after that notification. And it worked, but just for a too short time. After a few minutes, my phone died, without me saving the video. 😕
You see, some things are not meant to... wait, I have already said that in my opening sentence.
It is just that this was showing itself during the painting process too, as you will see I wanted the ear of Snoopy to be green, but in the end, I didn't like it. Then I painted it blue as well, as his eyes (ok, just one eye), lips and nose.
On the other side of the rock, I wrote the dedication to the person who will hopefully receive it and wanted to cover it with the varnish. Once again, I have to confirm that there are things that are not meant to happen. The letters got smudged, so I had to completely wipe them off, dry the white background and start over with the dedication.
Ah, the video story. I charged the phone to a certain % of battery so that I could switch it on and check if the video was saved automatically. Yes, yes, yes - it was there. The editing process started - the video footage was sped up and got some music and brightness. The saving moment didn't go well from the first, as there are things that are not meant to... 😂
Ok, this rock happened! :D
Background music used in this video: Music: Close The Lights, Musician: Michael Ramir C. URL: https://mixkit.co/
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/flczvigp
Now I understand that my little friend, Dreaming Buddha, has been dreaming about a world beyond this hotel lobby since I met him. Probably before that, but I can't speak about his past and what he was thinking earlier. I hope you still remember him... the little statue always surrounded by books, with a smile on his face, greeted by many guests in this place who got himself into a few adventures of disappearing and reappearing...?
Yes, that one. You also know that he used to bring us many stories, inspiration and music. He was the most serene in that whole place and definitely wiser than all of us - humans. But then these things started to happen, namely his absence. Well, I saw him different... at least those days when he was back on one of the shelves, as the rest is a mystery. He has never told me where he was wandering so many times. And the chatterbox he was before...
I stopped asking him because I wouldn't get an answer anyway. He knew (of course he knew) that this behaviour would not be understood by humans, so he remained silent. Neither would it be accepted. Imagine a statue wanting to feel the same as we, life!!! With all our limitations, desires, doubts, anxiety, joy, happiness and no less importantly - the feeling that one day it all would end.
Did I perceive doubts in his spirit?
I don't think so. Just the opposite... His pureness and energy coming from that spotless light would not be shaded by any thought or action experienced during his journeys while wearing the skin of any of us. Though, there is a long way we have to walk to fully understand all of this and deal with it in the right way.
Meanwhile, between each trip, we can hear a quiet desire to always remember him that way.
The music you hear in this video is a song from the movie A Star Is Born (2018), played and sung there by Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (Lady Gaga). We have already hosted some songs by Lady Gaga and this movie in the Q-Inspired by Music community. Now, this song comes in a peculiar version - as the main reference, I used the cover made by Francesco Parrino but changed some parts of it.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/rlpogevs
A week ago I went with my choir to the city of Valencia. The main reason was a performance in a very nice concert hall with another choir and a brass band. However, as it usually happens, the trips to other cities don't finish just on that part. Work and life would not be interesting without a fiesta time, and Spaniards know how to do it. If it happens that you have that party time with elderly people, then maybe it would not be some crazy and dangerous activity... you would not go bungee jumping, kitesurfing, zip-lining, canyoning or rafting with them.
Let's be realistic (extreme sports are not for me either 😁) - a boat ride is also a good option, right?
Of course, it is. And if we talk about an authentic boat ride in this part of Spain (Mediterranean coast) The Albufera Lagoon is the best choice. So you know, if you visit Valencia one day, you should not miss going to the natural park The Albufera and rent a boat. That is the case you have the license to do it. But don't worry, you can do it without a permit or any knowledge of how to ride a boat... you can rent a boat with a person who will do it for you. He/she will even talk a bit about this natural park and take you through the narrow canals surrounded by reeds.
A few months ago we already made this trip but it was later in the afternoon and the sun was already setting. Also, it was colder and there was more wind than a week ago so that time the boat ride was almost cancelled. I talked about it in this post.
I have the feeling that would never get bored from these boat rides. Maybe as it is every time a bit different, you rent a different boat, which takes you through different canals. The weather also plays an important role in your experience as well as the company.
A week ago my company was quite talkative and in a singing mood so in the video that I prepared, there are moments when they use their voices to communicate their passion with the nature and birds that live in this lagoon. 😁
Btw, The Albufera Lagoon is surrounded by rice fields and reeds that give shelter to many birds. Unfortunately, it is much smaller than it was in the past. The man who took us on this little boat ride explained that the owners of the rice fields little by little filled the lagoon with earth, sand and stones to have less depth and thus be able to grow rice. This was a process of several centuries. I took a photo of a board where we can see how the lagoon has been decreasing since the Roman times. It is so small now, compared to the size it had more than two thousand years ago.
The video you can see in this post {if you want to see it} lasts for 6 or 7 minutes... it is a short version of the 40-minute trip. I hope you can also catch some good vibes from this natural gem of rice fields, reeds, canals, birds, a bit of wind and blue sky.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/fnkykkqn
Have you ever wondered how cool it would be if, at the end of the day, we could watch, in some very condensed form, the movie that played out before our eyes that day? Of course, the main character of the story is ourselves, our every step and action makes that day unique. Like a small document and an overview of situations and events, to understand something perhaps in a different way if we didn't understand it the first time, and maybe just to laugh at and have fun with our own steps and words.
It would not be impossible at all. If we were to ask for the help of technology in this task, the simplest thing would be to make video footage of our activities and watch them later. Very simple, but who would do that - and every day? Maybe if our eyes could record on a physical medium that real-life movie that they are seeing... but alas, that is not possible. I am afraid that we have to settle for the conventional ways of recording a video. At the moment. :D
And I kind of did it today. I recorded some (ok, not just some but many) moments from my day. It was a busy one as I had to wake up early to get ready for a whole day's activity which combined work and leisure time. Now, I bring here just the "work" part of it.
7:30 am. The members of the choir (and me too) embarked on the bus that took us to the city of Valencia to have a performance. In the video, you can see some moments from the trip and hear that they always hum or sing something. And talk - a lot. Silence doesn't exist if you travel with them. 😁
Also, you can see what the stage looked like, before and during the concert in which we participated. (we were not the only performers as an orchestra also played.) You can see a beautiful instrument too, a huge organ with pedals however the part where the keyboards can be found is closed. At this concert, I played just on a digital piano and it looked quite small compared to the big stage.
When the concert finished (it lasted around two hours) we went to have lunch and guess what the choir did! They...hmm.... no, no spoilers! It can be seen in the ending part of the video. But I think you already know the answer! 😂🎶
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/doyojocv
This song... it can't get out of my head.
I walk through the living room and hum the tune - my husband is already thinking of methods to get revenge on me for spreading this song-infection on him too... But that's it, from last Friday ~~words~~ sounds like
Ariadiamus la-te ariadiamus da
Ari a natus la-te adua
A-ra-va-re-tu-e-va-te
A-ra-va-re-tu-e-va-te
A-ra-va-re-tu-e-va-te-la-te-a
are present in my mind, day and night. Awake or asleep.
...
One. Now you think I am out of my mind as these words don't mean anything. Consequence: you close this post.
Two. You think that it's fine so you continue with this post. Consequence: you too are in danger of being affected by this song.
So... one or two?The words indeed don't have meaning in any of the official languages people here on Hive could talk. This language is invented, by the composer of the saga of Adiemus albums, Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins. The song that is stuck in my mind is the same named one, Adiemus, from the first album in this series, Songs of Sanctuary.
I heard it, a long time ago. However, I didn't know anything about it. Even I was not sure about the composer/performer. If I had to guess I would say something like Enya, Enigma, or music that was influenced by Vangelis...
The eye-opening event happened last Friday.
Between lessons, Pilates, grocery, lunch, playing at a wedding ceremony you saw in my last post, and more lessons I could also attend the graduation ceremony of my son and the concert they gave for that occasion (playing in the orchestra of his conservatory, for the last time in the role of the concertmaster in this setting...)
I hope you can see the names of the pieces they played. It was interesting as they combined the string orchestra with the choir and later with the brass band. My favourite of all... you already know. Adiemus.
It was my favourite to that level that despite the need to practice other things this week (for three different performances that will take place) I found the scores and played & recorded it this morning. 😁
It is quite repetitive, you can say. And it is, as it is that style of this music, new-age. There are fewer different details so you can stay focused on one rhythmical pattern or just a few chords. It sounds really cool when played by a symphonic orchestra because of the dynamic effects (piano as an instrument is a bit limited in it, at least a digital piano and if I don't add additional effects).
If you still read these lines it means that you have chosen the number two and continued with the post. I hope you don't regret it. You still have a chance to avoid the part of the "song infection"! 😂
But if you press the play button of the video, then there is a risk that you will hum the tune too for the next two days.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/haqzjvbs
A century ago someone could start to write a story in this way:
A marchioness Doña Pilar Guillamas and her loved one, Don José Beneyto Rostoll are building a house to make their getaways. From this recreational Finca, they can look at the sea, and the mountains, breathe the smell of the pine trees and feel the Mediterranean wind, up there on that hill. Tossal de Molar is the place they chose. The marchioness can observe the town or Altea from her viewpoint or walk in the garden of the Angel. There is one thing they don't know - that it will be a venue for beautiful weddings one hundred years later. Neither they know that one Hiver will play piano for a wedding ceremony and start her post in this way...
Let's switch back to now. Or yesterday, if we want to respect the time when these photos were taken. I arrived a bit earlier at this venue, where I played in a wedding ceremony, to be sure I found the place and prepared for the event. The sun was bright, but the wind was blowing quite a bit - which was refreshing. If you want to see and hear how the wind blew, I recommend watching the video I prepared. You might also find a little surprise, that is, some piano music.
In my video, I also made a short story about how I had to find the "Mirador". I was there for the first time so for me it was a time of exploration. Which I loved in some way. We should just follow the paths and the signs, and a few people that were slowly arriving.
The Finca has various levels, but the ceremony has been celebrated on the upper one, from where the views are lovely. We can see the town of Altea, the bay, the sea, the mountain, the pine forests...
I knew I would play outside but I didn't know that the sun would be so strong. And that it would be so windy. My hair went crazy.
I placed the piano close to a tree, to have a bit of a shade. There was a sound technician who was in charge of the volume and quality of the sound. He connected the piano to the mixing board and speakers and we did a test. He was a kind guy. Later I saw him holding ice on his forehead - he had a migraine and was not so happy about that. Luckily, I had some painkillers that I offered him, he accepted and in about half an hour he got better!
Here came the exploration time before the guests arrived.
Jardín del Ángel and Mirador de Márquez:
| | | | --- | --- | | | |
The views:
| | | | --- | --- | | | |
This is the list of a few songs that I played. They had just two requested songs (River Flows in You by Yiruma and She's The One by Robbie Williams) and the rest was my choice.
When the ceremony finished - the couple got married and they all went down to have a cocktail, I packed the piano and my stuff and didn't resist taking a look inside the house. It looks like a little castle.
Guardian or a pet?
The entrance:
The hall:
Run up to the tower to save a princess?
The patio:
The dinner would be celebrated here, in front of the building. How nice place to have your wedding... So, you know. If you decide to get married and celebrate your wedding ceremony in Spain, in Altea, this Finca is the right place to do it. Don't forget to call me to play the piano. :D
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/evavcvsh
Do you know how to dance to chotis?
I don't. 🤷♀
They say that it is very easy, so easy that you don't have to move from your place, from one brick to be able to dance it.
Maybe if I try to learn it and make my steps of that dance I could confirm to you if it is indeed that simple or not. At the moment, just my piano danced it under my fingers.
But why and how did it happen that I played this song, which is not actually the type of music I would usually play?
The story of this chotis dance started yesterday afternoon when I gave the lesson to one of my adult students. He has lived in Madrid but for the last few years, he and his wife have been enjoying their retirement here, in the Mediterranean. When we finished the lesson, his wife came to greet me and she mentioned their city and the big day that is celebrated today. May 15, San Isidro. She even wanted to buy a traditional dress to dance chotis (but unfortunately didn't find any). As they say, it is a tradition on this day, to dress in that traditional way and dance. They would do it with joy and a bit of nostalgia.
He asked me did I knew how to play the song, Madrid, Madrid, Madrid by the Mexican composer Agustín Lara. A famous Spanish chotis, which his mother liked too. Well, not that I ever heard about it (oops) but the challenge was accepted. I could learn it anyway.
My student and her wife were the inspiration to find the scores, learn the song (not to perfection though) and record it. Between lessons, life and more lessons, I had a few attempts to immortalize it but the thing is that at least one mistake always found its way into my playing. It was not a nice thing, but I took it relatively calmly, went to cook the lunch, and later tried again. A few times more. 😂
Finally, this is how it sounds in a piano version... in my opinion far from being perfect... and with a particular moment, that just those who will pay more attention will notice. Or maybe everyone who would like to listen to this chotis as I know, I just messed up that moment - and it is not even connected to the keys and my fingers. It is like when you dance and you make a step in the wrong direction. Not a big deal. 😁
However, for all those Hivers who are from the Spanish capital, or live there I wanted to wish with this song a happy San Isidro day. I hope they had a nice celebration today!
¡A celebrar San Isidro con chotis y un buen cocido, como manda la tradición madrileña!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/mugmzwil
Did anyone miss some piano playing from this Hiver?
😋
With all my rocks, and collections (hopefully I will post soon {tomorrow} a new topic for May) and walks and travels (oops, they also have a bit of backlog hahaha, but I will try to catch up on that topic too) I completely neglected recording some piano pieces... I guess I enjoy many different things and although music is my profession and passion and something I know I can do well, opening myself to other activities made me feel more active and happy after all.
Don't get me wrong - I am still very happy with my piano, and would never leave it behind. I do play it every single day: in lessons, rehearsals, performances or practising with my son accompanying him for the exams he will have in June... It is just that I haven't recorded anything with my piano at home for Hive for around four months (as the software for recording the audio informed me). I knew which piece it was, and also I went back to find it.
...
Piano playing is not a forgotten activity as I say, but it is interesting for me to see how we shape our activities, interests, inspirations and content - if we speak about content creation on this platform. Back in time, when I started I thought recording piano pieces was the only thing I could do. I knew nothing about blogging. I have never had any research, preparation or experience with it. Nada. But then you meet other people who help you with ideas, inspiration, and examples. You engage, make connections, learn; new ideas are born and the inspiration never stops. Ok, sometimes it takes a little break but seeing life through a creative prism, I mean in everything you do in life gives such a different feeling.
Like a flowing river, like water that you can't stop, energy and inspiration always stream. Do you want/can swim in that water or not, that is the only question. I guess it happened in a similar way that a few days ago this tune, Canon in D by Pachelbel swam to me, in the river of ideas. It asked me to record it for some birds on a wall that could maybe start singing after listening to it. We will see if Miss Destiny wanted this recording of a super famous melody that I don't think I have ever recorded but that I have played many times for solemn occasions (weddings 😉) to reach the recipient and make the 3D birds on the wall sing to the tune. 🐦🎶🤞
backstage secrets - I made a recording of this Canon in D on Saturday but I didn't like it... the piano on the video looked crooked, and I had the feeling that I played it in a rush. Today I made this second recording you are seeing - if you press the play button on the video. I think I like more this one so here it comes: 😋
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/pvnpfgkx
Who remembers the Peace of Mind rock made for one of my students last Friday?
... {silence}
No worries, here is the reminder about that one.
So, the news is that it has got two siblings, Serenity and Music is Fun. Both were born this morning to join the older sister, Peace of Mind, and search for new owners this afternoon. I helped them in that searching part, of course. The classmates of S****. (the girl I mentioned in that post from the other day) will also get a rock. Luckily, I don't teach in big classes; it is just a group of three students so that is why just two additional rocks got a new, more colourful life.
The rock which had been painted in white with acrylic paint about two weeks ago has got a few hearts, with little dots. It is the rock that I* will get. (I am not sharing the real names of my students, I hope you understand it 😉). Her name has a nice meaning, serenity - that is why the rock carries that message. And name too. Serenity***.
Music is Fun is a smiling, one-eyed little monster rock. His life started with fun and a smile on my desk destined for these rocks, but he will grow up in the home of S*.
He is a quiet, shy boy so I hope this little message can make him smile and see music as fun. The idea for drawing one eye came as the crack on the rock seemed perfect to be the line for one side of the eye. The curved line - lips that show us positive vibes through a smile.
{tiny secret: I made another similar one-eyed smiling monster rock for someone who can't know it at the moment or see it, so please this info has to stay between us}
The siblings were ready to be packed in wrapping paper. I will give them wrapped to my students, very soon. It depends on how quickly the video will be uploaded and published on 3speak, maybe I will be already in the classroom explaining to them why they got these little gifts.
Ready, steady, we are going to work and have fun with music! 🎶
I will add a little update to this post after I see the reactions of S*, I and S****.
Not sure if they imagine how their piano teacher is - silly enough to doodle and write messages on rocks! 😬
😂
P.S. The background "music" in this video is the bird concert, from the same place where the Forest Fairy lives. I made more videos and audio recordings that day that I haven't published... so I like these sounds to accompany my super fast (sped up) drawing activities lol.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/hjxodcrk
The adventure of finding the Forest Fairy started this morning. It was exciting but very relaxing at the same time. A lot of little birds were responsible for the latter - they sang a forest symphony, all in tune and with perfect expression. I could not help myself but record some parts of that concert that nature gave us.
But there was a huge danger that this chilling bird's tunes could bring - I almost forgot about the adventure of finding the Forest Fairy. The green leaves and some simple but charming flowers also conspired against the success of my searching adventure. I paid too much attention to them.
I didn't even ask for the names of these flowers.
Shame on me...
...but it's that my husband was reminding me sometimes not to stay for a long time alone in the woods. He was worried I could get lost in the forest and that there could be a wolf hiding among the trees.
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To my great surprise, I hadn't met any wolf just a trace that there were sheep and shepherds around. A little issue - they were invisible to my eyes and my phone could not catch them either.
...
You don't believe me? 🤔
Oh, how can you not believe me???
Look, here is the proof! This is the Shepherd's Purse, so a shepherd must also be there, right?
Ok, I get it. It is just the name of this plant, that we also used to find as kids. Back in time, it was funny to tear off the heart-shaped leaves and find out if our secret crush loved us or not.
Anyway, the adventure of finding the Forest Fairy was still waiting for us after the episodes with the bird symphony, flowers, wolves and shepherds.
The map of a hiking route and the sign to go to the spring was my last hope to find her. On the map, I saw the snow hole we visited once (the spot I point with my finger) but it was not my destination today. We had to take water from the spring...
...spend some time in the picnic area and finally find the Forest Fairy that lives there.
In the end, I understood why it was so difficult to find her. She was silent and calm, hidden in the embrace of one tree. She was having a nice dream, with a smile on her face.
Her closed eyes made me stay silent too, not to wake her up.
The birds continued with their music but with a softer intensity - that is how the symphony became the lullaby for the Forest Fairy.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/tagigbev
This week was more hectic than the last one so I barely had time for my rocks. I did find some new ones on our walks that I brought home but I had pretty much work and other stuff to think about so the paint markers were almost protesting why I didn't dedicate any time to them.
It changed today when I came home from work. I just greeted my husband and announced that I would be busy with a rock and no dinner would be prepared. Later, maybe. But the creation of a kindness rock got priority.
Inspiration - one of my students. She came to her lesson yesterday and in one moment she got really frustrated with the piece she played. It was not going very well.
She is playing a piece by Ludovico Einaudi and usually, it is not a problem for her. She learns this type of music quickly... but not this time. Above all, it is her last year before she moves abroad so that is an additional pressure on her to play it perfectly. I felt her heart was broken by everything. It is the music, the mistakes, her last year, the performance we will have and the pressure she feels.
You know what idea came to my mind at that moment, right?
Giving her a little message that she can carry with her if she wants.
One side of the rock would display a broken heart but the pieces of it would be coloured. The other side would bring the message - peace of mind. I also like to remind myself of that peace many times.
screenshot from the videoscreenshot from the videoProcess - I got a rock that kind of has the shape of a heart and drew the lines for the heart and the lines that cross it with a pencil. Then the parts got coloured and the message was written on the other side of the rock. As the last step I "coloured" the rest of the rock with one nuance of white which is almost invisible but when I see it better I do see a slight colour.
The student will receive her rock as a surprise, she knows nothing about this little gift. And let's see if she will like it at all as it is not a masterwork but what counts is the intention.
Btw, the photo doesn't do justice as it got a bit dark until I finished the rock, so the orange and the yellow colours seem almost the same. 😶
Ok, I think it is time for dinner as I am starving - but, peace of mind above all 😉
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/zqudqqyc
Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates today! 🐣
This Easter I didn't have time to decorate the Easter eggs as it is the tradition in our family. I have never been good at that, but it is not the real reason they didn't get painted this year. We went on a trip on Thursday and Friday, and yesterday my son had a concert with the string quartet he plays with. The Easter eggs were just boiled but they stayed naked. 😁
However, some rocks got a bit of paint on them.
This afternoon the set of 46 acrylic paint markers arrived, as a perfect Easter gift that the delivery man could bring me. It was perfect to wake me up from the long nap that I took after lunch. (I forgot that we would sleep one hour less and went to sleep quite late so I was really sleepy... the alarm clock had no mercy this morning and reminded me that Sunday morning I have to work even though I slept just four hours).
My sleepiness disappeared when I got this package. The unboxing happened immediately, on the crime scene where I will be practising this activity: Playing with colours and rocks. I say playing, as I am at the level of a 10-year-old kid (or younger hahaha) and this indeed is just an activity that I enjoy like children.
These are the colours that the box contains. There are 6 neon, 8 metallic, 10 pastel, 10 glitter and 12 classic colours. These acrylic paint markers are made with non-toxic and odourless ink, so I think we don't have to worry about chemicals and their possible side effects if I leave a painted rock in a public space or as a gift to someone. Also, it says that the colours would not fade and that are waterproof.
To use them, first you have to shake the marker you want to use and press the tip so it gets soaked in the paint. In the video I recorded you will see that shake - press before I draw something.
About the drawing and painting in this video... As it is Easter I wanted to draw a little chicken coming out from the broken eggshell. The biggest lesson I learned here is that when you draw a line that is not perfect, don't try to correct it as it will get worse!! Much worse! 😂
I painted the eggshell and had to leave it to dry. (In the meantime, I was drawing another Happy Easter rock too.) Then I added the chicken and again had to leave it to dry, wrote Happy Easter and messed up everything when I wanted to draw a black line as a contour. 😤
It turned out too thick in the end, I don't like it but the good thing is that I don't have to go to work the next week - I have a lot of time to practise. Guess where I will be spending my time hahaha. Yes, on the crime scene where the rocks get their colours and designs.
If you watch this little video you can hear some background sound - those are the birds that were very talkative this afternoon. The video is sped up (8 times) so you don't get too bored. 😅
You have greetings from that little Easter Chicken who also has googly eyes, like the ladybug from the other day :))
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/ibgpltdb
Coincidences exist or not - opinions are divided on this subject. Maybe everything happens for a reason or there are some other laws, invisible at first sight, that move all the marionettes who walk on this planet. Maybe we just pay attention more to the things that we already read or heard so the next time we connect it with the already familiar concept. It could happen that we just want to see the similarities or some connections even if they are not based on rational thinking, who knows? Mysteries of life.
Anyway, here comes music and a connection, or coincidence that my son and I recognized yesterday. He was in the school, already feeling not very well. Nothing serious but the typical runny nose and sore throat thing... He skipped the last lesson which was not important so I went to pick him up and then, while driving home that musical connection was served to us through the radio station we were listening to. {The National radio station which broadcasts classical music.}
The radio announcers talked about a few writers and their writing habits. Of course, their love for typewriters too. After the little talk, they played one very famous piece by Leroy Anderson, called Typewriter. You can listen to it here. The soloist is a person who plays this peculiar instrument - the typewriter 😁. It is a funny video, you will enjoy it.
We enjoyed it too while we were heading home, especially because just the day before yesterday my son had a concert with the orchestra where they performed one piece by the same composer, Leroy Anderson. What a coincidence! Or fate haha. Though it was a different piece, titled Sandpaper.
It was the last composition in the concert to bring more fun after the serious music they played.
Four students were dressed in white T-shirts, they represented the bricklayers. They came to the scene with tools, some paintbrushes, one bucket of paint (obviously an empty bucket), sandpaper, etc. Those were their musical instruments!
Did they forget at home their real musical instruments so had to improvise...? 🤔 😂
It was a fun piece and the whole concert was very nice and successful! Students from a few music conservatories had rehearsals from Friday to Sunday, and Saturday was especially intensive - from early morning until late in the evening. There they had a little break for lunch and to play football... and it was then that my son felt he would get a cold.
His cold made him feel sick, call me to pick him up and listen to a piece by Leroy Andrson on the radio. The circle is closed. 😁
I hope you can also connect now through this musical piece, Sandpaper and enjoy it as we did. 🎶
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/tjxyhorg
I thought I would do it quicker but the truth is that I am not in shape anymore. Those who have seen my latest post know that I have a little collection of jigsaw puzzles. I used to do them often; the easy ones with my son when he was small, and the complicated ones with my nieces. There are also those that no one else wanted to do just me.
Today I was doing puzzles again, after a lot of time. In that post of mine, I promised I would put together the puzzle called The Sea (the old box with the title El Mar) and record it to see how much time I would need to complete it.
I was curious about the time estimation for completing it... What did the Hivers predict?
@ incublus said I would complete it in 90 minutes, @ aideleijoie estimated half a day and @ nanixxx got her cushion ready to wait for the jigsaw puzzle broadcast special event.
So, get comfortable in your seats, and prepare some popcorn or tea, coffee or other snacks as this video of me doing the puzzle lasts for... amazing 50 seconds! 😂
But wait, before you think I have had a smoothie with the superpowers of getting fast, I must say that it is a timelapse video. I put a clock on the floor before I opened the bag with the pieces. It was 14:10.
When I finished it showed 15:00.
So, you can do the maths too if you don't trust my counting abilities. I completed it in 50 minutes.
Hmm... I finished the puzzle with the pieces I could as there is a little, tiny issue with this jigsaw puzzle!!! Well, two issues.
The first problem is that two pieces are missing 😱. Officially, it means that I didn't complete it hahaha.
The second concern is that I am older not in the year limit to do this as the box states - for children between 5 and 12 years! But let's ignore this small detail. 😅
Anyway, these 50 minutes were fun. I prepared the lunch before I started as it would not be smart to leave the food in the oven for a time I was not sure about. It could take me also longer and then this post would not come here... I would be busy putting out the fire from the burnt lunch 😁
Source of free background music that I used for this video
Music: Chill
Musician: LiQWYD
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/conwxaxa
I knew my day would be a busy one. No surprises. Yesterday was busy too but it is not an issue, nor a question as I am sure many of us live these hectic schedules. And if we feel a smile in our hearts, is there something that is difficult to achieve? Not really, right? But still, sometimes you ask yourself if you live at the pace of an action movie and what will be the end of the whole story.
If you are having a family, then you can add things to the list. Be the first to wake up in the house and make breakfast for your offspring. Make snacks for school. Go to the school right after your child's first lessons and fill in the permission he could leave the school. Take him to the dentist as a wire that attaches his teeth broke (just a preventive method that the teeth stay aligned after wearing the brackets for two years). Pay ~~a fortune~~ the fee for the dentist. Do the grocery. Clean the home. Practice the piano for an upcoming concert. Practice blindfold. Write this post. Practice multitasking. Prepare the lunch. Prepare the repertory for the evening gig. And the dress. Take your child to his music conservatory. Go to work. Organize the lessons. Go to your gig. Play your instrument. Talk to Buddha. Have dinner. Is there room for Hive? I hope so, but it right now seems as mission impossible. No, it seems like a fairy tale. I was cleaning the floor of my home yesterday evening, at midnight haha, even Cinderella had a party and dance evening at that time but had to rush home.
I hope you just skipped the previous paragraph and saved yourself some moments, as I am here now to tell you about a concert that happened some three weeks ago. The Symphonic Band of the town of Altea had a concert, a thematic one. Soundtracks from different movies.
The first composition already started with a lot of action. You know, I don't really fancy action movies, but who hasn't heard about the series of movies Mission Impossible? {I can't recall watching these movies, seriously. Though I recognize, or I think I can recognize some scenes with Tom Cruise, and of course, the music}
After our heart was invited to beat that quickly, while watching some inserts from the movie and listening to the performance, we visited the world of fairy tales with Beauty and the Beast. But it was a mashup, after that story we could enjoy the story of The Lion King and its soundtrack written by Hans Zimmer.
Oh, and the funny parts of Aladdin's soundtrack and also its wide, romantic melodies written by Alan Menken were a pleasure to listen to. Being a musician myself, I know how much the musicians can enjoy the performance, not just the audience.
There was one special moment that evening when the music from the Schindler's List was performed, but I can say no more about it right now. It will come in its time. Back to stories and action. Indiana Jones could not miss here and the soundtrack that was written by John Williams. Two elderly ladies who were sitting in the row in front of us laughed so sweetly at some scenes from this movie with the main actor, Harrison Ford.
The video, if you want to listen to it, contains the first composition we heard at this concert, the soundtrack written by Lalo Schifrin, and the movie, you already know its title. There is a phone call in that track, with a girl asking Hello, hello, is that you? 😂
Seems that it was not impossible to write this post, don't ask me how and when... maybe somewhere between practising and cooking. 😂
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/lfgoggfv
It is not a mistake, my post is indeed titled just with three letters and numbers.
A curious thing, sometimes I write a whole post and I have to think about the right title for a while. Other times I have the title right in the beginning, before putting even a word into the post. This time is one of those, the title is simple - BWV 974 and it already shows up while I write this little text.
I know I owe you an explanation of what those words mean, though I could write my version, maybe? Something like a Blue Words Version? The truth is that BWV, when you see it in relation to a composition written by Johann Sebastian Bach means Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Bach Works Catalogue). Each of the pieces he wrote is catalogued and marked with a number by Wolfgang Schmieder (it happened in 1950).
The number. The piece that was marked in this catalogue by this number is called Adagio and it has been played and left behind intermittently by me for several months. I felt this piece so sad that it made me feel the same each time I played it. Today, it comes from a different angle. And a few things contributed to it.
One common thing in all the things I will mention is inspiration.
One. Johann Sebastian Bach was inspired by the second movement of Benedetto Marcello's Oboe concerto. He arranged that Adagio from Marcello's manuscripts and included it in his Concerto for Keyboard in D minor, BWV 974.
Two. Last week we went on a short family trip. I read one book the first evening we stayed in our accommodation. There were short texts and some poems in the book I chose, so it was indeed not a difficult task to go through the whole book.
I made a few photos of the pages I liked and where I found some meaning for me. Laura Escanes, the young writer, wrote two or three letters to herself, actually to her future version. The most important message to herself was: love yourself. On another page, she wrote that our complexities or defects are our virtues... That time teaches us, and that we are born to create. Smiles, emotions, art, songs, photographs, words, each of us in our own way.
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The page that maybe fits here the best is the text about blue words. That the truth has that colour, and that blue inspires. She says that it is also the colour of the dreams that catch us and pursue us until we fulfil them. And that blue is calm.
Three. Hive. Yesterday evening some posts caught my attention. Dmilliz wrote about going on hikes to clear his mind and get inspiration. Definitely a post worth checking out, but then it was followed by Nicky D, and her dance to shake out all the negativity we face or we create for ourselves. I think I played this piece today to fight back the reactions I can get to some scars from remote past that here and there open, even though I don't want it; but I know, we are already perfect in this way how we are! And what a relief, I didn't get sad while playing this Bach piece. And then our Hive poet, Nanixxx wrote a poem and used in one of her verses a composition I like so much, Adagio, from Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo. I realized that these pieces are called the same only at the moment I was saving the audio recording of my playing! playing!
This fusion of possible sources of inspiration must be called a Spread the Vibes post, in many layers!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/dfozapsc
This morning the postman rang the bell. We all just woke up, and I was preparing the coffee in the kitchen when he brought us the package. My sister mentioned that she would send a little gift to my son for Christmas. Just taken out from the big envelope - the wrapping paper made me happy!!
My son got the gift - a Christmas pyjama, one box of cookies and another Christmas card that will go into my collection. There she wrote that the goodies were for the "little baby". 😂 (for those who don't know - my son is seventeen but it was my sister having fun calling him baby)
The wrapping paper was mine!!!
...
You are laughing?
Well, it's fine. I would also laugh if I saw that someone was so happy and excited about a simple piece of paper in which a gift was wrapped.
But it was not a simple piece of paper! No. It was a wrapping paper with musical notes and I ran to the piano to play the tune written there...
The unfortunate thing - or we can see it as a great turn - was that the tune, written in that way didn't make sense. There were parts, then after a few measures it was interrupted by a different part that doesn't go there. It was a total mess!
Challenge accepted. I would say it to the people who made this silliness, to print parts of the song, which was We Wish You a Merry Christmas, in that incoherent way. Or the designer of the wrapping paper just didn't know... Or didn't care... Or didn't have the licence to print the song correctly... I don't know. There are many possibilities, but for a musician, it can't stay that way. Moreover, for a musician on vacation!
Ta-da!
The whole size of the paper, after removing the transparent duct tape:
The work started. I got to read the little parts and play but as I said, every few measures the tune was interrupted by a part that didn't fit. It sounded bad and weird, so I was searching for the part that would make the continuation. Marked the parts and the order with a marker pen and painted them with highlighters (of different colours). Here we have marked four different parts of the tune, and just matching them in the right order makes sense.
It has been a while since I recorded something on the piano... So if you like to see how I was searching for the parts you can watch the video. If you want to skip that part, no worries, just scroll to the middle of the video (more or less, ok, I checked, it is at 00:56 where it starts in real) and there you can hear this Christmas carol, We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Also, if you don't want to hear it at all, feel free to skip the entire video 😉.
Either way, I wish you the same as this wrapping paper did in the end, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 🍾
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/iyiyeqcp
Two days ago, my Christmas tree decided to wake up from a long, long siesta that lasted for almost one year. The tree was locked in the storage room in the garage, together with the box full of ornaments. They climbed to my home and rang the doorbell. I had no choice but to walk to the door and open it to these visitors. As a good host, I helped the tree come in and the show started.
But what a surprise he gave me... I thought he wanted to stay for some time, to find a nice place in our living room and make this holiday more festive. To provide shelter to those glass birds, angels and bells, to all Christmas ornaments and the little lights...
The dolls that I showed here had the feeling that they were in nature, in the woods, although we knew this Christmas tree was made of plastic. It doesn't matter, the tree is green and it counts. But, there is always a but.
I made this short video of the process how I was decorating it and all the strange things that happened during that time. You will see that the Christmas baubles also had their own mind and rolled on the floor... I tried to please the tree and be kind, I gave him my silver tinsel to use as a scarf like I did.
However, it was not enough. The tree still felt half-naked and wanted to dress by himself. To wear an elegant suit, like a tuxedo that important musicians wear. He said he liked the music that I used in the video, but that he would also like to prepare for a concert and play something. The tree asked me to cover him with a blanket while dressing... I think it was just an excuse so he could do what he did. Well, I can't tell you what happened, as you can see it by yourself at the end of the video.
{if I think better, maybe the members of the Grinch team came and... and... abducted him 😱}
Disclaimer:
No animals, ornaments or Christmas trees were harmed in the making of this video.
Source of royalty-free music used as a background.
This video was aimed to be published in this post, but the upload didn't work at that moment, so this became my debut in the Threeshorts community.
I hope you had fun watching this short video.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/qeytehum
While Sunday early afternoon is usually designed for having a nap and respecting the quiet hours in the buildings (nobody wants angry neighbours 😁) I do hear the sound of the violin coming from my son's room. It is not too disturbing as he sometimes plays with a metal practice mute.
It is a little device that is attached to the bridge of the violin to dampen the sound. He bought it recently as the hours spent in school and in the conservatory don't give many options when to practice. Evenings or weekends. And believe me, the sound of the violin can be much more annoying than the piano sound.
Our neighbours sometimes mention how they like music (maybe it is just a way to say that we are too loud with your musical instruments 😅). Because of that, I wanted to invite our first neighbour to come to the concert my son had with the German orchestra (complete story brought in this post). Unfortunately, she was abroad those days but maybe she would come on some next occasion. Until then the violin compositions are heard through the wall.
This Sunday's early afternoon practice reminded me of the video I made at that concert in October and I promised to bring it to Hive. ~~It was too big so I had to convert it to a bit smaller one; it finally happened today.~~ In the end the original recording comes as the magic of making it a bit smaller didn't bring good results.
The composition I have recorded is the last one from this program. A medley of soundtracks by the great master, Henry Mancini in arrangement of Calvin Custer. My son loved this one and talked about the rehearsals with excitement, but he didn't want to give spoilers. He didn't say they made a little choreography too while playing. Some body movements following the music and snapping fingers in some parts of the composition made it more interesting for them. For the audience too, when we saw it at the concert!
It was the only composition that was not strictly from the genre of classical music. The medley contains parts from songs and soundtracks such as Baby Elephant Walk, Charade, The Pink Panther, Days of Wine and Roses, and finally, Peter Gunn. This video was taken in the first concert they had, in Teulada. The next day they played it even better (there was a slight insecurity in the sound quality of the rhythm section in one short part of this performance) but that is the charm and risk of playing live. The next day they were already more relaxed and not that concerned about the health condition of one of the members of the orchestra. I mentioned in my post that she was taken to the hospital.
Still, this is a very enjoyable 7 and a half minutes of music (just preparing you for the length of the composition). I listened to it probably a hundred times and will do it once again, right now. Yes, I am a proud mom. 😉
Did you recognize the soundtracks from this piece - in case you didn't read the part where I named them? Which one is your favourite soundtrack from this medley?
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/hsmtzvaz
While I was travelling back from Valencia yesterday evening I felt like coming home from an exciting school excursion. Oh, there was a little difference - those who were travelling with me were not young students but people of my age and older than me. It was just the crazy spirit of those people around me who gave me the feeling of being among young people full of energy.
Our bus was sailing on the Mediterranean highway, it was already dark outside; I had a book with me to read but it was not keeping my attention as the spirit of the choir members I had a concert with was stronger. They didn't stop having ideas about which songs to sing. A singing bus it was, a bright spot moving in the darkness.
Our faces were also illuminated. Some faces were reflecting the light of the mobile phone screens and others were lit up by emotions... There were also tears, as the choir lived some very difficult and serious things in the last few months. Difficulties are here as temptations, where things sometimes get even more messed up. On the other side, those are also starting points for new steps. Better and cleaner paths maybe.
I participate (as a pianist) in the concerts of this choir many times. When they have scheduled performances I get the scores and go on the rehearsals. It is not a big national choir, like the one where @jesuslnrs sings. It is just a local, little choir, a group of people who like music and want to offer a message and musical moments to the audience. The director is a great musician, a personal friend and a big man. Well, when you see him you notice that he is not tall at all but his greatness comes from his heart and passion for music. You will have the opportunity to see him conducting in the video, at the end of this post.
On Friday we had one performance at a social gathering and a religious ceremony in our town. Even the bishop came and the words he used as well as the message he transmitted on the homily were so simple and friendly. They came like the words of a close friend you talk to. The musical background that we brought contributed to the beauty and sublime feelings everyone felt there.
The next day we had to wake up very early and get on the bus. We travelled to Torrent, a municipality in the metropolitan area of the city of Valencia. A choir and orchestra festival was held in the building we see in the first photo.
Empty seats, before the festival startedI like to joke that the piano is my office, which in these moments indeed is. Playing on an instrument like this is the best "office" work I can have. 😇 I know it is not a Fazioli {a piano brand, very popular right now} but a good laughing piano. Yamahahahahaha 😂 I would gladly have such an instrument at my home and have fun and music with it!
We were the second choir to perform at the festival. The piano seemed huge in those moments. The audience too. Maybe it was just me feeling so small on the stage but I talked to my mind. You have nothing to be afraid of. Focus on the music, on the director and the singers. That is how this work is done, being in the moment and trying to give the best, although there is always a bit of stage fright. Not too much fear this time though.
The audience loved the performance, we heard later that we lit up the auditorium with energy. It is all thanks to the conductor and his vibe, our response to his leading and enjoying what we do. Some of the performed pieces were El Berberillo de Lavapiés by Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, La Habanera by Bizet, Granada by Agustín Lara, and Funiculì Funiculà by Luigi Denza.
Musicians are also humans so have to eat 😁 That is how the concert was followed by a delicious lunch and a boat ride - but it deserves a separate post! Our impressions of the day, and both concerts, were shared and confirmed in that journey home, on the bus with which I set out to share this experience with you. The little singing family, as we like to call this choir, is already having inspiration for the next rehearsals and performances. 🎶
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/wbxeoota
Saturday was a perfect day to fill it with music. Though it was a beautiful sunny autumn day that could have been spent somewhere in the mountains, as I planned just a few days earlier, we got a different experience to live. My son reminded me on Friday that he would have a concert the next with the orchestra. Fine, he had many of those already, we could say not a big deal, but what is really different this year is that he is many times the soloist.
It brings more responsibility as you can't just hide your voice or your music wrapped in the full sound of the orchestra. If you are a soloist, all the eyes are watching you and all the ears are listening to you. Scary, huh? Well, not really, if we know how to manage stage fright. It is an emotion that can be overcome with work.
This time had the role of soloist in one of the compositions that the orchestra prepared. The event was held in the main church in Altea, and it was the first concert in a row of three at the festival titled Antique and Baroque Music Festival. (in original Festival de Música Antiga i Barroca).
going to the venue - the church with blue domesMy son was already there having a rehearsal for three hours before the concert started. When you play in an orchestra it is common to have these long rehearsals. Sometimes you are already tired but the show must go on, as Freddie would say. The concert, the audience and the music bring the adrenaline and the energy needed for the performance.
a cute, red classic car in front of the churchThe interior of the church is very nice, splendid! The interior of the dome was illuminated and the main altar was giving golden vibes. This was the moment when I entered the church. The people were just arriving.
Of course, we didn't find a place in the front row anymore. One has to come a lot earlier to reserve a seat, but I made my way to the side, from where I could see that little orchestra.The concert started with the composition Arrival of The Queen of Sheba by Handel. A very nice one and perfect for the opening. It was followed by Antonio Vivaldi and Concerto in A minor for flute, violin and basso continuo. Another Vivadi composition was the Concerto in G major, for oboe and bassoon. We enjoyed an excellent performance, the soloists were former students of the conservatory in Altea.
The musicians and the audience got a little break before the concert continued with Sarabande in D minor by Handel. Vivaldi closed the concert with two compositions. Concerto in C major for cello and as the last piece, Concerto Grosso in A minor for two violins. There was Mipiano Junior with a friend playing the main role.
I made several short videos, but also wanted to enjoy the concert without distractions. I am sharing just one movement of that concerto, not to bother Hive people here with long video footage. Everyone played very well, but you have to know that I was especially proud of one young musician there. 😇
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/wzqtlyqu
Once upon a time, there was a region in France where narrow and steep roads connected the towns in the mountains. It was not easy for the horses pulling the carriages to climb there, but the landscape was so beautiful that it was worth the effort.
Oh, wait! We are not in a story, and no horses were on the roads. Still, the horsepower in our car engines had to work big time. Just look at my screenshot and these curves! Very steep uphill all the time. We were high {lol}.
I don't know the altitude we reached after the last bend, but I could see snow on the mountaintops. That is something I like to see!
This carousel ride took place at the beginning of July, as I said in France. More precisely a region called Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. We were heading toward the town of Briançon.
Well, this photo is not that town, just one of those before we reached it. We chose this route for the first time and I assure you it was an interesting decision. It brought some additional dose of adrenaline, though I always find some entertainment... You know I like to count even tunnels hahaha
We took this regional road and not the highway ( @ littlebee4 😁, it's your way of travelling) and I was so happy seeing the purple fields of lavender, then the greenery, the hills, the high mountains, the ski resorts and one lake that we crossed.
After this road, we reached Italy and headed toward Turin, but that part of the road (again highway) was a bit boring. Maybe it just seemed, after these views.
We had to go slow, our car engines were roaring (poor cars) but I was in playing mode today so I made some changes in the video you can see here. Well, there is also a cameo in this video 😂
Just high altitudes and less oxygen, no worries.
P.S. I hope you are not dizzy after watching this video!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/evtvdifw
Imagine two cats having a conversation. All the things they are saying, all compliments, nice words, maybe even insults, everything for us sounds just like meow, meooooow or meeeeeeeeeoooooowwww.
Surely we can hear the different pitch, pace and way the cats pronounce those meows, but we have no clue what they are saying. Unless we have a special ability like Doctor Dolittle has, all we can do is just guess. Our intuition can help us decipher their language to some point, though there are always grey areas we don't understand.
Just think about the moments when they behave in an "incomprehensible" way. The most we can think of is that they are spoiled, weird, picky or have a strong character. It's just that we don't understand them. Our furry friends are maybe more sophisticated actually... I found out they can also sing.
Yes.
Why have you made an incredulous face now? Don't you believe me?
Duetto buffo di due gatti is a humorous duet for two cats, a composition attributed to Gioachino Rossini. Attributed - as maybe it was someone else who wrote the piece... the cats just didn't write down right the composer's name. 😁
What we can hear in this duet is meow. Many meows, but you all know that I am a pianist and not a singer. I can just make my hands and fingers behave like two cats, so we have this duet played on the piano keys. Cats anyway like to play, so I see it perfectly doable to perform the Duetto buffo di due gatti just on the piano.
Two hands playing the role of two cats. I hope they will not fight. They need to coordinate and get this composition work out somehow. In the first part, they are kind of sad, or just sleepy. (do you hear those meow motifs?) and the second part brings more cheerful time from the cats' lives. My cats from this week converted themselves into musical notes, that's why for this Caturday you don't see photos of cats... but you can hear them through the piece I play :))
Ok, ok, one paw of a sleepy ginger found its way to this post. He is just listening to the music from a distance.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/awznggzf
After I deleted the first paragraph of this post for the second time, I scrolled down through my following feed. Oh, Things Are Not All Black And White - I spotted one part of the title of whywhy's post.
En serio?
You want to tell me that my whole world, my keys - my things - are not all black and white!?
Maybe you are right, but I think someone has to invent some colourful piano keys then; each note would receive a different coloured key or at least a shade of a colour. Probably I would need some hours or hopefully just minutes to get used to that keyboard as it is not anymore my eyes that guide me there. ~~Sometimes~~ most of the time I don't need to watch with full attention what my fingers do and where they have to go on the keyboard as the pieces I play in my Sunday morning gigs are already settled down in my muscle memory.
That is a perfect situation, right? I could just stay with those songs I know well and avoid any additional effort of learning new compositions. It would be perfect. But I do like to learn new stuff and the guests of the hotel are so helpful with the ideas. I mean it, seriously.
Last week a couple came close and a little conversation was born between us. The lady let me know her intentions to learn to play the piano and mentioned one piece - Poem Without Words by Anne Clark. Thanks to that little chitchat I searched for the scores for that piece and learned it.
Playing and having conversations on my gigs is great, and you all know that I also have a little friend there who talks to me through books placed on the shelves. {If you don't know who I am talking about and you are interested in finding it out, I can reveal his identity in the comment section}
So, today I was reading a page of a book, The Lost Notebook of a Traveller (don't try to read from the photos, somehow it wouldn't match what I'm writing here...).
The thing is that the main character from that book had to travel for his mission long distances. As they didn't have another means of transportation, those journeys required a lot of time spent in carriages. That way he got plenty of possibilities to experience the life of the places he got in touch with: smelling the aroma of cinnamon or chestnuts, the petrichor after the rain, flowers in bloom, feeling the breeze in summer evenings and cold during the winter nights. But that's not all that he was doing. Long story short, in one of his travels he was reading a book about the wilderness. Zebras... - he was reading - Zebras got black and white stripes on their bodies to confuse the predators.
I imagined those stripes and my fingers reacted instinctively - I was there to play the piano and not to read or invent stories. I was also there to receive some new suggestions from other people and maybe to perform this quite minimalistic piece, Poem Without Words (by Anne Clark). Freshly learned last week!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/ysbqagwk
... fifty-seven, fifty-eight... fifty-nine... sixty!..
...
Was it four???
I yelled the question at my husband who was in the kitchen.
He didn't remember, but I continued. ... eighty-three, eighty-four...
I was counting the seconds and a few things were hitting my mind. Should I think? Should I stop thinking? Breathe? No, don't breathe. Ok, just breathe and count. Aloud? ..one hundred and twelve, one hundred and thirteen... Just don't think about the pain, and don't give up. I started to feel my arms, the heat in them... the muscles are still resisting but it's the mind that should win the game. My cheeks are burning too. I see on the display of the digital clock placed in front of me hitting the third minute - as I have lost the count, but for a few seconds more I still resist. I don't know why, but I decided to let my body reach the floor and relax my muscles after holding this plank.
In the end, I got the answer: Yes, Margot Robbie held her plank for 4 minutes and 10 seconds. That's nice and admirable, though I am also happy with the shorter time I can do this exercise. I started with 15 seconds a few weeks ago and increased the time day by day.
Why would numbers matter at all? Why would one number make any difference?
Hmm, yes, they are helpful sometimes as we are measuring things with numbers. Years, dates, seconds, notes, measures, distances, heartbeats or even temperatures in these warm days. You can add here what you want but I am getting back to the topic of music.
There is this little composition, Passacaglia by Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935). He picked a theme composed by Georg Friedrich Handel and upon the repetitive bass (the part I play with my left hand) composed variations on that same theme (the part I play with my right hand). That's quite an easy one (no, my student would completely disagree with this as he can't put together both hands in this piece. He stopped today and said it's hard and he doesn't like it anymore 😆) but you have to count how many times the theme appears not to get lost when you match it with the bass. No, I didn't count when I recorded it. And I suggest you don't do it either as maybe there is one variation that I (on purpose) missed out lol.
Plank, piano, numbers. Counting, breathing, Margot Robbie. What was this post about? 😂
Ah, yes, Passacaglia 🎶
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/nxjourec
Last Saturday night didn't end the way I thought it would.
I suppose that it was a bit of a surprise... for sure it was. The surprises of life are always bringing new tastes as if Chef Life would add different condiments to its specialities - our destiny - every now and then. At least it's never boring to have a feast with these diverse flavours. I just can't decide if it was bitter or sour. Sweet? Don't make me laugh, it definitely wasn't.
But if I see from a distance, I can see that not even a second of my evening had to be spent on negative thoughts. I did my part of the agreement. I played for the guest of a nice place, by the open pool. They loved it. What happened between the organizer and the hotel, and how they misunderstood the timetable for the presence of the pianist was not my thing anymore.
Though the thing of arriving there, with a huge traffic jam (as everyone wanted to go to that town and see the special fireworks) affected my time spent commuting. As I knew it would be like that I was kind of mentally prepared, still, it would bother everyone a little bit not being able to move on the road.
But leaving behind the traffic jam, the bad organization and the end of the night, it was a pleasure to play there. On a beautiful terrasse, between palm trees and pools, the grass where the guests had their luxurious dinner. Me and my piano. At first, I started without desire and was a bit stressed. Immersing myself in playing the piano made me forget about the organization issues and the bitter flavour became neutral.
A few smiles from the waiters that were passing with the dishes, a couple of applauses from the guests and a question, a comment and dancing to one song made that initial taste change into a sweeter one. I also knew that there would be fireworks at midnight, that would last for 20-25 minutes. I hoped to escape before it would start...
My playing part finished and the fireworks were about to start. Everyone was so excited... I just don't understand why is that. The dance of the lights in the dark sky, I know it is cool but somehow I don't fancy watching them after I work. I wanted to go home before the roads were full of cars and got stuck for another hour on the road.
Chef Life... well, I didn't get stuck on the road but was already "captured" in the hotel 😂. The maintenance guy who was supposed to help me out of the complex started looking at the fireworks and told me to wait and do the same. To watch the fireworks from that privileged place and that we would get out when they finished - in 25 minutes.
Breathe.
I have stayed for some moments, and the few photos that are coming in this post and the short videos prove that. I indeed stayed for some time, but then I took my bitter-sour-sweet fate into my hands and found the way out from there by myself. My confession: I don't like the sound of the fireworks. It's like being in the middle of a war zone. Only if they could be just visual experience...
Why they could not sound like Handel, for example?
I know, there are many other songs where fireworks are mentioned but I brought here a famous classical piece.
I suggest watching the fireworks I saw, but without sound and listening at the same time to Handel's music :D
Do you like fireworks? For what occasions do you think they are fine? Maybe you know songs and music that are connected to fireworks? There are several examples out there 🎶
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/wlhwjkfq
That January afternoon the sun said goodbye to the shores of Portugal, as it does every day. It had to go as some new horizons were waiting for its light. The sun left Lisbon and slowly crossed the ocean.
Before the sun hugged for the last time this landscape, it gave us a little visual gift. It pleased our eyes with a spectacular golden hour. Many people came to that spot in order to enjoy the views but we found ourselves there by accident, after walking around the streets of the city for the whole day.
I was already happy with all the historical buildings we saw and with the chitchat with our guide, carrying a little box full of succulents in my bag. Then, in one moment we arrived here, at the River Tagus, without planning it actually. In the distance, we saw the 25 de Abril Bridge and the sun embracing it. Close to us - people bathing in that golden light. I think none of us expected to see the sunset and these colours.
Another nice surprise was a musician that was playing his guitar just behind the dock, on the square. Music with roasted chestnuts (these were salty in Portugal!?), with those golden views and dear people. Where could this lead?
To more music :)))
You see, more than seven months passed since the moment of taking these photos. I thought I was just procrastinating not sorting out the photos from Lisbon (I still didn't do it, so maybe it is procrastination indeed), but maybe these ones had to wait for the right moment. To accompany this post, that could be a Spread the Vibes challenge thing, responding to @garorant's post he published in February. It's been a while, I know, but finally today I can bring the song he mentioned here. Golden Hours.
I had my ups and downs since then, practising and not practising phases. The piece just had to wait to ripen, I guess. So, a few days ago I found the scores and played it. Recorded it. Is it perfect? No, it isn't. I am not golden like the singer Jacob Dodge Lawson, aka JVKE, and neither I am playing it in the exact way he does it. But this is our particular space to share and spread the musical vibes and in this case golden vibes too.
{if you like to participate in Spread the Vibes challenge not challenge, check out the initial post for the guidelines, as I think I omitted a few rules here 😆}
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/btiqejvy
I was surprised and actually shocked this morning when I saw this post, to put it mildly. Edje mentioning Lady Gaga? In a Spread the Vibes post...? And in a positive way?
The Nutty Columnist went on a very long vacation, together with the images. But after reading the post I understood and clearly saw those goosebumps that could be of the height of Mount Everest, or at least Mont Blanc, as he said. Ok, maybe felt instead of saw. As I had the same goosebumps when I saw the movie "A Star Is Born" for the first time.
We watched it in the theatre shortly after it was released in 2018. When you watch a movie in a cinema it usually leaves a deeper impression on you, partly as there are no distractions around as it happens at home. Also, if there is music that plays an important role in the movie, you perceive it much better than in home conditions. Maybe it happens just to me? Anyway, the song "Shallow" especially around the minute 1:45 (from the following video) gave me that great feeling. Oh, it does it again now when I am listening to it. Goosebumps.
source of the video
Lady Gaga was not an artist I would listen to at home, because I would choose to do it. Of course, I heard about her and could recognize some of her songs, but that was all. The same as Edje - I thought she does just commercial music and not much more, but... what she showed us in the movie changed my feelings toward her as a singer and probably a human being who had to fight for her fame. Though it is never an easy road to mark success in the music industry. Maybe the first positive comments I listened about her were said by my husband, but it stayed in that state until the movie. In combination with Bradley Cooper, they conquested us!
Unfortunately, I can't say that I even tried to search for her new music (I don't know if she had newly released songs?) but I stayed with the positive thought because of the movie, and probably because of the song Shallow. I also play it on the piano with pleasure :) And even nicer it is when played with a singer.
Thanks to this post that I encountered this morning I could remember a birthday party where the song Shallow was performed by two musicians, although not as famous musicians as Lady Gaga is. It happened under the ground a few months ago. Actually, in the "basement" part of a rock club, rented out by the person who celebrated her birthday.
As a singer, she invited a lot of other musician friends. It was a kind of improvised celebration because the guests, the musicians were bringing the music part to the party. A trumpet player, bass guitarist, drummer, another guitarist, two pianists and some singers. The man with the hat is a Cuban pianist who told me his life story and how he got to Spain... The trumpet player mainly performs jazz music and there, on the stage, these musicians have improvised together with ease.
The singer lady - who was celebrating her birthday performed with all the other musicians, and with a lady pianist in black too. They just agreed about the songs several minutes before they took the stage, and made music without any rehearsal. That was cool as any improvisation and unexpected thing could happen.
I also have some recordings of some piano music and I put those fragments together into one video. You will see, it starts with the song Shallow, continues with short parts of some solo piano pieces and finishes with the first song I mentioned. The recordings are maybe not perfect but it was half-dark and recorded with a phone.
Thanks to edje I got the inspiration to spread these Lady Gaga vibes and bring this birthday party to Hive and Q-inspired-by-music corner. And what about you? Did you watch the movie A Star Is Born? Do you like Lady Gaga? Have you visited a birthday party lately that was different from the other ones and was celebrated in a peculiar way? Feel free to share with us your stories and vibes (the guides to a Spread the Vibes challenge can be found here.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/ifgragks
More than a year passed since our last visit to Oceanográfic in Valencia(Spain). We passed by it a few months ago, just walked by it on the street but our real tour inside happened in April 2022 for the last time. It is a well-known place for families as the young ones like to see all those sea creatures we don't see normally.
Our friend is a marine biologist and works there, so we didn't have to buy the tickets. But that's not the most important thing. What was really interesting is that he showed us parts of the oceanarium that is closed to the public, where they work around the rescue and conservation of sea turtles, some fish species, sharks, dolphins and belugas. Many times he shows us videos of how they are healing dolphins or sharks, without fear. The work they are doing is incredible, also in the investigation and conservation of species that are in danger of extinction.
Yes, we can see there many different species but I guess this one is here just for decoration. Or education. Anyway, it also came here, through this photo. I made a lot of short videos during this walk, so many that had to select and omit at least half of them. I made one longer video out of the selection of short videos, and the background music is my recording of a piece, Le Onde, by Ludovico Einaudi. I recorded it already a year or two ago.
So, let's take a short walk. There are various levels and parts of this oceanarium. Also open and closed areas. The part with the tunnels is my favourite because you can see the turtles, sharks, and fish swimming, all together, above your head. It is incredible, you have the feeling you walk in those depths of the ocean while the sharks swim around you. Also, I mentioned to one Hiver today, if he needs a tunnel or a portal to arrive at the place his wife is currently vining, in Valencia, that I can help with that task. So here you are, @pumarte, maybe there is a tunnel under the ocean and you just have to walk and arrive here, in Oceanográfic. What do you think?
Maybe it would take a lot of time... If you are good at swimming you can choose that option, swim but please make sure you stay away from jellyfish. There were transparent, orange, pink, and white... but there is one common thing for all of them - they sting.
These were so nice. Small white ones.
And with how much grace this jellyfish swims. You can see it in the video.
The octopus was a cool one. They are very intelligent creatures actually, and are pretty good at camouflaging. They adapt their colour to their surroundings. Once we saw an octopus in the sea and it was changing its colour according to the colour of the stones where we were swimming and following us. As he followed us 😂
This octopus in Oceanográfic just came to greet us. Well, he can be also seen in the video ;)
A myriad of different types of fish that we were observing in different zones and aquariums of this complex in Valencia. If you come one day to this city, I can recommend visiting the whole complex City of Arts and Sciences and walking in the tunnels of Oceanográfic.
Raúl, is it you, hiding in this photo? Did you safely arrive? ;)
I do hope that at least you made this virtual visit to Valencia, but the real-life visit would be even better!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/uourszsb
I went back to the crime scene. I always do, over and over again I let myself be drawn to its mystery every week. I can thanks this to my curiosity, it's not that I am blaming Mr Sleeping Buddha for getting me involved every time in some storyline. It's not even he who moves the books on those shelves, it's the hotel's guests who read those books and later put them back in the order they want. He just shows me with his head where I have to look. Btw, do you remember the Mafia story? It went down on the shelf, so I guess that the story about it already finished.
Already a week ago I got that inquiry to solve the mystery about Schwarzwaldruh. It was the book that my hand was supposed to touch and see the story immediately, at that moment. However, to my great surprise, I understood nothing. Schwarzwald, the Black Forest in Germany was dormant, very quiet and didn't want to reveal to me easily the crime that happened there. The book cover showed just a blue sky, with two little clouds. A calm scenery, without any sign of torment, but the subtitle was leading me to a different conclusion. ...krimi? Must be a detective novel, a mystery story.
It indeed was a mystery for me, for a whole week. I even tried to read a bit from the book. So much fun hahahah, it was in German and I don't speak that language. I know less than even 4 words... and one of them is a curse word so I better skip showing my German language knowledge. I got no clue. Days were passing, the crime was not solved in my mind until that phone call. A new gig, if I didn't have enough already of a complicated schedule.
So, the celebration of Europe Day is approaching and the Town Hall will have a little event. They found it appropriate to make that day nicer with some speech of the political representatives of the town, maybe some wine or champagne and music. Piano music 🎶 😎. One composition was requested as compulsory - the Anthem of Europe. Do you know that tune? I am more than sure you heard about The Ode of Joy, composed by Beethoven.
Everything became clear - the Geman language was the clue and the resolution of the mystery at the same time. I will have to practice a composition by the German giant of classical music, Ludwig van Beethoven. As I am not an orchestra haha, I have to play it on my instrument, the piano. There is one good arrangement, written by another classical music giant, Franz Liszt. I printed out the scores or the arrangement yesterday and started to practice, we don't want this thriller story to finish in a bad way hahaha. Until the 9 of May, I have to have it perfect.
Apart from that composition, I will prepare a few more pieces. Liszt... that name inspired me so I will also practice and perform Nocturne No 3 in A Flat Major by the same composer, and probably two other pieces, but moving toward French composers. After all, it is the Day of Europe, I should try to incorporate composers from different countries. I thought about Camille Saint-Saëns and Jules Massenet.
My studies started yesterday and I have to say that I overdid a bit so my right arm was hurting in the evening... and this morning too, but I could practice again today without issues. I recorded some small parts of it, but it is not a performance level at the moment. Especially The Ode to Joy is just in the reading phase, I have to study it a lot. Anyway, this is what my little family and the neighbours will listen to for one week. The video ends as it ends 😂 - with errors and then I stop and play again the passage or the part 😂
Good luck to those who live close to me!!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/wvslxvlm
We went on a time-travelling adventure yesterday. Ok, ok, it wasn't exactly an adventure, but just a regular trip to the past. It is pretty easy and normal, you get a ticket for that time machine, take a seat and adjust your seatbelt - just in case, as it can go fast (it depends on how many years you want to go back in time). I have chosen a few centuries (don't remember the exact date anymore, I think there were some turbulences in that ride that shook my mind) and landed in the middle of a traditional market. While walking in the narrow streets and smelling the freshly baked bread a strange noise came to my ear. I swear, I have never heard that sound before.
My eyes also got the confirmation - something was happening there... a group of people surrounded a man, dressed in a traditional way and of course, according to the year when all of this happened. He seemed young when he was smiling, but then I saw the silver beard. An experienced storyteller was standing in front of us explaining how he got each of the tools from his workshop. Also, he was explaining about the object he was holding in his hands. It was a musical instrument, apparently, but I had to ask him at least twice about the name of the same.
Zanfoña - in Spanish... which would be Hurdy-gurdy in English (it can be also called wheel fiddle).
But he insisted on the Valencian name of the instrument - Viola de roda.
Rodar would mean to roll, as he said to me in his attempts to explain to me better about the origin of the name. You roll that little handle, which makes the wheel turn. It consequently rubs the strings and we hear the sound.
He continued with a lot of dedication: There are little keys, like on the piano, but first, the black keys come and then the white. Also, low and high notes go in the opposite direction than on the piano.
Then he explained about the strings, how you can tune them, the little tangents that are attached to the keys and how they change the length of the string (which changes the pitch of the note... like in the guitar for example), and a lot of other details. It was the very first time I was seeing this musical instrument in my life and remembering everything about it was not easy. The music that came out of this wooden box can't be forgotten, though. I hope you can also hear it when you press the play button of the video from this post.
After some time we said goodbye to this man and thanked him for being so kind and explaining to us all about the hurdy-gurdy. However, just two streets away from this stall different music passed by us. Yes, that music passed by us, literally.
A group of musicians also dressed in a traditional way walked down the street while playing some kinds of wooden wind instruments, bagpipes and percussions.
The bagpipes were so cool to see!! Well, I don't know about you but seems that I had to go back in time to see from close these musical instruments.
Btw, they were very funny and entertaining, in one moment they started to sing, not in the way nowadays we could call singing... But why I am still talking and taking your time? Wouldn't be nicer if you would also just listen to them and have some fun? I was laughing a lot listening to them 😂, they definitely are good entertainers! So funny people and the walking performance they did!
But don't forget to return to the present... I hope you didn't take just a one-way ticket for this time machine at the beginning of this post.
Enjoy the music, the experience and the ride in time!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/tkjvvbsh
Some stories are difficult to finish. You write and write and at one point you don't know how to bring those last thoughts and in some way say goodbye to your readers. It may be that you don't like goodbyes as the story would last forever and the protagonist would not die with the full stop. But what is also true is that sometimes it is difficult to start a story, and before that - have an idea at all. I am just guessing all of this as I am not a writer. Although I have a little buddy, the little Buddha that in his daydreaming pose always shows me some book or magazine. Sometimes he is silent but other times he reveals some messages and gives inspiration.
This Sunday he pointed with his head to one book on the shelf. Mafia from Naples.
You can imagine me running away, scared... I didn't even want to see who the writer of the book was. The title stayed marked in my mind though. Like a mantra, it hammered my nerves for hours. I would say it is a long time, but we all know, time is relative, right? Relatively relative. A thousand years can maybe fly in a few seconds or vice versa. One second can hold more than we can imagine, but let's stay with the hours that I spent at my Sunday workplace. It was a normal session, with all the usual things that happen, music, coffee, music, driving home. I even managed to forget about that book and left the hotel already thinking about the rest of the day and the tasks that could wait for me.
The manager didn't inform me that I was promoted at work and I got a new, clean car with a driver. It annoyed me a little bit as these kinds of surprises should be written in the contract to avoid possible misunderstandings in the future, but anyway, I decided not to complain about the promotion and enjoy the given moments.
The driver even stepped out when he saw me with Voyager and offered to place it into the trunk. I felt a bit sorry for my friend but I let it be placed there. In all modes, I had to talk to my manager on Monday to clarify all the details about these new working conditions, and yes, to ask him about the schedule and time I finished. I noticed that it was evening... but my turn was during breakfast? Not to be a party breaker I kept the suspicions in my black blazer's left pocket and entered the vehicle.
The night was nice and the city lights were playing a hide-and-seek game with the tall trees along the road. I enjoyed the new feeling a lot as I didn't have to drive and pay attention to the road and traffic. All went well, perfectly well and my satisfaction hit the sky when I got a cup of champagne. No need to say that it was very tasty. The gentle bubbles tickled my tongue and a sweet taste prevailed in my mouth. I felt it on my lips as well. The label said that it was a branded one, Camorra, a name that rang a bell but I was not sure from where I have heard about it. For sure it was not a cheap one from a supermarket.
I was excited about all of this and imagined arriving home, telling the good news to my family and also writing it down on my blog. What a Hive story it would be!
It was just great to see that the driver was so helpful when my eyelids became heavy and I felt a little tear of joy. He handed me a tissue from a cardboard box, the same brand as the champagne, Camorra. He also gave me a mobile phone and announced that I have a call from the capo. However, everything became black in front of my eyes before I could attend that phone call...
Play it!
Play it once again!
Why this mistake?
Again. You can't leave until it becomes perfect!
They gave me a piano, the music scores and a laptop to record that song. It was impossible to get it right, there were always some mistakes. I cried but I had no choice, I had to make more effort. The members of the mafia clan started to scare me with all types of threats like bringing me a frog and kissing it. Cutting my fingers. Locking me up in a monastery. Forcing me to wear high-heeled shoes. Breaking my arms. It was a real nightmare but I had to please the wishes of the capo and learn to play the song he asked for. I almost felt compassion for him, as his intentions were so sweet... aw... He wanted a nice present for his wife but she already had everything. Houses, luxury cars, dresses, and jewellery. Perfumes, spa treatments and yachts...
He needed something different as a gift this time and it had to be that song by Christina Perri, but recorded by me. Why the heck by me?
...
Sleeping Buddha.
It was he who made this arrangement.
No time to lose, I had to make those notes fall in the right place on the keyboard or think about a different escape from the hands of the mafia from Nalpes. It would be tricky to run to the street, I didn't know this city so I was still playing that song, over and over again to please the boss.
In one moment I found the book from the hotel in my right pocket and decided to rewrite it. The original text stated that the pianist would have to stay in the hands of the mafia for a thousand years, trying to get the song right but somehow I managed to rewrite the end and get myself the escape with the recording full of imperfections.
You can also hear the mistakes, but it is not important anymore. I am here, alive and will have to go back next Sunday to talk to the young sleeping statue who showed me the book and put me into this story.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/xsgluabv
I sharpened my pencils and was ready to write.
But then, a few days passed before I started playing the music on this keyboard. Don't you think one can be lost when seeing 105 keys, with different letters and numbers on them? Not to mention the fact that I find myself more comfortable with 52 white and 36 black keys...
So, I had that piece of paper on the desk, actually the empty side of the electricity bill that I grabbed and used to write down ideas. It was 5 topics I noted down that would one day become posts. The list has grown to 10 and yesterday finished at 18. 😂
Now I can cross out one, and the moment I press the publish button for this post, the list will become shorter. Just 17 ideas will remain unless my mind creates a new one to add.
I don't like blunt pencils. This is how I like to have them!
Sometimes happens that we have ideas but everyday tasks make us blunt. Time can be a tricky player too, it seems that is always winning... I think that it actually cheats on us somehow, but we just have to find out how to overcome it. Mind also likes to enter mousetraps and leave us on the edge of an abyss. It can come for a myriad of reasons, doesn't matter at all, but in the end, it's only we who have the access to our own chests where the prudence is stored.
In any case, I think that noting down the ideas can help us later get back on track. Ideas can come and go, and it also applies to music and composers. When about a week ago a friend of mine recommended me a piece called Idea 10 by Gibran Alcocer, I asked again for the title.
¿Cómo se llama esta idea, qué canción es?
(What is this idea called, what song is it?)
He repeated - Idea 10.
Ah, so it was the name, I understood in the end. He explained that probably this musician writes down his ideas, and this one is idea number 10. Disclaimer: I don't know if that is true at all, or if it is what that friend just suppose... However, I found the composition by Gibran Alcocer and the practice part started. 🎶
As it sounded nice I decided to record it, but this is a post about ideas... so let's mix a few of them. I had some video footage of the place we visited in January, shot from the cliffs of the town of Nazaré (Portugal). From the same journey, I had a super short recording of Lisbon, from Sao Jorge Castle. I also recorded a performance of a street artist in Valencia a few days ago. Those were maybe also some ideas, but now I mixed them, all combined in one video as there were too short to come in an individual form. The music comes as background, and for me, it definitely has a sound from the past. Who knows what was the composer thinking, but in my opinion, it reflects memories and ideas, all mixed up.
Ending note - this post comes without an ending note.
Oh, well, maybe just a short conclusion. The pencils... let's sharpen them and write when the right time comes for it! ;)
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/scescwna
It's been a while, I know. Already for some time, I had this draft in PeakD, in this same inert phase. To be honest, there were just two links and two numbers... then the third official invitation from Edje came, and I still didn't have a word written on this topic. I just added the third one and hoped that soon I will be able to make it.
And you know what happened?
Edje made another one 😂
His fourth Spread the Vibes post came and me...? I am still silent on this field. {Luckily, it seems that Lady Memory messed up big time and made some minds occupied with other stuff on his side, so everything is fine, no mute and bans this post will face...yep, I can be calm, absolutely...😬}
Poor, abandoned draft... how many similar ones live in Hive?
There were different times when I barely waited 24 hours to make a response to a Spread the Vibes post. Sometimes two days, or a bit more, when I had to practice or find some interesting match to shared music. But never ever happened that almost a year passes and I don't make my response.
Just take a look, it was March 2022 when I was invited. Then July 2022 and later January 2023. Seems that his pace of writing the Spread the Vibes posts became so frequent that I couldn't keep the same pace. My metronome inner broke maybe 😂
But let's leave why and how before I start making up more useless excuses. The day has arrived, and the response to 1, 2 and 3 is coming bending the ~~rules~~ guidelines, mixing up several posts, users, vibes, and ideas. The drinks should not be mixed, though.
ONESo, let's start with the invitation number een. It was March last year, the season of viruses that attacked the people who visited Thuishaven and the Circus. Even Sterac and Speedy J couldn't make Edje go home without those little creatures that make you have a runny nose and fever. The cages and big fans were not of help either, all played the game together to catch the innocent cameo dancers on the dance floor getting some headaches several days later. Maybe Albert van Abbe is a person to blame for the inconvenience? We don't know anymore, it is now just a matter of the past.
TWOOh, Trentemøller and the album The Last Resort! Although in the post we could see the track called Take me Into Your Skin, the small link for the whole album was below the video. Nobody knows how many times it was played on my laptop. Me neither. I didn't like the video, it was giving me distress. I felt I had to run as well, scared if I watched it. I just listened while I was writing my posts for the next few weeks. Apart from the first track, I really like this one, titled Miss You, and The Very Last Resort song. The deep notes of Vamp are cool too. All in all, an album played by my side many times - a sign that I liked it!
THREEWhen I saw myself tagged for the third time, I just knew I have to move my ~~ass~~ my fingers and bring a response. But knowing something and doing something is not the same, so a month again passed...{do I start again with the excuses? 😅} Forget all this paragraph... Am starting from the beginning.
Childs and the album Yui came to spread some vibes in the third post-invitation. Was it a pleasant sound? Disturbing? Annoying? Calm? Everyone can decide for themselves, but for me, it was both. Edje was right, there are sounds that are not possible to label as relaxing ones. Some of the tracks for me were just too "happy" and tend to fall into the more commercial side. What I liked is the track S.A.D. and the sounds of Interludio Yui. My head is spinning a bit right now, don't really know if because of the voices of the children or something else 😂
I said I am not following the guidelines of our Spread the Vibes challenge not Challenge, but still, I have some main parts of it. I made my reaction to the music that was shared with me (though it was a triple menu here) and I will make my musical contribution. But here comes the real mix 😁
Why I have chosen to bring this song now? Well, the last time I played an arrangement of a rock song, everyone seemed to be surprised. As if Mipiano can't play other styles :D?
@freakshow90 was more than surprised:
Pensé (equivocadamente) que no te gustaba la música relacionado al rock and roll, pero me demuestras lo erróneo que puedo estar.
I thought (wrongly) that you didn't like rock and roll related music, but you show me how wrong I can be.
@edje said:
Rock in 'Ambient' clothes... Sounds almost like Wolf in Sheep clothes... Sounds quite dangerous... I mean 'Rock'... {LOL}
😂😂😂 I died while reading that it is dangerous 😂
@whywhy, after listening to this cover made a response through a new post as seems that the Pixies vibes were spread to him. He offered a weekend on a tropical Island with no phones, no TV just a great white house and a tremendous white piano. 48 hours of piano music that I would play and @hanselmusic, but I know we also have booked a midnight electronic music session with @edje, maybe in the basement, it must be underground hahah, so a full music weekend of good vibes. It is now "just" to wait for BTC to moon 🤣🤣
All this made my mind think about bringing another rocky thingy... but it was still not clear what. But then @nanixxx wrote a heartbreaking post about two of her dogs, the beings of light now, Frida and Queen. I know that she is missing them, a lot, but the name Queen came to me as inspiration. The song I would practice and record to spread some vibes would be by the iconic band Queen. Maybe the name of her beloved dog had nothing to do with this band... but, don't stop me now and let me bring this piano version of a song: Don't Stop me Now!!
To clarify right now - I didn't invent this piano cover. I play it from the scores upon the arrangement of a pianist Francesco Parrino who has his YouTube channel and makes covers.
The photo of Mister Einstein and Mister Mercury being in one window display was taken last summer in Italy while I was strolling through the streets of the city of Padua. Couldn't come at in better time than now for this post :))
The last part of a proper Spread the Vibes post would be to invite people to participate... but I will also leave it out, I mentioned here quite a few users, so it would be already tag spamming 😆
But the invitation is open to everyone who catching something from here and wants to make a post response :))
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/rtpiderd
Thursday, 23:47
Damn. That passage is still giving me a lot of trouble. Ok, just have patience, it is just the first day of practising. It will improve if I study a few days more.
Friday, 10:34
I am feeling weak and really not very well, but a few minutes of the piano will make good for me. But I have to cut my nails, they bother me, and there is a clicking sound while I strike the piano keys. It's not nice.
Saturday, no exact time noted down
Hey, the passage is going better. But why now appeared other places that are difficult? Also, I need to shape better the phrases. The main melody can't stay static. But I can't rush either, I shouldn't even breathe. The wild swans can't perceive the presence of people, it's better to stay behind the reed.
Sunday
I still didn't find the right time to record this piece. When then? During the week it is almost impossible with the schedule that is waiting for me.
Monday
It will be today. No more delays. I still have errors.
Still Monday
Yeah, I recorded it, after some 6 attempts. Nice bloopers. Nice errors in the recorded video too. Sigh.
Maybe I should officially start my post, I mean the real writing thing? Or just leave the sketches of the process of practising and recording? It can be funny actually, to leave just the photo of the reed that was taken somewhere by the river we have in the nearby town. There are ducks and one swan, it even has a name. Everyone called it Paco, but in the end, it turned out it was a female swan, so now she is Paca 😂
But, music!! So, I already practised in the past this composition but in a different version. I played and recorded it with my niece, more than a year ago, we played it in four hands version. About the composer, Camille Saint-Saëns, and how this composition, The Swan was born and published back in time you can read there, in that old post.
Now I play a piano solo version that gave me some headaches with the left-hand part, and those who are perfectionists will maybe hear a few ~~mistakes~~ additional and improvised notes. The passage that was difficult came out well in the final recording but I made some ~~stupid~~ unplanned slips in other places. So, this is a performance of The Swan, by Camille Saint-Saëns that is again not perfect. But that's me!
The bloopers... they will come one day too 😂
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/eyjgblxa
Hey, Miss Mind! Where are you?
Do you have to ask your mind sometimes that question? As it probably happens to everyone to catch their mind wandering around, at some other places, with some other people, in completely non-realistic circumstances. Sometimes even going back to the dreams, or some situations that happened in the past but there is no reason to remember them exactly at a certain moment when it is not expected. Our mind doesn't want to keep quiet and it seems that it likes to escape from our control. From the dictator's influence. I mean, I don't know if it happens to everyone, I can't be sure so let's take all this with a grain of salt, ok?
But I think that the mind of my student this morning wanted to escape far away from the situation we found ourselves in. So, it's Saturday morning when this student comes to my home for his private piano lesson. He was absent for some weeks as he had to go to the other corner of the world, to attend a fair for his business. Before we start to play we like to talk a bit, about how the week went or similar, but now he had indeed a super nice thing to tell me. He visited a huge music store in Hong Kong (that's where he was) full of luxury pianos. The price of them? It is better not even to mention... Guided by his explanation my mind travelled there and just admired the scene. But, it was time to start to work as the hour could disappear quickly.
We have chosen a new piece to study today, a piano piece became very popular lately. For the first time, we heard this song on a French alternative radio station that many times offer the musical background in our home. Later, we recognized the tune in one advertisement on television and just a few weeks later, another commercial also used the same music. Just the first fragment of it actually. Just a bit of research and we knew the title of the song and the piano version it appeared in all these cases.
It is the song Where is My Mind, by the band Pixies. This song was featured also in a movie watched in our home recently, Fight Club. However, the piano version I am talking about is played by Maxence Cyrin. Here comes his YouTube channel if you want to check out his original piano works and piano covers. We started to read the notes, analyze the chords, practice the jumps and positions and then... THEN my son decided to study the violin.
My son's violin scores
Do you know that the violin is quite a loud instrument? If you don't know, I am telling you that. You just have to believe me. It was a bit difficult to concentrate on this calm piano piece and in this phase of learning while you hear Bach's Partita in D minor from the other room. I apologised to my student but he said it was fine. But I don't know... In his place, I would let my mind run away, far far away from this house of musicians and all this noise (oops, I mean music). 😁
The lesson finished with positive vibes and the violin practising still continued for some time. When everything got calm, I switched again to the piano and recorded this little song, so simple but with this interesting title, Where is My Mind.
So, back to the questions from the beginning... Do you always know where is your mind, or it sometimes goes where it wants, without your consent? Like a person for herself... Miss Mind.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/tmmupofu
Maybe it was an opportunity that I missed out on (according to the people that were with me) but at that moment I didn't feel comfortable doing it... Playing on an organ, on an elevated stage, while there were so many people around. I can't go back in time and make it differently, the experience will stay as an evening when I refused to shine as a musician. Or be embarrassed. Maybe my cheeks were shining though, the wine was so sweet, literally.
That evening, the sixth day of the year 2023 we were staying in Porto. We arrived well, already visited so many places and had a great time in Lisbon. It was now this city in the north of Portugal that we wanted to explore, its architecture, the bridges, the river, the cuisine and the people. The lady who worked in the reception of the apartment that we rented out was very kind, she was very friendly and recommended what to visit, and where to go. She even marked on a map with different colours the routes and the streets where we could go and meet the city in the best way. So great that she did it for us. But she added that rain will come the very next morning. That's life, not everything can be perfect, but what we could do is take at least one evening stroll, passing the river with a beautiful pedestrian bridge. We found ourselves on the other side of the city, went down to the river bank and saw several wine cellars.
These two houses were illuminated in a way nobody could miss them. One had a pompous name - The Fantastic World of Portuguese Can. I entered for a moment. Of course, it was full of cans with fish. The other one, Casa Portuguesa Pastel de Bacalhau seemed modest, looking at it from the street. But the interior was different.
To be honest, I didn't know why there were so many books all around. It seemed like an old library or a place where a movie could be shot. The red colour of the bookshelves (the books were real, not fake books) and the columns, the red seats, the stairs and the huge chandelier gave a glamorous touch to the place. But I was still not aware of what this place was.
A library where cod fish and wine can be bought?
A store with displayed books, in case you are bored while waiting for your order?
And why there was an organ on the stage? Is this a concert hall?
But what the cod cake (pastel de bacalhau) is doing here then?
I still don't have the answers to these questions hahaha. But the thing is that we already had our wine and then a show was announced. An organ player and a singer lady took the stage and started performing several ABBA songs.
We took a seat on the corner red couch and enjoyed the moment. Then my friend who travelled with us from Lisbon got the idea: You should play there.
No, I am a bit shy to ask the guy to let me play.
But, this is a unique opportunity. You, in Porto, playing there the organ, c'mon!
No, I am afraid I would get embarrassed, and I would stop or make errors.
But we would shout you some bravos and would be proud of you. We are proud of you anyway.
I am not comfortable asking him, and maybe he wouldn't let me anyway. And the Casa de Bacalhau would lose clients if I play there 😂...
You guess, I had a bunch of other excuses, so in the end, my friend and family gave up. I had my relaxing moment and I was on vacation, not on a work trip.
From this spot, I listened to their performance which lasted for about half an hour. I understood that they had a break and would have again a show a bit later. Not sure though how many shows they have every day but I suppose maybe every hour during the afternoon and evening. The people there actually come in and out of the house, buy the fish pastry and wine, talk, listen, stroll around... I clapped after every song and tried to be a good audience :) I know that it feels well when you receive this encouraging gesture from the listeners.
Maybe I could also receive applause that day... or just the opposite, maybe nobody would like my playing. It was the time just to be there and not think a lot about what and how to play. I had to be the audience that evening in this strange place I still don't really get what actually was lol.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/lcccrsvt
I was so happy last Thursday. It was the last working day for me at school, and two weeks of freedom from work waited for me. Whole days of just being lazy and doing nothing is what was supposed to happen. Well, it is what was planned, but the reality is that seven days passed and I don't know where the time disappeared. I feel more tired than when I have worked. So many things I wanted to do, all those things that I can't really achieve when I am working. Now it is time for friends, family, visits, dinners, excursions, food, food, food.. oops, did I say three times food? Huh, I know I will need to cut off eating, but it can wait until 2023... maybe as a New Year's resolution :D
At the moment I can't think about that, we have to live in the present time and what is right now happening is mentoring a friend on how to start his journey on Hive. I mentioned it in my latest post when we spent a day together, we talked to him about our loved platform and created an account for him. Several hours of explanation is too little time, way too little time. Today we went on another excursion and had a nice time in the mountain. Home-made lunch, which was btw very tasty (oh, I am again talking about food 😂) and more Hive teaching time. It is not easy at all, to explain everything (impossible actually) but the main thing I tried to highlight is the personal touch we are giving to our posts when writing. That is something that I would suggest to all those who are starting the blogging activity.
However, giving the personal touch is not important only on Hive but in many other things we do in life. Creating art, writing, cooking (huh, again??), playing the piano, composing, designing, choosing our clothes, decorating our home, or the way of wishing happy holidays to others. We are in this time of the year when friends and family members are called, met or reached out through messages or letters. That's why a few days ago I searched for the piano scores of a soundtrack of a movie titled Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. I studied a bit and recorded the piece to make a personalized greeting ~~card~~ video.
I haven't seen the movie but I liked the music. The composer of the soundtrack is Ryuichi Sakamoto, a Japanese composer. Moreover, exactly this movie opened the path to his career as a film score composer and actor. I played other pieces by him already, but this one waited for the opportunity to be played and recorded by me. What can I tell you is that I liked very much this process of preparing the video. So much time passed since my latest piano-playing video... maybe a few months ago I recorded something but the audio interface I used to get a clean recording showed me the date - six months passed. I realized that I missed doing this, recording audio (and video) of me playing my musical instrument. For sure, it was a very enjoyable activity that reminded me of something I really liked to do in past. Who knows, maybe more of these piano sounds will come from me in the future. Time will say. :)
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/gwevmvvf
There is a phrase that says that little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I kinda agree with it, as just partial or little knowledge can mislead us. This can even lead us to make wrong decisions or to completely miss out on some good things. A similar thing happens with the information. If I would have more info about yesterday's cultural offer of the zone, I would probably find many interesting concerts and musical activities around. I could have a spectrum of musical offers, to choose from.
It was the day of Santa Cecilia, the patron of music. I don't know if it is celebrated in other countries or not, but on this day in Spain, there are events and concerts organized in her honour. Well, I also ignored the fact that it was her day - until late afternoon 😂 Then I got this info that the brass band La Lira from the town LÁlfás del Pi will have a concert. One of my friends is playing the flute there, so in one hour I organized myself and went to listen to that concert.
This brass band is part of the local Music Society, where professionals, amateurs, and students play the instruments. The professionals (the teachers) give lessons to the students, which can be children or adult students. They also have rehearsals once or twice a week, and concerts for Santa Cecilia day, around Christmas, in summer and maybe for other events too.
They accept new members from time to time, and it was yesterday they officially presented and accepted 4 new musicians. Two of them were youngsters and two were already adult players. First, they had to learn for some years, and maybe even do a kind of exam to pass to the band and play with the others at the concerts.
It was a big day for them so family members and friends came to support them with their presence and applause. Still, the concert hall was not full, there were many empty seats. It is probably due to the lack of information, as I also found out about the concert in the afternoon.
The band played several compositions. The first one was a pasodoble (a very popular kind of composition for brass bands here in Spain) by the composer Ferren Ferran. The second was also a pasodoble by another composer, and as the third piece, they performed a piece titled Acclamations by Ed Huckeby. This is the piece ( the beginning of it) that you can hear in the video if you decide to press the play button.
There were still three compositions after this one and the concert finished. It lasted for one hour, a bit more, but seemed so short. The time passed very quickly. Well, it was interesting, not a boring concert at all. The level of performance was ok, I can't say it was perfect, as I already mentioned there are also amateur members in this band. Despite that, they play very well and the director is passionate too. In the recording, there is one place when the metallophone ( I think it was that instrument) didn't go well with the timing that the director marked, but it is just from one or two measures. It was a syncopated rhythm and difficult to keep it for that long time. However, it can happen to any of us, it just proved that we humans are not perfect and robots! Still, we can give a lot of passion and devotion while performing.
To all the fellow musicians who celebrate the day of Santa Cecilia, congratulations :) Maybe you also had a performance or concert? Do you even celebrate this day in your country?
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/eudqxats
The phrase Once upon a time... crossed my mind as a possible beginning of this post. The story about the moments that will be presented here can be taken out just from my memory. Well, as a help I do have a few photos and a short video so the story can be reinforced. Like holding in my hand a tale book, those what we had in our childhood.
But that tale feeling would be appropriate just if I would not know the date when this happened and if it would be real magic that I witnessed. But the truth is not that mysterious, we have the answers to both questions.
When? - The thing happened at the beginning of July, in the city of Vicenza in Italy.
What? - A rehearsal of a concert, and not the concert itself.
Although I was so sorry that our stay was just for that day (and not for the next day when the real concert took place) I can say that I was lucky enough to see this rehearsal. Just one day of difference... Anyway, the rehearsal was nice and promised a good concert for the next day.
The stage was placed in the main square of the city, Piazza dei Signori. There were cameras all around to shoot the event - the main event of the next day, but a few cameras were recording also the rehearsal. Those cameras that were not used were covered, to protect them from the rain.
Well, those that were used were covered too, now I see that little detail in my photos...
I am not surprised, as I also mentioned in my previous post about Vicenza, it was almost always raining when we were there. If not rain, then at least it was cloudy. This time we had luck. No umbrella was needed for touring the city during the afternoon.
So, how did we get there?
It was not planned to listen to this rehearsal as we didn't know about it. We were just strolling around, with our Italian Hive friends and we heard music from somewhere. There were a few street musicians in the other streets but clearly, we heard orchestra sound, not just one guitar or one violin tune. Strings and wind instruments played together making harmony. Our feet walked towards that place and our eyes finally could enjoy the scenery you are seeing in this post.
Our ears also enjoyed it but we still didn't know anything about this concert. I just heard beautiful music, although it was just a rehearsal and they were testing the sound. The director of the orchestra was consulting the sound technicians and there were parts that the musicians had to repeat a few times to get the desired sound balance. A rehearsal can seem like a not important part of the concert, but actually, without them, it is not possible to hold a concert. Not to mention the importance of a rehearsal for an orchestra, as the musicians have to tune together, and get used to the director and to the sound. A lot of work.
So all this work made by the musicians, sound and video technicians and organizers was to honour one person - Paolo Rossi. Apparently, a very loved and appreciated football player, but guess what!
I know nothing about football and football players.
Sigh.
I could read about him and his life and maybe say a few words on that topic, but it is not the point. I think it is enough to mention that the event had the intention to remember the 40th anniversary of the World Cup victory and this football player, Pablito. The orchestra that played was the Italian Symphonic Rhythmic Orchestra, directed by Diego Basso.
What is important to highlight is our time spent there, seeing all of the people working around the concert and rehearsal, and listening to music.
Just a rehearsal? It's ok, it was nice too, although I wished we were there the next day...
And thinking it better, maybe attending the main event would not be as exciting as finding this musical moment that came as a gift, out of nowhere in our travel through Italy.
Just a few short videos put together are coming here to give an auditive insight about the happenings on the main square of Vicenza. Now, I can delete them from my phone, as @ksam did with the videos he kept for several months until he published this post.
Maybe I have proven that I am also among the top procrastinators.
A champion?
No, I think there are others that can beat me in this category :D
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/pmfdoxzv
A week has passed since that event, which I will tell you about in this post. It is not a very long period of time, just a few days. If I wanted to increase the number and stay true to the time, I could express a week in 168 hours. Or, even better, let's use minutes as a unit and start this writing from the beginning...?
OK.
So, 10080 minutes have passed since that afternoon I am going to explain to you very soon. The first day of an event you already could read about here and see the market part of it here. As you can guess, these gatherings don't happen that often, it's not an everyday experience for this place. Although we have a number of different fairs, street markets, live music events, concerts, and similar, this eco-style fair is held just once a year. That is why I was so excited about it (and still I am - in case you didn't notice haha) so I went both days to attend it. Well, just in the afternoons. Now, in this post, a small glimpse of the second day (afternoon) is coming to our little corner, to bring some vibes 🌟
After the first afternoon, where Swing music (Gatsby band), Jamaican, and African music had the lead, alongside a handpan concert (that I missed) and organic trance music (that I also missed, but was said that it was great - now I am sorry that I didn't stay longer...), so after that, we had a colourful music offer for the second day too. A vibrational concert (432 Hz music), a gospel music workshop and later a concert of the same gospel group. Then a band called Ensalada Huertana, followed by a reggae thing (I don't know the name of those guys although they are a local group and said their name) and medicine music.
I found in my closet a long denim dress with straps and matched it with light blue (actually turquoise) flat leather shoes I have had already for years. A very thin cardigan on top of the dress, and a small backpack on my back and I was ready to go. I left Mr Mipiano at home as it is not his cup of tea and headed to my solo afternoon adventure. And what waited for me...? Happy-vibed, colourfully dressed people who were already in the mood to swing to the calm music. Maybe I needed some time to unfreeze myself, but it didn't take a lot of time.
When this weird group of people took the scene, with the same weird name for the band - Ensalada huertana (Garden Salad) I got closer and took a seat in one of the plastic chairs there were around. They were left there to those who wanted to listen to the concerts from close, and the rest of the people were listening to the performances on foot or sitting on the grass. Just a few first songs that I was there in the first row, in a calm, non-moving posture, and exactly from those first songs I have video footage, that is what you could see if you decide to watch the video. The vibed music called for movement though. So that's how happened that I stood up, and went back to those people that already had a different approach. They were having a great time, enjoying the mini-concert while dancing. I didn't know anyone, but it was not important as I didn't feel like a stranger.
Also, maybe this music is not the genre I would listen to it every day. But again, it was not important. But the moment was. Why not live it, take what is offered? Why not do something you don't have a chance to do every day? The very next day I would anyway be again in the classroom and make sure the rules are listened to hahaha. Why not dance once without rules?
The plastic chairs that were in the front of the scene disappeared in one moment, put by sides by all these dancing hands and feet that wanted to come closer to the musicians and to that artist that was creating a painting while they were playing and singing. He had his artistic moment to make something on that canvas while the performance lasted. He also moved and painted. In the beginning, I thought it will be just some random colours put on the canvas. Song by song, and there were more lines, colours and slowly I saw a woman there. Her arms and long hair. A circle "something" between her arms. Maybe it would be the planet Earth? Or her child? Later, when the performance was over I saw it was a vase with flowers.
Enjoying those spontaneous moments, and dancing with people I just met there, the Universe probably decided to make me even closer to that mindset. The sole of my right shoe broke in one moment. It split in half. That was funny as it happened there... but what I saw is that many other fellow dancers were barefoot!!! Yes, I had to be barefoot also! I took my shoes off, left them in one corner, hugged the girl that was by me and we danced together. (Am I really writing this down? You can laugh and all, well... your choice hahaha)
It went on for more than an hour, but the Garden Salad band had to be taken away from the menu. (btw, the Spanish-speaking readers, if any will come and listen to the video will understand through the lyrics of the songs how they relate to this eco-event). They had to pack their stuff and a small intermezzo is what came. I said goodbye to the peeps that were around and I took a walk around waiting for the next performances. Some new people came, and reggae music started to sound. That group I didn't understand the name when they were introducing themselves, but I do know they are a local group. In the photo just one of the guys while he was preparing the equipment.
Fewer people stayed there and this time I was just a reserved listener and calm dancer. At one moment I felt it was a bit boring, maybe the company was not to my liking either and my broken shoe needed to be replaced. I counted on the last performance, the medicinal music. Went quickly home, got another pair of footwear and went back. However, I didn't get more fun that day, as the last performance was cancelled. Bad luck I guess? Or just the needed calm that had to come, so as to be able to sleep that night. I will take the second option, the positive side to be picked always :))
For those who decide to watch the video, a small disclaimer: the sound is not the best, that is what my phone got being that close to the speakers. Also in the beginning there is a bit of sound distortion, but try not to pay attention to it :D It serves to give a tiny glimpse of the afternoon/evening when I stayed without my shoe and to leave a simple message: vibra alto!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/emztzsvm
...everyone goes crazy. The swing music group, Gatsby, announced the last song as it was time to let the scene to the next band that was performing today. The people who were there around suddenly came closer to the musicians and danced as if it would be the last dance they can enjoy this afternoon. Maybe it was also the song the group performed, with its marching beat so it made the audience get extra energy and desire to dance to this last song. When the Saints Go Marching In has that vibe, and you will be able also to see that from the video I am bringing here.
I visited today an event, Eco Altea (alternative lifestyle, ecology and holistic approach to medicine and life are the main focus of this event). I did it the previous years too, but I was not aware of the date for this year. I vaguely knew it would be held in October, in the same place as always, in front of the concert hall in Altea. There is a small park and a plateau where tents are installed for workshops, talks, products and a stage for music. However, almost by chance, I found out it is this weekend that Eco Altea is being held. We had different plans, but the whole "where to go for the weekend" thing was very chaotic. My week was not that easy, and just yesterday I became good enough to start to think about the weekend. Planned to visit today some friends in Valencia - unfortunately, they were not available. Other destinations were planned, but nothing was enough exciting to take our full determination to go. And then, in one instance a click happened in my mind - check the exact dates of this event...Surprise: It's this weekend! 😱
I finished the work I had, went out for the already agreed lunch, took a very-needed siesta as I slept very bad the last night and went there. What waited for me was happiness! People having a nice time, talking and relaxing on the grass, a lot of children playing with wooden toys and playing some traditional games, live music and people dancing.
Closer to the scene with live music:
Wooden toys for children, but also for those who wanted to play with them. No age limits :)
The dancing section, maybe a bit blurred photo as they were moving :D
So, the program included workshops and conferences, and live music events held in the E section (there were marked sections with letters to find easily the event you wanted to visit). I missed the handpan concert held just before I arrived, and the Afrikan dance workshop. Also poetry and the performance of a local singer and songwriter. The swing music group had started their slot when I showed up, so until my phone battery lasted I have video footage :D What happened later, you have to imagine! Ok, I will help with it, there was a Jamaican music band and an Afroansamble.
At one point I had to leave the event, and I was a bit sorry because of it. I felt very good there and wanted to melt into that ambience and be part of that for a longer time. But there is no need to be sorry, as there is more of this event to see tomorrow afternoon!
Oh, yeah, here comes the little video. You will see in the beginning just the musicians, the surroundings and people talking and just being there, but slowly, the "dancing section" of people will be appearing. Here and there, a few participants are dancing to the music coming from the scene. But from the middle of the video, the last song was playing and so many people felt the urge not to stay motionless. It doesn't really matter do you like this music genre or not, it is about the vibe that music can bring and make people move their bodies and minds! I hope you will enjoy the happy scene as same as I did!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/ynicdjof
Inspiration It is nothing weird if I say that this small corner, the Q-inspired one can offer a lot of inspiration... as the name of it also suggests. I finished reading this post and realized that the composer that @ zeraton talked about, Dmitri Shostakovich was indeed underrated. Even I, whose main genre is classical music didn't pay enough attention to that composer. When we were still in the elemental school we had some of his easy pieces in the curriculum but they were not my favourite ones. When we grew up a bit and started to play more serious stuff, we all preferred composers like Chopin and Liszt. Later Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Prokofiev, but Shostakovich, unfortunately, stayed out of the list.
But the day to change that arrived. At least in my book. So, as the inspiration was still very very fresh, I decided to leave aside other things I would ~~maybe~~ for sure have to study and found the music scores of one famous piece composed by Shostakovich.
Lesson Yes, I am a piano teacher, so it would be nice if I would give now a small lesson about this piece and the composer in question. But I have enough hours to work and teach today, so I will nonchalantly pass the ball again to this post where you can learn about the tragic life of Dmitri but sadness is not predominating there, don't be afraid. Maybe you can also draw your own conclusions and find your inspiration from his life and from the examples that the writer of that article pointed out.
Still, a few words about this Waltz no.2 will come. I am sure the piece sounds familiar as it is considered one of the most known works of Shostakovich. It is a part of a suite, Suite for Variety Orchestra, and comes as the seventh movement of it. Even if you are not a musician, you can hear the waltz tempo and feel the three beats in every measure. The first one is the strong beat, followed by two weak beats. Looking at its bigger form, it is written in the typical ternary form, where the middle section of a Minor key modulates to the relative Major key. (this is where you hear the "happier" sound, not the sad and melancholic one from the beginning and the end). It is just a very simple and basic explanation of how you can recognize the parts.
The measures, as I already mentioned, can be heard as a sequence of three beats. The photo below represents several measures (bars) from the composition. In every measure, we see three beats, right? So, let's move to the next part of this post, which will be the...
Game The game. Long time no see in my posts. I used to make those guessing games, maybe some of you remember. And if you don't remember or you are new to my blog, then it is the right time to take part in a new one. In the guessing game in this corner.
The answer to my question can be find out in the video, you will just have to listen to it... and count a bit... or just roughly guess if you are lazy to count. {I suggest this second option 😁}
How many measures did I play in the video? Don't cheat! I will know if you do that and use for example Google to find out the answer. It would be more than easy... and actually, who would do that? Who would like to cheat and find out the answer like that?
Anyway, the answer you could have from the internet is NOT the right one, as I played here the piece differently. I did something with the parts of the piece... maybe I added some... maybe I skipped some... that is the mystery!
I will send the right answer to the admin of this community, edje, and when a few days pass, we will check out the possible answers and reward the correct one with a little detail. {don't wait for a fortune}. In case there are several correct answers, the winner is who guessed the first. If there is no correct answer, the closest guess will be accepted as the winning one.
So, enjoy this little waltz and have fun listening and counting the measures ;)
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/bviwqvvo
...study Rachmaninoff!
That's my new motto, from a bit more than a week ago.
I am not sure if should I mention once again what is the challenge that I set myself? I don't want to be annoying, repeating the thing as it can be boring to my potential readers. However, I have to picture here the beginning of the story if maybe there is someone new joining this journey of mine through my posts.
In short: I will try to learn one composition by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Prelude in G Minor (op.23, no.5) by the end of the year. more info here :D This is an update post on the topic.
I started practising it last Saturday. That day I read the text, and maybe I even managed to reach the end of the composition (just superficially) once. But mostly I focused on the first two pages. Very slowly, decrypting chord by chord, which octave I am supposed to play it, what position, which fingers would be the best for a certain chord etc. Apart from the familiar parts that are repeated a few times ( like the motif from the beginning), there was one passage on the first page where the left hand has a melodic movement, played in the interval of octaves. I had to get familiar with that one, missed several times the right direction and notes, as at the same time the right hand is completely different. It has to play chords of a smaller range and in various inversions. A few of them with the repeated octave, and what is the interesting fact as the left and right hand have to mark with an accent a few notes, but not at the same time. That was the first challenging part. That is the section that starts where I am pointing with the tip of a pencil. Nasty little black dots making trouble 😂
I spent some time learning it and moved forward. The second page is still a bit weaker than the first and I play it considerably slower, to be able to reach all the chords and jumps. It is not that difficult, the structure is clear but I sometimes mix up one F Major chord thinking it is a D Minor in inversion. I am not sure why my fingers place themselves for that wrong chord. Anyway. A bit further, almost at the end of the page, there is a part with a few chords that I had to pay more attention to. {Photo below, those chords in both hands}. The first one is a diminished 7th chord (F#-A-C-Eb) in different inversions for both hands. That one was not a big deal, but the next to it after the jump B-D gave me more work. Augmented from Eb (Eb-G-B). Here my mind was refusing to play the B natural in the combination with Eb... until I get used to the harmony, playing the chord a few times in the arpeggio version. Btw, I play it wrong! The last one was easy, a simple G minor chord - of course in different inversions for both hands, as why Rach would write any of these chords in an easy way? The paper is a bit wrinkled... maybe I was getting slightly aggressive with it lol.
The third page is the beautiful part where we play arpeggiated chords in the left hand with a sublime melody brought in chords in the right hand. A part that can give goosebumps, if played well. So, there I had to work separately on those passages, and still, one week later I am at half of that third page. I need to find the best positions and train my reflexes to make my hand switch positions in the smoothest possible way. I am still far away from achieving that.
I was recording some of my studying sessions during the week. I had to stop playing this piece on Friday, as you may know, I hit my left elbow and... I forced myself to take a break. Today is Monday, I had my gig yesterday in the morning and was able to play soft pieces, but felt my left arm heavy. In the afternoon I attempted to play the Prelude very softly and slowly, but it was a weird feeling. I stopped. The recordings in the video were made during the week and we can see some differences in tempi, one day at home and another day in school. I have errors and missed chords and I stop and slow down when I need to think. I play very slowly, like the turtle mode hahaha. But exactly that is what I wanted to show, that studying is not the same as performing. Studying can be very annoying to those around me! So far, nobody complained!
Once again, this is not a performance. This is just the process of STUDYING!! Please, don't judge or compare it with any other already learned performance! This is just my update on how my first week of facing the challenge went. With all the mistakes and slowing downs hahaha.
But I am happy, as I can play slowly and with mistakes, two and a half pages (the piece has six pages). I hope I will be back to practising soon and complete the third page and move forward, at least one page more during the second week.
in lack of an adequate footer - keep calm and study Rachmaninoff :D
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/paphnjdb
Last night I have been involved in some underground things... Could you imagine that?
A totally clandestine event which took place when the dark already came to cover this little town by the Mediterrane sea. And I have been there, enjoying it.
Yes, I did, I enjoyed it. Why those surprised faces now??
Music was involved in that action. Dance too. And some cool people who enjoyed themselves.
What they were doing?
Before you start to imagine in your mind what I have been doing yesterday evening I will clarify the thing. It was a dancing session on the street. There is a round place at the beginning of the promenade and sometimes there are concerts organized by the local authorities. However, this event yesterday was not organized by any authority, organization, dance school or else. People who danced there organized it on their own.
One of my adult piano students is dancing in a dance school and attends many courses held by renowned dancers. That is his passion so he many times talks to me about his experience. He has mentioned that sometimes they (not the school, just the people who really enjoy dancing) organize clandestino-s. Underground dancing sessions in different parts of the towns, usually on the streets where they will have some space to enjoy moving their bodies.
Forgotten freedom, felt through dance without rules, without an established partner. They can dance when they feel it, with the person they like to dance with at a certain moment. Talking, chatting, moving the body, practising new steps, making new choreographies, or just improvising them. In the moment.
Well, it is not that you just move your feet without some bases. They dance the Lindy hop style, but then freely add their steps, how the moment guides them. That style exists for a century almost, born in the United States. I am not a dancer, I can't define the steps and the used technique, but my student mentions charleston, jazz and swing dance. A mixture of elements from those styles.
For me, it seems a whole new territory, and it would be absolutely outside of my comfort zone to even try it. First, I should learn the basics, the steps, and practise it for several years to be able to dance anything from this Lindy hop style. But it does seem exciting to do it!
Night came. It was already dark, so my shots are terrible. I know, don't even try to say, anyone, that they are not terrible. But that is what I have. Maybe a better phone would take acceptable photos when it is dark, who knows... What I do know is that I want to picture you a little bit of atmosphere, just to see the location and people talking, dancing and having a nice evening. The rest is in your imagination. And in the video too :)
Oh, and the wind came too. It was blowing quite a bit, so unfortunately it also affected the sound in the video. I shot one flag, where it can be seen that it was not just a breeze. However, I recommend watching the video and catching a bit of the feeling and movements.
That was my yesterday evening clandestine activity :D Being there with them, no, not dancing, just enjoying the atmosphere. It would be cool to know to dance as they are doing, but I will not make any action to learn it. It would be just impossible. I just have to keep calm and continue learning my Rachmaninoff piece.
So, what about you? Do you dance? Professionally? As hobby? For your own joy?
When, how and with who you are doing it? All this, or else is what you can share with us in the comment section of this post or/and make your own post on the topic. It would be great to see how dancing can bring freedom to the body and mind.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/mjwurlsj
I suppose some of you use trains almost every day. Commuting by tram or train to work is comfortable, and less expensive than by bus or own car in some countries. It can also be funny if you have good company and the landscapes at some parts of the routes are so nice. I liked to travel by train to the city where I studied some decades ago. Also, we made some journeys just for leisure time by train. However, some months passed since my latest train ride. I usually drive to work or go by bus or bike.
That fact changed at the beginning of July when I spent a weekend with my nieces in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. We went to one concert and stayed for the second day to walk around in one fortress. It was a great time we had, but on Sunday afternoon we had to say goodbye to that city. We opted to take the train from Belgarde to Novi Sad, our next destination. The ticket for one person was around 3$, which is really cheap compared to the bus ticket price.
The station where we waited for our train was called Tosin Bunar, it is a part of New Belgrade. We had our accommodation close to it, so it was the most logical choice to wait there and not at the main station.
The day was warm, the sun decided to heat up the surface of our tiny planet... and there was no shade at the train station??? The benches had a small roof above them but it was not sufficient to make a good shelter from the heating sun. The trains were coming and going away, several ones passed before our train arrived. Well, it was our fault we arrived too early at the station.
I liked that old train which was decorated with graffiti. It came from the direction of the city of Novi Sad, but I didn't pay attention to where it headed after Belgrade. Also, a fast train called Soko passed, but it even didn't stop at this station. It goes from the main train station of Belgrade, and if you watch my video you will see it. It is the first train that I captured.
The train we travelled with was the last one that appears in the video, the red one, the same kind of train as in the photo below.
The interior of the train was ok too. Nothing special, not a luxurious one but it was comfortable and roomy. We paid for our tickets and then I got comfy in my seat...
Just a few things I saw during our ride, for example, this building in one of the towns. Many train stations look like this one, they were built more than a century ago, and when they are well preserved and reconstructed, they give a pleasant view to the passengers. But to be honest, I didn't see a lot of things... as what happened is that I fall asleep on the train (I had a slight migraine that I tried to fight with some painkillers) so the next thing to see was the station in Novi Sad when we arrived. 😂
The station in that city is recently refurbished. It has two levels, waiting rooms and one huge hall downstairs. Seems that the seats in the hall are comfortable and inviting to take a small rest while you wait for your next train.
The last time (many, many years ago) when I travelled by train from Novi Sad I had to buy the ticket at the counter. Now it is simplified and you don't need to wait in line.
Some additional new things that are placed are the boards with information, about the railway, trains, bridges and train stations in this city and surroundings. How they were changed throughout the years and what it looks like nowadays.
Boards all around... Well, at least one is not bored while waiting. Plenty of information to read!
A railway worker's uniform is displayed in one of the showcases. I am pretty sure they still use this type of uniform.
The model of the train station, showcased:
I was curious, so I explored a bit around while we were waiting and found a balcony on the first floor. From there, you can enjoy the views of the city.
When the time came to go and the people we were waiting for arrived, we left the train station. Still, one more train crossed my paths, this old one. The clouds in the sky resemble the smoke coming from the chimney of the locomotive. Cool, isn't it?
So, when was the last time you travelled by train? What you have visited, who was your company and did you like it? Do you have a story to bring? I found this community Train Spotting as a perfect niche for a story around a journey made by train. Would you join in?
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/tizwmyrz
So, it happened. The day of Martha's concert arrived and I was there! We were there!
Oh, maybe you don't know the whole story and have no clue who Martha is?
Let's start from the beginning then.
About a month ago, while chatting with my niece I got the info that one of the biggest names in pianistic circles, Martha Argerich, will hold a concert in Belgrade (Serbia). It seemed a unique opportunity to see this Piano Diva in real life. I listened to hundreds of her recordings and learned about her at the University, but I have never had any close opportunity to attend a concert of her. I didn't think twice. My niece also badly wanted to go, as well as her sister (my other niece), so we agreed to buy the tickets and if I make it to Belgrade until then, we are going to the concert together.
The tickets were bought, there was no way back!
Finally, I made it to Serbia a few days before the concert and on Saturday, we went to the capital - Belgrade. I rented a small studio apartment for us and really looked forward to this exciting excursion. I don't have to tell you that I am double older than they are... (no, I really don't have to reveal this, it can stay a secret).
Arrived, unpacked, went to the city centre, took a walk on the main street... and went to the place of the concert. It is Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment (Zadužbina Ilije M. Kolarca), the oldest and most important concert hall in Belgrade, where around 300 events and jazz and classical concerts are held annually. The part of the building can be seen in the photo above. When we arrived, people were still waiting outside, as the doors were still not open to the public.
We had our tickets and slowly got into the line to enter the building. I met the friends of my niece (strangely, they all addressed me with respect as if I would be that much older?! Ok, maybe it is the education, which is actually a very nice thing) and after some moments we found ourselves in the hall.
Clearly, we didn't mess up the day and date, it was The Day of Martha's concert :)) She was there... on the poster, at least!
The audience was diverse. Older and younger generations, some people were elegantly dressed but mainly people were in casual clothes. What gathered all of us was one person, the great pianist Martha Argerich, who turned 81 this year. Eighty-one years old, and I can tell you, she is still rocking on the piano!
The musicians were tuning when I peeked into the hall and looked in the direction of the stage. Not everyone was still there, but slowly they were getting ready and warming up for the concert. The seats were still mainly unoccupied, well there were still some 15 minutes until the concert that was scheduled for 8 pm.
A few minutes before the concert had to start... the audience was full and went dark, and the scene was under light. The excitement could be felt in the air. And then... applause! Very strong applause to welcome the director, the musicians and our dear protagonist, Martha Argerich.
She is very natural on the scene. Fully dominates the situation. The audience... we were in awe. We witnessed magic!
You have to know that taking videos or photos was ~~forbidden~~ not advised. But I do have one photo of her (please use a magnifying glass to see her :D we had our seats on the balcony, so I don't have a closer photo).
But the Queen of all of the Piano Queens is there, playing magically the Piano Concerto in G Major by Maurice Ravel. The first movement was an absolute joy and pleasure. It was very funny and brought a smile to my face. During the second movement, I closed my eyes and let myself go to the fields, feeling the wind, nostalgia, sadness and again a lot of pleasure. The third movement was getting back to the humoristic character of Ravel's music, the dialogue between the orchestra and piano is comical. I secretly took the last part of the third movement, when they repeated it for the encore. Here it is (sorry, taken with a phone):
When they finished the concert, there were ovations! We stood for some 5 or more minutes, clapping as loud as possible and got two more additional pieces played by Martha. One Bach piece from the English Suite in G minor and Schumann's composition Dreaming.
I almost had tears in my eyes that the concert had to finish. I wanted it to last forever. To stay there in magic, with the Piano Queen on the scene. Her dynamics and absolute domination are admirable and just amazing how she can play, regardless of how old she is!
Without many words, we understood each other with my nieces - this was the best ever concert we visited so far. A bit sad that it finished, but that's life, we had to accept it. Slowly walked back by the main street, got our bus and went to the apartment. Silence, not to spoil the music we had in our minds...
Martha, thank you for this magical evening.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/pevyarnd
Trumpet sound! Oh, that was a difficult one, for singers and those instrumentalists that don't play the trumpet or any other wind instrument. At least, it sounds like a hard task to choose a song or composition that would fit the topic. However, during the week I have seen a lot of those entries that perfectly matched the theme, that our spotlight artist a few weeks ago has chosen, @ovey10.
He made an excellent entry, showing pictures of him playing his instrument and playing a tune in pure nature. Surrounded by greenery and tranquillity, everyone would like to play the trumpet there. I would like to be able to play my piano there, but, you know I have a little problem... even if I would transport my digital piano to nature, there is no electricity so I could not use it. Moving an acoustic piano to the forest would be already a major challenge! So, I had to stay with his entry, enjoy that tune played by him and think about my choice of the musical piece to present for this week 116.
The first composer that crossed my mind was George Frideric Handel, a Baroque composer whose orchestral works contain a lot of trumpet sound and other wind instruments. His work Water Music shows good examples of that, as in Baroque trumpet was a widely used musical instrument. It happened that a few weeks ago I played at one wedding and the bride has chosen a composition for the beginning of the ceremony to accompany her entrance. She has chosen the composition The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba from oratory Solomon.
I loved that piece and it sounded really great in the church (played it on the organ). I think it would be a good match to this week's topic (well, I think, I said it was difficult to choose :D ). As it was a wedding ceremony, the benches of the church were decorated with flowers. Those that you see in the photo below.
In this post for my entry, I played the same composition Arrival of the Queen of Sheba by Handel at home... it is maybe not the same majestic as when I played it on organ, with the acoustic and all the excitement seeing the bride and groom. They probably heard fanfare sounds (in their hearts and minds) as a day like a wedding is a special one for everyone.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/gatnpfzj
The youth choir from Norway, Vivace, arrived in Spain last week. They are still here, as they stay in our little town but they are moving around in the region and have concerts. I happened to meet them on Saturday, at the concert where I also played, but with my choir. We played just a few songs, to start this beautiful concert that was held in the church. The acoustic for the singers is the best in churches, that's why it is chosen as the perfect venue for this event.
I knew that they were good, but hearing them in person exceeded all my expectations. About a month ago, the director of my choir said that some young people will come from Norway to sing here so we could make a concert together. I accepted to accompany my people, as I always do. However, I was not aware of HOW good this youth choir is! Angels singing, this was the association of all of us who listened to them.
Before we started the concert, one lady said a few words about them, both in Norwegian and Spanish language. So, the youngest member is eleven and the oldest is nineteen years old. Their voices are still bright, innocent, shining all around. They won the first prize in the Norwegian choir championship last year! For the past several years, they are performing with professional musicians and in 2016 they recorded a CD with Christmas music. I bet it sounds great.
But how they sounded this Saturday, in the church of the Holy Spirit is something you can check out in this post. I made several recordings, as they sang a lot of songs. Many beautiful songs, performed in perfection. I had to cut down and omit some recorded songs, as the video would be too long, so just two songs are coming to hive. Did I say that I was amazed by them? :D Well, you can also check out and have your opinion, maybe it was just my subjective feeling, but believe me, I listened to our performance too, and... well... let's just say these young people rock!
Also, the people who lead them are great, as it is not just having good voices to be successful. A good teacher and director are needed to guide the children and shape the music. So this youth choir, Vivace is conducted by Siv Anette Lorentzen, and the pianist who plays with them is Bjørn Alexander Bratsberg. So nice people, and doing their work very well.
Also to mention, this event was a charity concert as all the raised money from the tickets was donated to Ukrainian families who arrived in this town fleeing the war. Nice gesture and beautiful angel voices!! But, maybe you have a different opinion after listening to this short excerpt from the concert. I say short, as there were twenty songs they performed in total. An honour for me to be there and enjoy that sound. Hope at least a bit of that feeling you can receive here :)
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/tazmsgrl
The topic Doing The Work, selected by @lk666 for week 115, made me think about the approach we have towards the work and what it means to each of us.
Work, for me, is a creative process that includes mental and physical efforts. It is not that we can work something just mechanically. We can, but then the work is not really meaningful. The outcome might not be as good as it should be. Having an idea is the first step in every process of creating and working around something, and the inspiration and all the mental guidance is the essential part of doing any work.
The same is happening while playing the piano or studying it. I always remind my students how important is to think and have a clear idea of how the music should sound. Without active listening, it is not possible to shape the sound as we want, as we perceive it in our inner hearing. Studying just mechanically is not leading to a good result.
Speaking about students and teaching. Yesterday was the last school day, so now I will be free from teaching until September. That is what I do, giving knowledge about piano playing to others. My work is now done, for this school year. I received a few bouquets of flowers, the most modest one is the one I posted as the cover photo, but I really liked it. It is just one type of a flower, I am not sure about the name of it but I remember having them in grandma's garden.
Two days ago, before we ended the lessons, one student asked to learn to play a composition during the summer holidays. The title of the piece is Solas and the artist who wrote is Jamie Duffy. The piece was released in April, this year. I haven't heard this one before, but I liked when I found the piano scores for him. I started to practice it also, in the same instant.
I worked around the piece in two phases. First I learned the repetitive parts. Then I analysed the parts that are different and learned them too. Added them together, polished the whole thing by playing it in several short practising sessions and the composition was learned. The work around it is done.
Doing The Work, artwork by @ cabelindsay Just a few words more about the artwork that Cabe prepared for the community. When I saw it, the first association was that this person is struggling. He has to do some work but the paper is empty, he is waiting for the inspiration. Maybe he suffers and thinks about another thing another person or else that doesn't let him concentrate. This can be sometimes true, as when we lose focus it is difficult to finish some work. But I hope we all can do good work for this week and present our entries in the scene of Hive Open Mic.
Here is my entry, with the composition that one of my students asked for.
Oh, I don't mind my piano. It is a bit shaking while I play it :D (I should fix it...)
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/zjxjucqc
What a nice topic that Hive Open Mic is having this week - More than Words. My first association with the theme was the same-named song by Extreme. A song that a classmate sang one day, during the English lesson as the teacher asked who could sing something of course, in English. He ventured himself into that activity. Actually, he was a violinist, not a singer but he did it very well, so well that the performance he gave to the class brought him huge popularity among girls.
Remembering that event I thought that maybe it would be nice to play it on the piano... however, I like to hear that song in the version with words, when someone sings it. It is not that cool just on the piano. So, my search for suitable music went to my field - classical instrumental music.
There was a composer, Felix Mendelssohn who wrote eight volumes of Songs Without Words (each volume containing six pieces). They are like romantic songs, but without the need for a singer, just pure piano playing. That's probably a better option for me to present. Though Felix wrote also a huge number of songs with lyrics, both for solo voice or duets, his piano pieces brought him more fame. Especially the series Songs Without Words.
In fact, any composition written exclusively for piano is instrumental music which doesn't need words. The music has the task to bring the message through the sound. Without words, as if it would not need them. As if the music itself would be more than the spoken word. A language that is complete as it is.
source of this image.
Without many words, I finish this post today, but anyway I hope that this Song Without Words, op 30, no 1, by Felix Mendelssohn is enjoyable for the audience. Thanks for listening :))
P.S. Sorry for the background noise in my introduction, seems that someone on the street enjoyed his motorcycle ride :D
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/lvbcuztz
These have been some busy days for me, rushing here are there, work and all kinds of additional things that came into my daily schedule. Nothing unusual for an adult, having many different tasks and responsibilities. If we imagined as children that adult life is not as easy as it seems we would not like to grow up that quickly. You know what I mean, right? We all wanted to grow up and skip school days and all the obligations (and restrictions!!) we had as kids. But seems that now, when those days are just remote memories, we want to go back and awake that child in us.
And it is good, as children see the world through different eyes. Maybe more naive, but for sure more innocent and with more imagination. While playing, a child is developing skills and creativity, and it is not happening just while it is playing with toys. Musical instruments serve also as developing creative ways of thinking. Though I loved toys and games, the piano was there from my early days. First just on my own and later attending the music school curriculum.
As I have a good memory, I do remember my piano teachers, the lessons in general, some pieces that I played, the books, the concerts, the friends from the music school and all that journey. Even how other students reacted to some compositions and our internal "competitions". There were interesting and also less interesting compositions in those piano books we used as students. The loved and cool pieces were the favourite ones, for all of us, so we sort of fought who would play a certain piece at a concert. Well, it was not a real fight, but I know everyone would try to convince the teacher to play this composition, Saint Nicolas by Robert Schumann. It is a piece from his Album for the young, op. 68.
It is a cool one, we thought once, back in time. A bit scary, with that beginning and gives a great impression as it is fast and loud. We all thought if you knew how to play fast you were the best! But it is not just like that, of course.
Anyway, it was our childish thinking of us, small piano players that now grew up. We know that playing calm and slow works requires the same concentration, and it is not all in the velocity. However, I still like to play fast ones, so here comes my childish expression, as fast and loud as the composition needs, for the weekly topic we have in Hive Open Mic: Infantil :)))
source of this image
P.S. I am not sure why the title of this piece is Saint Nicolas (Santa Claus in some countries). Is that personality scary, as the music? Is he frightening the children actually? I would be scared if Santa would present himself in my home, accompanied by this music... But I know that Robert Schumann had some different ways of thinking than others, and his imagination was abundant. Not to mention where the poor guy finished due to his mental condition.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/nqzrtceg
These days, when I stumble upon the number two I immediately think about my hive journey. It started on the last day of June, two years ago. While I usually do not celebrate these anniversaries in a pompous style, I do like to remember this date. Staring the hive adventure is not just an ordinary date in someone's life. At least not in mine.
What a coincidence, the weekend engagement concept started also two years ago, that is what I found out in the post of @galenkp. His community helped me at the beginning to understand the importance of engagement and that it is actually not that scary to meet new people in this digital world. Although I don't find time lately to participate actively in the weekend prompts, I know that there are some great initiatives and challenges, weekend by weekend. So why not take part in this one?
You might know from my username, that I have some connection with music. With one particular instrument, the queen of the instruments, the piano! Everyone would expect that I take the question in this challenge about writing about two songs...or two compositions. However, I have to disappoint you with this. I wanted to share with you what are the two body parts that are attractive to me. If I would attempt to break a little bit of the rules, would it be another disappointment? Not particularly to say what are the body parts that are attractive to me but those that are essential to me.
The combination of mind and heart, for anything we do in our lives, is fundamental. To think, speak, react, interact, work or play an instrument. The mind controls and the heart gives the needed passion to never give up. We couldn't do anything without them. Although, the two visible and very important parts of my body and other pianists' too are hands and ears.
If you sometimes check my videos (although lately, it is a rare occurrence that I record myself playing the piano and publish) you will see my hands. The fingers that are dancing there on the keys, taking out sound from them. From the piano. My wrists are also helping in that process, and the arms and shoulders too. Not to forget the back and my whole body that serves as support. But hands are in the foreground. If we would make a survey about what is the most important body part of a pianist, I am sure the result would be hands. That is obvious.
However, what is not that obvious is that in the process of playing the piano we have to use our ears. My teacher used to say to me: play with your ears. Sounds crazy, right? How would I play with my ears? It would be a silly statement from my piano teacher, but what she really thought with her advice is that we should listen to ourselves while we play. I am not sure if I have ever explained, but we shape the musical phrases and sounds with our hearing. Not just with the fingers. The hands just obey my mind, which is guided by my ears. Sounds complicated? Well, it is very similar to the process when we talk, but talking is already more of an automatized process. When you talk, you don't actively criticise yourself at the same time on how your voice should sound and how you should pronounce the words. On the other side, I do it while I play the piano.
I can prove how important are the ears in this process of playing the piano. More important than the eyes (they are needed too, but I trained myself not to rely just on my eyes). On my Sunday morning gigs, I started to do a silly game. I put my sunglasses close to the keys, and when I am bored I look at the reflection of the glasses while I play instead of my fingers. I see my fingers but in reverse. And guess what. I can play the songs without any problem, as I am guided by my ears and not by my eyes.
I remembered to take a photo this morning, but obviously, I couldn't make a photo at the same time while I am playing. We see here just the keys, but you can get the idea of what I see.
Not to forget my hands and highlight once again what and how they are doing while I make music, I recorded a composition this afternoon. The title of it is Agitato, a piece of quick pace, which requires my fingers to be awake and dance there pretty quickly. The composer is Friedrich Burgmüller, who was a German pianist and composer from the Romantic era.
Cover photo made in canva using a template.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/siruikhz
Tomorrow is promising to be a great day. We have a plan to spend the whole day in the mountains, a place where we really like to go. I could organize this as finally tomorrow I don't have any lessons or other commitments, so why not spend the day in nature? I still have some work to finish, although I wanted to go to sleep at some "normal" time. Something like before 1 or 2 a.m. I highly doubt it will happen!
So, the mountains that we will visit tomorrow are not those that are coming in this post. The photos from here are made in one place that we visited with our friends in April. I posted about the village Chulilla and the ruins of the castle, up on the hill.
I was impressed with the views from that place. The feeling was so great, that I wanted to stay there for a whole day or more, but nothing really else can be done there. There are just ruins that are left from the castle, but the landscape... impressive. It is still fresh in my memory, and even more colourful when I watched the videos I shot there. Those few short videos are made now into one.
I didn't want to forget the place. But I can't just store those videos on my phone forever. I will have to erase them (if not today, but one day) so the better option is to put them together and save them in this format on the external hard disk. The photos too.
What made that place so different are those rock formations. The huge vertical walls of the mountain are amazing. For me, just to observe, but when we were there we saw a few people climbing those vertical rocks. Of course, one has to be professional in the field to do that. For us, just ordinary people who like to hike on less dangerous paths, the views are also enough!
The fortress (more precisely what is left of it) is placed on the top of a small hill that can be climbed from the village itself. It has three main spots from where you can enjoy the breathtaking landscape. From the ruin of the tower, we can see the fields and the fertile land, surrounded by the mountains. From the middle of the fortress wall, the village shows itself. The structure of it is a medieval Spanish village, in different levels. Looking towards the north, we see the canyon that surrounds the river Turia.
But all this can be seen better in the video footage that is coming now. I hope you would like to see also those stunning mountains, and maybe also listen to some music?
Well, I played the piano for this occasion, of course at my home. There is a composer, Philip Glass whose music is used as a soundtrack in some documentaries. I especially liked to watch a trilogy, The Qatsi Trilogy (Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqats). For some time, I used to put the movie and later just the tracks, as background music in our home.
Though I play here another composition, Opening, and I play it on the piano, it reminds me of that trilogy. And my video footage is not a real documentary, for sure, but it is just a small glimpse of a place I really enjoyed.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/bwmubzip
Palau Altea Centre of Arts did very well in promoting that new funny product. I could be easily fooled, seeing just the empty scene and thinking that the concert was cancelled. But, the reality is that the organizers of the event I visited installed that huge invisibility shield that made me think that nobody was there. It worked just for the musicians, as the chairs and music stands were visible. How intelligent feature of that hiding thingy.
Btw, this person in the next photo, (on the left, in a white shirt) just escaped from the effects of that shield. This is why we think we see that person blurred, but actually, it just needs time to get back its normal shape and appearance. When he took a seat, his look became steady.
He was not the only one who found a place in that audience that counts with almost 1000 seats (the exact number of people that can watch an event from there is 952). I also found a spot for myself. Not that we were any close to that number one Sunday early afternoon when this concert hall gave place to a classical music concert. Maybe the audience also took their personal small invisibility shields with them? Anyway, our applause at the beginning was enough strong to break the wall and at the very next moment, the musicians appeared. Wow!
It was already so exciting and promising. Such great effects we could enjoy: from invisible to visible. Plus the music. Strings and oboe, and a secretly proud heart. Everything was nice there when the young musicians from that chamber string orchestra started to play this Oboe Concerto in D minor, composed by A. Marcello. (it is just the first movement that you will be able to listen to in the video. Though I have the whole composition recorded, it is too long). They played with style, and in harmony. No mistakes. Seemed that they had practised it for a long time together...
However, I know the tough story behind that performance. It was prepared just in three, but very long rehearsals. Two studying sessions in the week before the concert and the last one just a few hours before the concert started. The conductor was not the one these people with strings and bows were used to. But it is a perfect experience how to play in an orchestra with a leading person who you don't know. You have to pay more attention and listen to the signs and gesticulation of the director.
The other participants in that concert had to do the same. A choir, with soloists. Accommodate your singing to the wishes of the leader.
But I don't know their story, they were strangers to me. Their music was nice too, and the small baroque orchestra played so professionally. But when they finished I put that invisibility shield on me and nobody saw me in that audience later. I disappeared, but for real.
Just days later, I am here and visible again, to bring you this story. It was a funny experience, though.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/akdmaicv
Well known fact, pebbles are very welcome in my home and my hive blog space. They arrived many times, and I will not repeat now and share the links to those other posts where they showed themselves. Sometimes with eyes, sometimes making figures out of them, but also as a surface to write on them words.
I live very close to the beach, covered with millions and millions of these pebbles (I didn't count, take this info with a reserve). They can seem like boring material to use and cover a beach. Who doesn't prefer the sand? To be honest, I like rocks and immediately deep water. The long sandy beaches offer warm and shallow water, it is cool too. The pebbles give health to your feet if you walk on them barefoot. Some people never get used to that though. But picking and using them as a decoration in your home, among your plants or else is already a nice and easy activity. Everyone can do that.
Not to stop the tradition of giving them a place on this platform, the pebbles screamed at me today:
We want to appear again on the screen. Please, can we?
Ow, ow, they seem to like the fame. I had no choice, I am a good-hearted friend, so I fulfiled their wish. I spent some time with them, writing some secret letters on their surface.
You may ask is it a secret if you already reveal the content of the written words on a photo?
Yeah, I know, I failed so I took a photo with the words on the pebbles already shown. But you can pretend that you didn't see and play my video to check how I was writing on them and revealing the letters.
So, indeed, I wrote on the pebbles the letters I will need to form the phrase Guess the music.
And you all know why, right? Today is Sunday, a perfect day to give away a bit of love through a guessing game. Guess the music that I play in the video.
A short explanation of why I have chosen the song I play now: This morning, in my gig I played among many other songs this one too. Someone recognized the tune (this is indeed so famous and easy to know) and started humming the tune. Later, the humming continued for a few other tunes too, but this was the first that triggered the woman to join discreetly in the creation of music.
So, would you join me too? Do you recognize the song and what was the movie where it was featured?
Can you give me both answers, the name of the song and the movie it appeared in? I assure you, it is very easy :)) Have fun and let the answers come in. The first one with the right answers will receive a small tip, as is the case in my guessing games! Oh, to find out, you should press that play button of the video. Probably, you will laugh at my writing skills 😂
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/kwzhilmp
Last month, a beautiful place on the outskirts of the town of Altea offered shelter to a nice event. It is an old villa, Villa Gadea, built at the end of the nineteenth century that with its beauty became one of the emblematic buildings of this coastal town in Spain. It was the property of Vicente Gadea and his family. Though he lived in Valencia, his hometown Altea remained in his heart, hence, building a house for spending the holidays was the most natural thing to do.
Thanks to him, now this place is a meeting point for various cultural events. Apart from the beauty of the building itself, it is a privileged space in every way. Located just on the top of a cliff from where you can enjoy the view of the bay. However, that day we were not there to enjoy the sun, sea and that view. We went to receive some musical vibes.
When we arrived, it was still daytime, but the sun was already in preparation mode to sleep and dream. The young musicians were not in the mood to sleep though. I personally very well know one of these young men, so I approached the string ensemble and their teachers while they were still chatting around the fence, looking towards the sea.
MP: Hi guys, how are you? Nervous?
Musicians: No, we are all fine here.
That was good to hear, sometimes we moms are nervous and excited when our kids have a performance (oops, I just revealed my relationship with that one violinist... {lol}). I am a musician too, you all know, so I do expect a good level and I hear every single thing that should be improved. However, in a concert, I shuold just sit back and enjoy. Forget my profession and just once be the audience without any analytical approach. Will I ever achieve that?
Well, I think I did, as when the concert started, the very first notes made me feel... weak. Oh no, in one of the corners of my eye, I felt the presence of tears. To be honest, I was not weak, I was proud. But let's leave it as a secret.
All was prepared in the scene for the concert. As you can see from the previous photos, the seats were just those white plastic chairs that were moved from one to another concert in the mini-series of the concerts held during the week before Easter. On one side of Villa Gadea, there is a small chapel, well it is part of the same building. The space inside could not receive more than a few musicians, so clearly, the listeners were outside, in the garden. There were speakers all around, basically, you could take a seat anywhere and enjoy the same sound.
However, I wanted to see them also. I tried to find a place as close as possible, but again, the others were quicker in coming to the event and finding themselves a good position. It was not a bad one that I found in the end, so also the last composition will come in the video as I made a recording on that one.
The ensemble performed several pieces. We could hear compositions by Schubert, Dvorak, Godard, Dmitriev, Mahler, Schnittke and the last one, to close calmly the concert, a piece by Schumann.
It is Träumerei (Dreaming) from a set of thirteen pieces of music, Scenes from Childhood Op. 15, originally written for piano in 1838. I started to record a few seconds later, so what we hear in the beginning is not the very first measure. I should also say that there are some birds that can be heard in the recording. Do you hear them too? After all, we were sitting in that garden part, with trees around and the birds also came to give a small serenade, accompanied by these musicians.
Ladies and gentlemen, Scherzo Strings preparing to perform the composition Dreaming, by Robert Schumann... I hope you enjoy and dream with the sounds of it :))
If you have enjoyed this post and you have recently visited a concert (as a listener or performer), regardless of musical genre, and you want to share with us the story of it, you are very welcome to use this Q-inspired corner for that contribution!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/ujuxbwlk
At that moment, when I was already on the spot, when I needed the scores, I realized that I had left them at home. I tried to explain to him, the director if he could then take over my part of the job so I could go home to pick up the things I had forgotten. Or if he could go to my house to get them. He did not understand the seriousness of the situation, as if he did not understand why it was so important...
I started to feel weird. Doubts also started to creep deeper into my mind. Why I am at school but I need the scores for the rehearsal? Something was not matching here...
When I opened my eyes, and slowly started to recognize the walls of my room, the furniture and the familiar place: home, then everything became clear. It was just a dream.
I was happy, as it was not for real, I didn't forget the music scores I needed for the rehearsal. It happened just in the world of dreams. But not just because of that I was happy. Also because of that fact, I have finally remembered a dream of mine. The thing is that for some time, I keep forgetting what I am dreaming about. I already missed this sensation, to be able to think about my dreams while awake. I do have some flashbacks from some dreams I think they are always subconsciously in my mind. Those are some pictures I already had in my dreams many years ago but while awake and in some undefined strange state, I clearly see them. Often. The path in the mountains, the tunnel, the curve and going to the other side of that mountain. Green and dark background. It is mixed and accompanied almost always by another dream, again a path, a curve, field, forest, a lot lighter picture, like happening around noon or early afternoon. I can geographically determine where it is, although when I went there in real life to check it, it doesn't look like that hahaha. But I am more than sure that place looked like in my dream, but maybe not now, in the present time. {I do not blame you if you think now that I miss some brain cells from my mind}.
To come back to this current dream. Music scores and rehearsal. I had yesterday a rehearsal with the choir as in a week or so we will have a concert. And just a few days ago, the director of the same choir announced another concert for June, with a Norwegian choir that will visit Spain so a joint concert with them will happen. On that one, we would perform a composition titled Negra Sombra. This one I already played last year with them and a short part of it could be heard in my very first post in the Q- inspired community, then still with another name. The video in the post doesn't work, but maybe clicking here among laughter the tune can be recognized.
So, after the dream, and knowing we will perform again that beautiful song (which made me have goosebumps and tears in my eyes - while playing it at the concert, live, last year) it is coming here in this home version (not my home, but still, it is just a home) :)
So, Negra Sombra - (Black Shadow in English) in the home version, with a "half mistake" at one point is here.
Well, who wants to guess, can let me where I had a weak moment :D
I will not be bothered if you point it out, it would be fun to see if it is visible.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/mztdlabg
Brave Mind, the topic that brought so much courage and brave people to Hive Open Mic this week. It is thanks to @obaro, one of our young and talented members of the community.
If you are a musician, you already know that it is not that easy to perform in public. To go up to the scene and be in the spotlight. The audience is watching you and you kind of feel their gaze on you. I would not say that the performer is scared, maybe just nervous. After some time and experience, this feeling fades away a bit, but there is always a small percentage of that thinking that you will make a mistake or get blocked.
Something similar happens when you are recording a video for example for a hive open mic entry! You can play the piece perfectly, but when you press that record button on your device, there are always some mistakes. Then you stop and start again lol. @khaleesii was brave this week, she recorded from the first attempt and published it. Well done, stellar girl. Well, I had to start over my performance three or four times, actually I could leave it in the way it was but I didn't like the too visible imperfections :D
The song I have chosen is from the same drama/musical The Greatest Showman as Khaleessi's song. She performed This is Me which is a song a enjoy. But there is also another one that I like from that movie: A Million Dreams. We had the opportunity to listen to the cover of that one by @me2selah. She also did very well. Now, I am not singing, as you all know, I just play my piano 🎹 ... Hence I can't express the message through the lyrics.... meh... The lyrics can be seen here but I will anyway bring here the part I relate to
They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
They can say, they can say I've lost my mind
I don't care, I don't care, so call me crazy
We can live in a world that we design
Do you agree that there are situations we have to live on our own, chose our path although others do not agree, or even call us insane? On one side you choose a life you want and on the other, you live with the consequences that others don't accept your choice. It is not good if the latter prevails... Courage is needed to achieve your dreams but in the end, that is the only way that can make you have peace of mind.
source of the photo
Well, I hope my playing will not bring you some unpleasant feelings 😅 just maybe encourage you to think that there are a million dreams we all have and they are not impossible to make a reality. Be a brave mind and thanks for the listening :))
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/fjykyghj
I had nothing in my mind for a while.
Ironically, the mind in question was working more than it would like to, I pushed it to limits and it just responded to me with emptiness. In a huge space, lost among all the things one can not handle anymore. It gave me back just a black background.
Here you go, you wanted it! If you don't focus the response will be silence and darkness.
Oh, really? Did it think I would give it up that easily? My mind decided to be soundless. I couldn't hear it anymore, its strategy to bring the gloom through no colours and no sounds almost started to work... but then, the sparks arrived.
Something similar you can see in the video background that pixabay generously offered me. They were just coming to me, followed by discoveries, ideas and sounds. Piano sounds. Those were sleeping there, stored in one file called projects and challenges. The curiosity opened the shelves, and the rest you can see and hear by yourself. They arrived at Hive with a huge delay, but you know, all VIP people arrive a bit late to a party. And they are still somehow accepted by the others.
All forgiven! I don't just accept this delayed guest full of glitter and vibration, but also invite you to meet it. Let me present it to all of you (Uhm, if anyone here?)
Guess The Music is today with us! It came to play, asking to guess what this piano player, with mi in front of it played. The first clue, the tune indeed starts with the third musical note of a scale. Mi.
Nothing else should be revealed, as I am more than sure you will recognize the music from the video. It is just a short excerpt of a longer theme (did I give right now another hint?) but as I brought here the beginning of it, you will face no difficulties right now!
I would like to be on the other side of the monitor, giving my guess and maybe have the opportunity to win the small reward that is meant to be given to the person who first gives the right answer.
Would be fun, but all that I have now is the mind from the beginning of the post, still offering a black background but I filled it with some fiery particles.
Let the guesses come into the comment section of this post. What is the title of the piece I play and who is the composer? Have Fun :)
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/atueywpm
Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe not, but this morning I stumbled upon an interesting article about a pianist Davide Martello. He is not an ordinary pianist playing just in one place. His piano is moving with him in a very peculiar way - by a bicycle!
Wow! I thought it would be a perfect match for the story for this week's topic we got from @palimanali in the Hive Open Mic community. To be honest, I didn't know I would make my entry. I was away this week on a mini-vacation (no, I didn't go by bicycle) so I didn't even think what would be the composition I could play. But this pianist that moves around with his piano, all on wheels and pedals, brought me the inspiration. Thank you, Davide!
source of the photo
The big piano we see is not a real piano, it would be impossible to pedal it around. This is just the shell of a baby grand piano and what indeed sounds is a stage piano that works with batteries. Also, he can not bike his piano for too long distances, it is just usually in the cities. New York, Budapest, San Francisco, and Frankfurt were among the places people could enjoy his piano playing on wheels.
I imagined how would be the lifestyle moving always around and having no fixed place of living. And the vehicle I move around (and play the piano at the same time) would be a bicycle? I am not sure would my career as a cycling pianist last for a long time, but we can always daydream a bit.
source of the photo
Hence, a daydream is coming from me in this video. The piece composed by Claude Debussy, Reverie (daydream) will represent it.
I am here.
My piano is here.
My bicycle?
Well, it is in the storage room, but I used it this morning to go to the grocery. Usually, I like cycling, but today it was windy. And the rain started when I came out of the shop, so it was riding in the rain. Not a perfect feeling but the cycling pianist came as a perfect match for my post.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/vnxdrcjv
More than a week already passed since their first live performance. Lost in Stereo debuted last Sunday, and I can tell, it was pretty good for their first performance. I ignore how much time they practised in this setup, but seems that they already had some musical experience earlier - though maybe not together.
I noticed them setting up the small improvised stage while visiting an adoption festival in the local park. I really enjoyed the doggies and also the chit chat with some acquaintances I met there. The whole atmosphere was nice, the day also contributed to bringing more positivity as it was sunny and warm. I premiered a T-shirt for this year and felt like the spring was already knocking on the door. A great combination of conditions made the day memorable.
However, we are all getting old, and even if I can trust in my memory I know it would fail me one day. The pictures and sounds, fragrances and feelings will slowly fade away, it happens many times. Our brain cells still store somewhere all the information but the way how to get to them is maybe slower or even cut off. Some small triggers can help refresh the remembrance... a photo... reading a note from your diary... a video you accidentally find many years after an event happened. Does it happen to you too?
There is an easy recipe how to do something good for those memories, not let them go away that easily. We could write down those events here, to have always access to them (hopefully forever) and at the same time share our experiences with others. What do you think? Is it achievable? I know that it is, as @edje is bringing many times {take with a reserve the word many - it can always be more than that :D} his reports from festivals, concerts, club events he visited. I was not fortunate to follow them from the beginning of his posting time here, but the benefit of writing a report around an event can show its power. It stays here forever (I should repeat my hope in that forever word). We can go back and check the shares, both as authors of them or just virtual visitors. As a cool example, we could go back to past and read in the backwards order some of those reports published as a part of a mini series. Memento style reports for all of us and our pleasure can be seen here , and there and also clicking on this one or I should introduce to my posts a so cute way of embedding a link with these words I am stealing now : click me. To be honest, I am not really sure did I bring the posts in the right order 😂
But if you don't want to go that back in time, let's check some recent posts in the Q-inspired community and be inspired in the true sense of the word. We can visit a music club adventure, or attend to a mini-festival or even adventure ourselves in some tasty bites on a massive festival that celebrates 25 years of existence. We have been invited by the author of those posts to bring our contributions too.
If you fancy classical concerts you could enjoy harmony served by a small string orchestra, a choral festival, or maybe a piano recital. Just a few days ago we were surprised by a nice contribution about a symphonic tribute to The Beatles written by @musicandreview. And I assure you, more will come, at least from my pen as the material is in the preparation phase already. Classical, techno, rock, traditional, metal, pop... the genre is not the main protagonist! The feeling we got from those events is!!
What the small open-air performance gave me is a smile and positivity.
A smile, yes, as I was so much enjoying seeing those two young people having their live performance. I installed my physical being close to them, but I was changing my place from left to right and letting myself enjoy their music from different angles. Speakers were around, but a bit of wind too... the sound in the video received a little amount of that latter but not that noticeable. What we can hear as backing vocals in the second song of the video is dogs' barking. They got crazy from something and for some moments we hear many of them practising their barking activity. Well, not to blame them, the performance was held at that dogs' adoption festival. It was their day and maybe it is the way how they were singing with the musical group Lost in Stereo.
The two from the group were singing nicely, not for a long time though, maybe a bit more than half an hour of the performance. The girl was the lead singer, but the guy's main instrument was the electric guitar. I just missed out to record some of his guitar solos... Anyway, they covered some legendary songs like The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael Jackson, What's Up by 4 Non Blondes, Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles, Need You Now by Lady Antebellum or Valerie by Amy Winehouse and others, but that is what we can hear in the small compilation I recorded.
I will not go into a detailed critique about whether everything was perfect or not, just some short observation is what I will provide. Her voice is clean and nice, it can be still polished but it will come with more experience. We should not forget, it was their first live performance ever together, so it was more than good. The stage where they installed the equipment was provided by the dog festival organizers so we can not complain about those things. In a park, where the music was not the main goal, it was ok. I was not the only one who was listening to them, other people were around too and enjoyed it, so I can conclude that they are able to grip the attention.
When they finished, I approached and expressed my satisfaction with their performance. They were pleased and that was the moment when they told me that it was their debut together. Well, I wished them luck and went with that smile on my face home. Wouldn't you also be happy seeing young people with enthusiasm?
And I know what would bring more smiles to our faces. Seeing your report about some festival or party, concert or another musical event you witnessed.
Do you have photos of that day? Great!
Do you have a video of the performance? Super, but not vital.
Do you have a story and your perception? Excellent and essential!
Do you want to write it down and make it visible for you any time you come back and want to refresh your memory? We would be also pleased to read your share!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/espciopj
When was the last time you visited a classical music concert?
I am leaving you space to answer the question...
Proceed with reading this post after you know when it happened to you, as now I will write my case.
It was yesterday when I listened for the last time to classical music through live performance, and also I will go today for another one. But the concert I will be talking about in this post happened a few days ago, well, on Sunday. The weekend was full of activities, so many other things also happened, but they will come in their time. First things first, a classical one in a true sense, from the setting to musicians to the type of music.
Every year before Easter, the city of Altea organizes concerts in its hermitages. Every day is a different place, with other musicians. It is a series of daily music doses for music lovers. Usually, the hermitages are small so the audience is outside, listening through the speakers (I stop here as it will be a spoiler then for some next posts). The Sunday concert was held in the big, main church of Altea, so both musicians and the audience were inside. It was this parish: Our Lady of Consolation.
The concert started at 6 p.m. and the sun was still shining even after the event. Although the temperatures were not so warm when I came out of the church, a normal spring Sunday afternoon was what greeted me back to reality. The music seemed to take us to another time... back to the past and other places. Harmonie Ensemble, this small string orchestra brought us the sounds of Serenade for Strings Op.22 by A.Dvorak in an amazing way. They played so elegantly.
Tuning the instruments before playing:
Ready, steady, prepared? Let's play some music:
The conductor, Francisco Javier Gutiérrez was a very funny one. While they played Dvorak, they were serious but I was very close to them, I saw his facial expression. He is encouraging his orchestra with his smiles and mimicry, his gestures and hand movements. The musicians have to know the person who is conducting them, as every director makes it differently. You have to read well his/her gestures to know how you are expected to play. The dynamic, the pace, rhythmical finesses, or the phrases, all had to come from the conductor. The musicians are his instrument.
Happy feelings after a successful performance:
When the ensemble finished and packed their instruments, I took some photos of the harp and the double bass. I have never played or been so close to a harp to see the pedals. Don't ask me how they work (though I had to know all that back in my school days, now I can forgive myself for not remembering the details).
The double bass is a more common instrument, I had more opportunities to be close to them. One of my good friends from secondary school played it... well, one has to be very tall to fit well the instrument :)
I hope you pressed the play button of the video at the beginning of this post as the video lasts for some time... around 14 minutes I think. I recorded the first and the second movement of the Dvorak Serenade (the first is Moderato and the second movement is titled Tempo di Valse - starting at minute 4:30 in the video). I am sure you will all recognize the tunes. The last piece that they played as the encore (starting at minute 11:22 in the video) was a fast one, but the conductor didn't tell the name of it. He told an anecdote before they started to play it, that he is from Sevilla and that these days there is a lot of life on the streets and the people are already celebrating the holidays before Easter. Hence his choice of that fast and uplifting piece. If anyone knows what is the title of it, let us know :)))
I hope you will enjoy this fragment of the concert and if you haven't got an opportunity recently to visit a classical music concert, at least you can try to enjoy it through this video now.
Now I am off to visit the next offered concert in the series of hermitages route.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/vhdaufis
Automatic guitar. This was not an easy theme this week. Undoubtedly, this is a great topic set by @alejandrorigo, as the word automatic refers to weapons and makes us think about the actual situation that some countries face. War is not a good answer to resolving conflicts. And guitar, well, that part is not that difficult, we could say :) But what does a singer or a pianist do with the topic of the guitar? Should we learn quickly to play the guitar this week?
That would be cool, as a challenge. A tiny problem, I don't have a guitar so even if I would like to, I could not perform on that instrument. However, I could maybe play a piece that was composed for a guitar? That idea came just this morning, while I was responding to one comment to @okayozdemiroglu. That was the starting point of my journey of preparing the piece called Romance for Guitar (also called Spanish Romance).
The opinions about who is the composer are divided. It is not clear who wrote it as some state that it was Antonio Rubira, others claim that it was Francisco Tárrega, but also several sources say that the composer is Narciso Yepes. I somehow tend to believe in this last option, although in many places we find just anonymous instead of any of the aforementioned guitarists - composers. The tune is very well known though!
A friend of mine, met actually here on hive, likes to play it. He is playing it in another version, in D minor, and the triplets are played in the left hand. (that friend performed it a few days ago in my home, on this same piano). This was probably an additional help to choose the composition for this week. So, I have arranged to my needs another version, that was in E minor, with the triplets shared between right and left hand. But I play them all with my right hand, and I added that slow broken chord movement to the left-hand part, marking the beats.
source of the image
A guitar piece played on the piano. I don't know do I do it well, I leave this to you. In the end, I like how it sounds and maybe that is already an achievement for me.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/yhtlbznn
Mister Sun was finally sent back to Spain for the weekend, after being away and busy with his task to bring so good weather to other parts of the world. We took this small sacrifice, having several weeks of very bad weather, well, good things have to be shared, so the sun too. During the weekend the others enjoyed a bit of snow and I can be just ~~jealous~~ happy for them. I was happy with our sun having it back.
It was finally sunny this Sunday
But the very next day, the rain came back. Clouds covered again our sky, and it seemed that we are back into some autumn mood. When it rains here, suddenly and in large quantities, sometimes small rivers overflow. I have a student who has been living in a rural part of a place for a few months now, more precisely next to a river that overflowed. Their access to the house was blocked, ie the river flooded the road and they could not leave the house for a while. She was supposed to have a class yesterday but sent me a message that they can't leave the house again. However, she said she was rehearsing a new song we started playing two weeks ago. Je Te Laisserai Des Mots.
That song she asked for, Je Te Laisserai Des Mots ( yeah, I just want to repeat the title of it once again to learn it in French) is a piece composed and performed by Patrick Watson, a Canadian singer and songwriter. That was a new name for me, but apparently, not for her. Sometimes the teachers can learn something new from the students.
So, it happened that I started to search for other songs by this Patrick, not just that one she wanted to play... and I was so positively surprised with his work! I liked what I heard! Do you want to hear also some of his songs? If yes, here comes a really tiny selection of some YouTube videos. For those who prefer Spotify, here is also a link to browse there.
One of the songs I liked immediately is Can't Stop Staring At The Sun. Both the music part and the video production and these dancers...
video source
Do you feel a little broken? It is what he asks us. But why would I ask that? It is better if we listen to his peculiar voice and his beautiful piano playing. Just let yourself time to this one.
video source
Now be honest and tell me, don't we all like to be lost with someone? Another song I liked very much, because of the simplicity of the piano and the whole ambience it gives. Plus the video is also pretty cool, I would like to be one of those riding the bike, with lights, at night...
video source
So, what do you think about Patrick Watson's music? Does it give you some goosebumps? Does it have any impact on you? I think they are so beautiful ones, and all of them can awaken some feelings and memories in us. Well, the song I played in my video, the same my student who couldn't come to her lesson also started to practice, is nothing less nice. But I will not leave the original for that one, anyway, it is the most famous song from his opus so probably you all already heard it... And I play it just slightly faster, so not to be compared please :D
I have chosen to play it on this upright piano from my classroom on purpose. It has a bit older, rusty sound, as if I record it on my home digital piano, without background noise and just pure sound of the piano, it would not give me this natural feeling I wanted for this song.
For the lyrics of it, please check out this link. It is the translation of the song to English from French. And if you speak French and you think that the title I will leave you words is not the right one, please let me know. I also found a translation that says I will leave you notes... Anyway, the meaning can be understood in both versions.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/tvdsknji
***A musician is not the one who plays an instrument.
A musician is the one who through an instrument touches the soul and heart of people.***
I saw this phrase a few years ago in a poster, though it was in Spanish: Músico no es aquel que toca un instrumento. Músico es aquel que a través de un instrumento toca el alma y el corazón de la gente.
I liked it immediately, as it is a very interesting and powerful message for us, musicians. Makes us think about how do we play and what impact do we have on others. Do we even have some impact on our listeners? If not, then what we do is just make noise. It can be pleasant noise, but still, touching the hearts and souls of our audience would be the only way to go.
Some ten days ago, I had a small recording session of a song that the local choir director needed for the rehearsals. He guides his choir very well and pays attention to expression and the message that the singers should transmit. A lot of details he works on with them... diction, breathing, phrasing, dynamics, expression and most of all, the story behind the music they are performing. This is actually the first step from where he starts. He tries to picture them the scenes and ambience, the feelings... all in an attempt to transform that group of singing people into a tool that transmits a deeper message and touches the hearts of the audience. Yes, he does it, and those were his words when we met to record the song. He asked me to play with the soul and touch the soul.
Well, I think I just could not have a better song to choose to play for this entry. The topic that @digitalopus has set for week 102 matches both that inscription I have seen and the way the director asked me to play the piece Alfonsina y el mar. I mentioned that composition in this post. The story behind it? The death of a poet, Alfonsina Storni. She threw herself into the sea in 1938 and went away with the waves forever. The Argentine composer and pianist Ariel Ramírez composed the music in 1969, upon the lyrics of Félix Luna. Mercedes Sosa was the first to perform it and the song was published in her album Mujeres Argentinas (Argentine women).
I don't usually share the lyrics of the songs lately, but this time, I think it is worth sharing at least the first verse, it IS touching somehow the souls. The rest of the lyrics can be seen here although it is in Spanish.
Por la blanda arena que lame el mar Su pequeña huella no vuelve más Un sendero solo de pena y silencio llegó Hasta el agua profunda Un sendero solo de penas mudas llegó Hasta la espuma By the soft sand that the sea laps The little trace of her does not come back anymore A path only of sorrow and silence came to the deep water A path only of dumb sorrows arrived up to the foam I hoped this song could reach you and your imagination, and the story behind it touched your souls.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/qrsbamts
They say that playing an instrument is like riding a bicycle. Once you learn it you will never forget how to do it. I would maybe disagree with this statement. It is not just that easy, not that black or white situation.
Many of us started to play an instrument as a child, we have some thousands and thousands of hours of practising behind us, and if we would stop, no guarantees that we would play with the same ease after a pause of let's say some months or years of not touching our musical instruments. In the case of a pianist, the fingers need agility. An oboist or flautist needs its blowing technique to be in shape to produce a sound. The violinist also needs constant practising for maintaining the perfect pitch. If we stop, it is not the same anymore, we need some time to get back into shape.
The same happens with musical pieces or songs. They are here, in our mind, but the reproduction of them from our hearing through the instrument might go with some troubles. Just a few days ago I listened to a selection of the Preludes and Fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. I played many of them, a very long time ago. Time is relative, so I will just say I played this one, in F Minor when I was 16 or 17 years old. (feels like yesterday :D ) I remember even the lessons where we worked on this composition with my teacher, how was her make-up, the clothes she liked to wear etc. The classroom and the pictures that were on the wall. One portrait of Bach and the other one representing Franz Liszt in his youth 💙 (come on mipiano, you are now more serious than in your teenage years. Maybe. So, no hearts!). In that classroom, among other pieces, I was practising this piano piece.
Bach wrote two types of compositions for keyboards. Some were intended for harpsichord and others for clavichords, such as The Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection of preludes in fugues. The idea of even tempering was new in Bach's time. It enables the equal exploitation of all major and minor tonalities, as well as using of all modulation plans. He basically opened the way to compose and use as many possibilities as the keyboard could give, making a solid base for all the future pieces written for piano (keyboards). So, this Well-Tempered Clavier collection consists of two books, each one featuring 24 preludes and fugues, in 12 major and 12 minor keys. One of them is what I am playing in this video, as I already mentioned, in F Minor. I play here just the Prelude part, but it has also a corresponding second part, a fugue.
Back to the opening sentence. Is it true if you lean a piece long time ago, you would never forget it? Depends also on how well you knew the certain piece. I loved this small gem, so I had it well prepared, but I would not remember it without the scores and playing it a few times before I recorded it this morning. Well, I recorded one video of it two days ago, in the evening but my camera went crazy and it was zooming in all the time. I had to delete the video. This morning, a new recording came and it is how it sounds XYZ years after I practised it regularly.
I will not say now anything whether I am satisfied with this performance or not. I will let you know maybe later :))
However, if you like you can let me know what do you think about this topic? Do you have a song you learned many years ago and you never forget it, even if you don't practise for a long time? Do you forget the pieces you have learned back in time? Is it difficult to remember them? You know, I would be glad to read about your experience!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/zknpfpdo
Who would say, Hive Open is celebrating its 100th week! Hurray! How not be happy about that and not feel the vibe of this community that has grown so much. I heard about that community when it was already in the twenty-something week, so I joined. And I was very well received and welcomed. The feeling of forming part of a community that shares a virtual scene was cool. A live music scene.
I am sure many members of Hive Open Mic feel the same. The warm reception is something that had to be worked on since the community has grown so much. We started to engage a lot more and in general, the majority of members visit each others' entries and support with comments. That was a huge success to see happening. Harmony is achieved also and confirmed by some special weeks that have been held. For example, Global Harmony through the song Simple Melody by Cabe, in week 72. We can refresh our memory by checking out this video - the first mashup video of Hive Open Mic community. It was a great experience and motivation to do it again, somewhere in the future.
It happened exactly one week ago again, joining more than 100 entries in one video that can bring oneness and harmony, even if we all are so different and come from various parts of this world. I know it was just a few days ago when it was published, but not to be forgotten, we can see it in this post.
That was a special one, however, this week is again exceptional! Singing together! Well, I dont sing so I could not do that singing part with anyone. But you all know my instrument :)) The piano went across the Ocean and collaborated with Jesus and Cabe with the song Imagine by John Lennon. A beautiful and so meaningful message we should not forget about. Oh, and in case you still didn't see it, here it comes!
image source
However, I had one spectacular lady who came to sing with me! I was happy when the @jhoxiris accepted to sing with me 😍 . To be honest, I thought I will not participate, as I didn't have a singing partner with me, until just a few days ago we agreed! Thank you so much for singing today with me. We are bringing here a piece from the field of classical music. Don't run away, when you hear it is opera! This IS one of the most beautiful arias I know!
"O mio babbino caro" is a soprano aria from the opera Gianni Schicchi composed by Giacomo Puccini. An aria I used to play with a friend who is unfortunately not with us anymore in this world...
Now I have the opportunity to play it with @jhoxiris and it was not easy to play in "blind" without her being here by my side. Playing a classical piece, an aria with a professional soloist singer is not just that easy. We have to listen to each other and feel the breathing of the other one. Pianists should pay a lot of attention to the phrasing and where the singer needs more breath or wants to prolong the note. Despite being on another continent and not singing together live, we added our parts and voila, the video is coming here.
Thank you @jesuslnrs for helping me out to have the singing partner for this week, your girl is singing amazingly well. Also, thank you for editing the video putting our parts together! Gracias infinitas!!
Happy 100th week of Hive Open Mic to all members, and a special thanks to @cabelindsay who made it happen! Your idea to bring harmony thought music and this place brought so many great fruits already! Most honest congratulations!! 🙌
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/zuunrema
Imperfection! That is the word that can not go out of my mind right now. Maybe that word is here because of the post by @ todayslight where he uploaded a beautiful original song Imperfections. For me, it sounded perfect. Calm. Positive. With hope and love and all that bring a bit more light into our lives. But today, I face a perfectly imperfect day. What could go wrong went wrong. The internet is playing hide and seek with us for the third consecutive day. The cash machine is also out of work, for the fourth day. I had to pay the rent, but the real estate lady was not in her office, for the second day. My piano practising is far away from being good so the piece I am learning is not wanting to go smoothly, for the third week. Or more. Works in the neighbourhood are still on, and very loud, for the second month. Or more. I am getting old, already for some decades. Or more. Where are the hope and calmness? I know, I will go back to the post I mentioned and listen again to the song. Now, everything can go just better.
So, yes, I recorded that piece Divenire, composed by Ludovico Einaudi. And it is a very imperfect rendition of it. You don't know how I struggled with the first part of it to get the left-hand jumps clear. The fast motifs are still not even, and the bass notes are sometimes insecure. The part where both hands go crazy, I have not so clear notes, my pinky was hitting a few times another note. Ow, there is one bass note I missed out, actually played it but it is not heard as the action was not determined and it was late, not in time. But I suppose all these things you will hear by yourselves too. I just shouldn't tell anything and pretend all is fine and perfect. If you never check out how the original sounds, then it is all perfect, yes.
{please, don't go now searching how it sounds when it is played by an orchestra and by Lodovico itself}
You did it, right? Well, well, ok, somehow you have to enjoy the piece :D
To add to these imperfections, and my rendition of Divenire, I have to confess you something. But it is a secret so don't say it to anyone. Ta-daaaaaa: I am getting old. And it is not just a joke that these days I am receiving, it is the reality. Cruel one, eh? I want to hide from it, but it is not possible. My perfect photo that shows imperfection is just one step from its revelation.
Click.
Upload images.
Done.
I can hide as much as I want from the years, but the metronome of life doesn't want to slow down. It is doing its work perfectly well {how those years just can not be imperfect so they mess up and we get younger?}. No remedy. So far I have laughed so much (and the opposite too) that wrinkles around the eyes are here forever. Dark under-eye circles, the consequence of the migraines are visible even several days after those episodes. Silver strands streak through the hair is shining. What is that? Until recently, there were almost none. Almost. I think I have to go back to this point and listen again to that song I mentioned at the beginning of this post :))
Or, just listen to Divenire and accept the flaws. It can be part of the experience too. The end of the piece is a bit imperfect too, as it stops in an unexpected way, as many of Luvodico's pieces. This music could last for more time... ( @ blackdaisyft said once why it stops just like that. I suppose the composer wanted to leave the feeling of not having a determined end for it). But I am just an interpreter, I can not know the real reason.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/aiitouhn
This modest photo by me, playing the piano can not compete with a beautiful image that the admin of the Hive Open Mic community made. No, it absolutely can not compete with it. My one is not a grand piano...either it is outside, in nature. A lady playing a red piano in a blue dress while the moon is the company in the sky. Hmm, well, I will not try to compete then and just let myself participate this week, as there is a great reason for it. Special week! Week 99 of Hive Open Mic is here with a special topic, oneness, which is represented by the song Oh My Love by John Lennon. A good reason to come back to the scene, right? Oh, and the other reason, of course, the aforementioned image that @cabelindsay prepared for us. Was it a coincidence, Cabe?
source of this artwork
About the topic. Oneness. As similar we did in week 72 with the song Simple Melody, playing all the same song, now we perform on our instruments or with our voices the song Oh My Love. The aim? Global harmony, respect, understanding. All we need so much these days.
The sog Oh My Love was composed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Originally, it had different lyrics and was recorded in 1968. However, in 1971 it appears as the last song in the album Imagine, by Lennon. Interestingly, a few days ago I was playing that song, Imagine. I recorded it and sent it to the person who asked me to participate in one collaboration, which will come soon, but no more details I can say now. Today, the song Oh My Love is the important one, and what we are going to do with the participations.
As you know, week 72 with the song Simple Melody had huge success as later, Cabe made a joint song from all participants. It was hard work, editing and blending so many voices and instruments into one video, but it was a victory. We hope that this time it will be as good as the Simple Melody one, and listening to the entries until now, we can conclude that the outcome will be positive. A great number of participants entered with the Spanish version of it which was elaborated by my hardworking colleague, @jesuslnrs. The English and Spanish versions, together with the instrumental covers will be put together.
In case you have not participated but would like to add your contribution, you are still not late. A few hours more, maybe even a whole day that you can submit your participation. For more details check out this post. Well, I am also here, overcoming my block of several weeks (months? :/ ). Well, the reasons to make my entry, as I mentioned, were too strong to ignore them. The topic and that image with the grand piano (that I still think was made on purpose :D). I hope this small piano cover will fit the song as an accompaniment to all those great voices that will be united in the joint song!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/kmxtsfnx
So, girls and boys, I am back!
Have you missed me?
No?
Come on!! At least did you miss the results of the guessing game set on Sunday?
There were already those who asked when will be the answers revealed? Well, I promised the results for this evening, as earlier would not be possible. I was the special guest in the world of miss migraine. To be honest, I didnt want to visit her, but she just pulled me into her world. The doors were locked, and it was not easy to find out the way from there. Luckily, some of the comments that the Sunday post received made me laugh and I felt better; it gave me some more optimism.
And you all are also optimistic to see did you win the game? Did you give the right answers to the questions? Are there even winners in this edition?
A big mystery - until some of the next paragraphs :D
metronome beats The metronome was a big issue there. First, it was playing with me and refused to work properly. And later, I see it played with all of us. The exact number of the metronome was difficult to guess. Counting them was the only option, but it couldn't be heard, so yes, that was not easy. For that reason, as a part of today's video, I set the sound of the metronome so we hear it and count the tick-tacks. Also, I am showing my abilities in mathematics hahaha.
Btw, did you know the metronome can be also used as a musical instrument not just as a device to help us set the tempo and practice the sense of timing? A Japanese coposer Toshi Ichiyanagi wrote a piece called Music for Electric Metronomes in 1960, a pretty avant-garde composition. It is an aleatoric composition that means some of the elements of it are left to chance and to the determination of the performers. You can check it out here. But what I wanted to show you is the composition by György Ligeti, Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes. I wonder, how would my mischievous metronome work together with another 99 ones.
source of video This would definitely be more difficult to count. We were lucky that I set just my metronome for our guessing game.
music Until now we know what it wasn't!
It was not a piano piece from the classical music genre. It was not an instrumental cover of a song. It was not Jingle Bells as @ audiohive-me said, well it was Ruth who offered her guess. It would be a bit eerie Christmas carol. Neither was it music for lifts as @ edje said. No, it is not music from the Westworld TV series either, @ leaky20. There were people who tried to use Shazam, like @ samostically and @ almostsober, however, the tune was changed and no answer to the question came. What it was can be heard in the first part of the video, this time I played with accompaniment that resembles more to the original version. I played it this morning in my classroom before the first student arrived.
So, you will try to guess again or I say the answer?
Ok, ok, the music is from a TV series I really liked to watch, Dexter. The theme: Blood Theme, composed by Michael Hall. And we had one participant who guessed from the first attempt: @ leourrio31. He was right from the beginning, however, he didn't guess correctly the number of the metronome beats. Later, @ edprivat also said it was Dexter, but he was not the first to say it.
comments that made me laugh I really loved reading your answers, some were serious and some very funny. Some people came just to greet me, thank you my dear @ littlebee4, @ peaq, @ naradamoon and @ musicandreview for your engagement and shown kindness!! Also thanks to @ khaleesii , @ draysax and @ ludmila.kyriakou for the guess. Unfortunately, the exact number of metronome beats was not given.
However, there are some winners in this game. All of us are winners for having fun but also I decided to give two small prizes to the one who guessed the music from the first attempt @ leourrio31 and for the comment that made me laugh the most, written by @ trashyomen. Check it out and try not to laugh. Impossible, right?
I will guess it was at least 3 clicks, perhaps 5. And for the song, at first, my phone was on mute so it was the sound of silence XD
🤣
If you checked the new video, you can see how I get the number of the beats that the metronome marked. As I already mentioned, I set the volume of the metronome footage on and put a bit lower the volume of the music. The answer was 75!
In the first part of the video I play again the same tune, but with a different accompaniment, a bit more similar to the original version, Blood Theme from Dexter.
I hope I didn't miss anybody to say once again thank you for your participation, and to ask, next Sunday another question can come? The two winners will receive 1 hbd each in their wallet, soon :))
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/ufveuoiu
It's Sunday!!
Rainy day here, but a Sunday has to be celebrated with...? Yes, with a Sunday guessing game!!! You already guessed one of my questions if you thought the same and opened this post to participate in it. If you didn't want to participate, then you probably came to see the update on how my new friend Voyager and I managed to cooperate this morning in our gig. Well, there is always an option you didn't want to participate in the game and you were not interested in that transporting a piano topic either... Still, maybe you wanted to listen to some piano music? Do I hear a shy YES?
Then it will come too but in the mixture of all aforementioned themes. Game, update and music :)))
Piano and studying struggles First things first: Piano topic and some kind of struggles occurred connected with it. These days I tried to find time to practice a bit the piano. One of the days I went early to the school to make my space and time for that activity. Hm, in the piece I was studying I was speeding up in some parts when there is more action and emotion. I have to control that, as I easily get into that uncontrolled state of playing out of pace when my mind is not in the charge hahaha. {Not funny, but it is}. So, if you are a musician you know what can help, right? Oh yeah, that small thingy called metronome. For non-musician readers here comes a representation of it, in the form of a humble photo:
You could ask what about this, is it something so important it has to come to our blockchain and stay here documented forever? Well, it was very very mischievous with me :D It refused to listen to me and didn't want to help me. Can you believe it? The pendulum just got lazy and was slowing down and finally, stopped. It stopped!! The clicking sound of the mechanism that is supposed to mark the beat at the pace the weighted pendulum swings back and forth ceased. No beats, no swings. Well, then no music either from me!!
Only if I could be that angry and play the offended person role... So, my music continued, but you have to know this, the metronome was playing around with me and made this stopping thing every single time. (a little teaser, it will come in the video...)
Voyager and gig Happy, happy, happy meeee! Yesterday evening I was a bit worried. I packed all the things I needed in Voyager and wow, it was heavy. The bag itself also weighs almost 5 kg, but with the piano, score stand, music sheets, cables, personal stuff... it was pretty heavy. But it was a super easy thing this morning, also I parked just in the front of the hotel, like max. 5 steps from the entrance, I guess I was lucky. It was a super comfortable experience pulling it, compared to carrying it on shoulders. And you remember that I thought I had to order a few cm longer bag? Well, no, it is perfect how it is. The last thing I mentioned as a drawback, that it was not stable standing upright, was solved in this way {smart, isn't it :D} :
THE END! Thanks for reading this post...
Oh, you are still here and asking yourself where is the guessing part?
Ok, could be connected with the first photo instead of a juice today...? Did I eat that flower? Was it tasty? But, you see, nothing of that. Today's guessing game is connected with music and the metronome thing!!!
I recorded that act of rebellion of the metronome and mixed it with some music I recorded yesterday.
The music... I changed the original thing. It was not written for the piano. It does not have that kind of accompaniment. The tune, yes, it can be recognized...{we are slowly approaching the question}. Well, more questions. Last week it went so quickly that people that came later had no chance to participate, so I am making it a bit more difficult. It doesn't mean that there were not be those that will not guess everything from the first attempt, but let us see.
I recorded the metronome thing in a couple of short videos, some will be repeated in the video. But just the first recording can be heard with the clicking sound. The other "clicks" you should imagine :D
The questions:
- How many beats was marked by the metronome in total in this video?
Note - those beats that can be heard at the beginning of the video also count!
- What is the piece I am playing as background music?
The first who guesses the correct number of metronome clicks and the name of the music will be the winner. Or, if you are lazy to count and all, the funniest answer could also receive some surprise. Maybe! Don't forget to have fun :))
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/mveqektv
22-02-2022 This beautiful combination of numbers can not be missed out.
Number two.
So many of them...
This perfect combination will not happen again, ever. Why not dedicate this day to an equally important and special event, called Spread the Vibes, and combine two invitations in one? I don't see a better and more perfect occasion for doing that. Yes, I will combine! I am challenged and have two posts to respond to, and before we go crazy with the numbers and counters I will mix them.
Speaking about mixes and remixes, have you seen yesterday a post where an original album can be listened to and two remix albums of the same? You haven't? You might {I almost used the forbidden word} love to see it, so don't be afraid to click this link. However, you will likely be taken under control of some very cool sounds so decide now: do you want to give yourself that joy, OR just continue with this post of mine...
You still here? Well, I hope after listening to Heiko Laux's album Fernweh! The first share in that aforementioned post is just one track from the album, but if you accidentally click on the phrase...
to play complete playlist: play at YT ( play me )
...which is below that green-turquoise video, you will enter into a different world! And I will not mind if you stay there for a longer time and browse in the other two shared albums, which are actually made of remixed tracks from the original Fernweh album by Heiko Laux.
I set myself homework to listen to all of them, however until now, I made just one part of it: Heiko Laux's original Fernweh album is under my feet. Well, under my skin. Now, for the second time. Shared in that post just a day ago, I couldn't make to listen actively to all the remix versions. Still, those that I have listened to (seen in the post and below them, we can find the links to the playlist of the whole albums) show me some differences. I can not articulate them at the moment though. I do hear the differences between the remixes of Ray Kajioka and Marcel Dettmann, but very likely, I need some more days to know the subject a bit better. Apart from knowing, there is another feature that should be mentioned. Liking. Explaining what and why is the harder part.
For now, what I really enjoyed is that original album by Laux released under Kanzleramt Music where we can see other familiar names too. Just one example, Joel Mull. Another artist that was shared with me and with hive population in one of the editions of Spread the Vibes posts, around a month ago. Those were some warm, elegant and uncompromising sounds, according to the writer o that article. And he was right. Those sounds are indeed warm and round, how we came to the agreement in the comment section of that post. Round edges, the opposite of harsh edges... learning I am slowly. And it is indeed what I think I can recognize now.
I say, I think. Not anymore sure what I know and what I don't know. Names, artists, festivals, events, styles, edges, layers, strings, beats, effects, mixes, remixes, visuals, linear, melodic, dark, bright, deep, elegant, ambient, full, travelling, time... Arrow of Time! That arrow nobody can avoid, even if you want to run as fast as you can. So better just listen to the whole album from this elegant article and let your heart speed up in those tracks like Caver, Mnemonics, Colorblind, Ahead of the past or Hertzsprung... when you want your heartbeats calm down, just make sure you choose Alden plateau. A full circle, a full uncompromising experience from the beginning to the end.
That arrow of time didn't let me wait any day more to make my response. And this date that matches today, the second day or the week had to be the day. I hope it will be published today, still, one hour is missing before the clock marks midnight and the magic disappears. No, I am not Cinderella, not that magic from the fairy tale will disappear when midnight comes. It is just the number two, from the beginning of the post that made me take many actions and prepare the response. Combining two posts I am responding to. Playing a piece by Ludovico Einaudi, not the one I wanted to, but morning hours went in practising and the selected one could not come today. I was not in my form, and my fingers always made mistakes and mistakes... The choice went to a piece called Natural Light, as well composed by Ludovico Einaudi. A solo piano piece, with is somehow a journey of light in life, or let's improvise and try to say maybe the life tourney of the light? Well, I am here just trying to get to a bit funnier tone, as I realized how serious I was writing this post! Why? As I wanted it to be good but somehow it is going out from my hands? Time pressure? Yeah, probably that too. The combination of responding to two posts, both written by @ edje in one post? Taking away the counters and rules? We see here a nice combination of several possibilities :)
But one rule will remain in this edition of StV post. Invitations!!
@ karinxxl - techno and piano, both are close to you. Would you like to spread some vibes once again, this time my invitation?
Please, let's make it simple. You can combine as many posts as you want, or stay with the counter. All up to your choice, when and how you want to act and react with the next vibes!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/ppqegymk
My phone announced to me yesterday that I have to free up some space. Not to my liking when I see this message, as it means that I need some extra time to select all the photos and videos I do not need anymore. Those that I would like to save, I will copy to the external hard disc, but all this takes some time (which I am in a fight with). However, the good side of that activity is that you find some records you completely forgot about them. That is how I found some forgotten short videos that I took in Madrid and some photos.
I was taking the photos during our visit with our old Nikon camera and those already came in this post, but some of the shots I made with my phone to send to my family that same day. And they stayed there, forgotten, until now.
The video you will see in this post is made from a few shorter ones. The footages represent the facade of The Royal Palace, the main facade of Almudena Cathedral, and both of them being me in the middle, on Armory Square. I remember it was a cold day, we can see that everyone was well wrapped in jackets. Although the day was sunny, still, not those temperatures we are used to having here on the coast.
The Royal Palace is impressive. It was impossible to take a photo of the whole building, but the same happened with the Cathedral. I was trying to take a regular photo but also zooming out. Not the best achievement, as it seems the Cathedral wanted to take a nap {lol}.
There were attempts from another angle too, here we see it from the other side. With a lot of people on Armory Square. Well, I suppose that was the reason I recorded the video, to see it later with more parts of the building. When I found those short videos, I put them together and recorded some piano music for the background. I played a song called Hymn, well a part of it as it is longer. Composer, you all know it, right? Vangelis!
And when you ask yourself what this last photo is dong here...? What connection with Madrid, The Royal Palace or Almudena Cathedral? Well, that is the view from that square, Armory Square toward to mountains. With the camera, it was not successful to take a photo of the snowy peaks, so the phone served the purpose. Maybe we have to zoom in to see the snow on the top of the mountain, but snow is snow. You will have to believe me. Or not :D
So the video comes now. Stays as memory and maybe a trigger to go back and do a better one. Also, a wish stayed, to visit the interior of the palace as this time we didn't have so much time to wait in the long queue for that visit. Hope you enjoy the sight and the music!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/zvoyuyan
I hope you all have a happy day, and moreover a happy Fungi Friday!!!
And if you want to continue with that happy feeling, well maybe better than not to watch the following video? Uhm... You know, I am not good at drawing...but our Supreme Judge for Fungi decided, this week's topic will be art! Drawing! Painting! Oh, What to do now? Enter or not the challenge?
Well, I tried to sell the idea to one another hive user too, so I can not ask others to do something I would not do! But, I can show that even me, who never ever learned to articulate the visual ideas from the mind through a painting, bring at least a pencil drawing! Maybe that can inspire others who are better in this activity to try themselves?
My mushroom was born just now, a moment before I edited the video, and started to write this post. All in real-time done, documented with a video recording, that you can see by pressing the play button of the video. It was made in time-lapse mode, so the result is one and a half minutes, but the process of drawing took 50 minutes.
Please don't laugh too much. Or? Should I say, if you had fun and laughed at this process then it was a successful activity? Why not bring some smiles and laughter to people? So, this is the second reason why this post will be published.
The third reason, and that one has the same importance as the previous two ones, is that the Fungi Friday community is a place of a lot of fun. And don't want to miss the opportunity to post on today here :) Every Friday, people from all over the world gather here and bring their amazing photos. Those that can not count with quality photos, bring some stories, and the funniest the best. Or food recipes... or mushroom music... or anything you consider, but what is connected to the topic of mushrooms.
There are no hard rules, but yes, some important guidelines. Like including in your post the tag #FungiFriday and that it is your contribution to the event (challenge) held by @ewkaw. The post has to be published on Friday, of course. Why would be called FungiFriday otherwise? Oh, and post into this community, Fungi Friday. The cool thing is that there is always some nice interaction between the members! And how important is that for a community!
So, these were my three reasons to enter today with this drawing video and photos... one: to inspire, two: to bring laughter, three: to have fun with others who will bring their art. Now, let's see what I have done. :)
Ok, not so many things to be explained. Found a block of paper for drawing. attached it to another cardboard to hold it, not to touch too much with my fingers the paper where the mushroom will be presented. Installed my phone to DJI Osmo mobile gimbal, and set the time-lapse mode for the video. And started the journey.
It was all invented and brought in those 50 minutes. I did try before, earlier this morning to sketch something, but not with all the details. At least I knew it will be one mushroom, something like this. First I made the contours:
And started to add the detail on the hat of the mushroom. Btw, it still doesn't have a name. Maybe you can help me to find out how to name it?
After the decoration on the cap, I added the gills. Later I was improving the details of all of them.
The stem received some cool dress, at least I liked it. And more details to bring the character of this elegant but not so usually mushroom. For sure, I know that it is SHE, so the name should be a female one.
This is maybe the part I liked the most while drawing it:
The last part that was born was the bottom of it. There were some lines I enjoyed but somehow I suffered with the small decoration. I don't know why I started to draw them in that way. Maybe had to be half-circle ones instead of triangle-like shapes. Anyway, it turned out to be like this:
Hope your neck is not hurting trying to watch the video and this photo, hahha, as it is recorded by my left side, not to cover the paper with my right hand.
Capture from the video:
The process of recording. Well, in the moments I finished the mushroom and signed it with #FungiFriday tag and my username :))
Final result :)) So, do you have an idea, what should be the name of this Mushroom Lady? Any help with naming her? If not, it's ok too. But I do hope you enjoyed this post, not my "skills" as clearly, I dont have them, but at least I tried :) oh, and not to forget to give credits to music, it is a royalty-free one:
Music: Happy Step
Musician: Nordgroove
URL: https://icons8.com/music
The hand that was drawing with that pencil was of course mine :)))
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/ncvgbzst
Missing! Missing! Missing! Readers: Let us know finally, what is missing?
Maybe the words to start to write this post. The first ones, to break the ice and start. As once I start I can not stop that easily... Although we don't need always some kilometre long posts. If I can say in fewer words what was my point, it's better for the readers. That simple, it would take less free time from all of those who will open this post. Lucky them. And you if you started to read this.
With the risk that I will miss many details, there is one important thing I would like to highlight already here, at the beginning of this mini-post. Maybe not everyone would agree that it is important, but I do feel that without real inspiration it is difficult to achieve anything. My example: why would I take my time to record a Vangelis tune, one Saturday afternoon, if I would not have been triggered by another Vangelis tune? In this case, it was an easy decision! Why take a siesta, if that time can be used for responding to an unofficial StV post, with another unofficial StV post? If those real Spread the Vibes posts would not be enough, you could think. Well, it is never too much of spreading some funny, awesome, annoying or music vibes.
Vangelis as a response to Vangelis played this time just on the piano. The main theme from the movie Missing from 1982. In a shortened version. I skipped the first part and the last one and played the main parts I wanted to bring. Without those sound effects that in the real track of the "Missing" were used, the pure piano sound could become a bit static, I think. Still, I miss the strings in the middle section too, but let us concentrate just on this piano sound. And on Vangelis.
We had some albums by Vangelis, and we knew by heart every single note of them. It was on in the house as background music for some time, but I have no clue where those CDs can be now. True also, that we moved so it is not a major surprise. Anyway, every time I want to listen to Vangelis, I could easily search for it on our wide web, open the aforementioned post or simply play the music by myself. There is one specific feature of all the scores I have from this composer. All the soundtracks are of this ambient style. (just saying, if anyone wants to hear faster playing or more action and tempo from me, maybe in the next video I will warm up my fingers a bit more. Not a real promise, but have some faster music in my mind :) )
I will conclude that this was not an official Spread the Vibes entry. However, if anyone finds this music interesting, or have something more to say about Vangelis, or simply got any kind of inspiration from here, just follow up and bring us your side of the story. It doesn't require an official invitation, btw this is an unofficial one too, as I already mentioned :D
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/ytugoqjy
You might think, again some questions and guessing games that are coming from me, but more or less this was just a rhetorical question. The answer to the question: Is there any difference? is of course, positive. Every day, we may face different challenges and tasks, even if they seem so similar. Let's see a very simple example: the keys of the piano seem all the same, but they don't make the same sound. The music scores we play from are the same, but there are no two same interpretations. Even if we just compare our own interpretations. From day to day we are different. The circumstances can be different. The results of our activities are altered... as it was my practising too.
I would like just to leave the video without any explanation, so you could see by yourself what happened and have, hopefully, a great laughing time. As I had it when I listened back to one part of it, the second part of the video. However, I will make it clear and warn all of you as I don't want to damage your hearing. Be prepared! Grab some earplugs, just in case...😂 {I am serious about the earplugs}
So, here we have the situation. If you remember from my post from two weeks ago what was the trigger to write that article? The remodelling of the neighbour's apartment? Well, this time we have the same trigger. And sounds too. Real, heavy sounds mixed with the piano sound, and Vivaldi music.
Yesterday was a nice, working and noisy day. When the refurbishing activity started, (I can not even know what they can still work on there), my intuition pulled me to the piano. I set the video option on my phone and started to play. You can see, I tried to be louder than the noise, but it was almost impossible. I enjoyed that battle, it was fun for me... but they won. The workers from the other side of the wall had the victory, they were louder than my piano.
I am just laughing now with my yesterday's dressing decision too, as I just grabbed my son's striped sweater for this playing occasion, so just to clarify, it is not my new style :D But it is also funny how he outgrew me, his stuff is too big for me. The mistakes I have while playing are not so funny though. I was changing the tempi, sped up, missed some notes, played wrong notes and in a few measures I left out the left hand. How difficult was it to concentrate with that noise?
To compare that practice session, I recorded today the same part of that piece L'estro Armónico composed by Vivaldi, in some nicer conditions. No noise + recorded the piano through the recording equipment. This is what you can hear in the first part. It is let's say okish, far from being perfect, but there is a difference. The second recording is way more interesting than the first "normal" part!!
Oops, I answered my own question right now :))
If you don't agree with me, let me know :) So, which recording do you like more, the first or the second part of the video? I hope you didn't suffer too much while listening to the recording with the background "music"... but I do hope you had a lot of laughter while listening to that crazy situation :))
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/jznknvpt
We all know the feeling when the tasks we have to do are just hanging around for some time and we are trying to ignore them. They are here, in some hidden corner of our minds, but they keep quiet. That is the reason we don't take them seriously, and they never become a priority in our schedule. Until... until just a small trigger brings the left behind things to the surface.
Do it!
Said my mind {screamed, maybe}.
Sort out the repertoire you got for that wedding!
That file with the suggested repertoire slept calmly in my phone for several days, but it was just too quiet so I didn't pay a lot of attention. The singer lady, a soprano from Madrid was waiting for my response. She sent me the list of the compositions to check it out, and confirm what will be the definite choice of music for the wedding of her cousin. She will sing, but she needs a pianist to play during the ceremony. I will play some solo pieces and others to accompany her.
Well, I accepted her suggestions; why not learn some new music? And after all, that is her cousin's wedding. Let the family enjoy the selection, and I will also be glad to learn new pieces. So, the first one, for the entrance of the groom, she suggested The Prince of Denmark's March, by a baroque composer Jeremiah Clarke. A composition in that old-style, that should bring a majestic sound while the lucky man (is he? :D ) will walk slowly to the altar. For the bride, a bit more uplifting and faster piece will come, but that one I will need a bit more practising.
I am happy enough I made myself look into this list and get the scores. Started with this first one on the list, and let's say it will be ok for the day of the wedding... which is btw. in June. I have plenty of time, I can learn all the pieces, in a week maybe, but when she comes from Madrid, we will have a rehearsal or two, to get used one to another. Am already excited to meet her!
So, this Jeremy Clarke was an English baroque composer, and his most famous work is exactly this one, The Prince of Denmark's March. It was written for harpsichord, but also could be performed by a wind ensemble. Not many other works were left behind him, and some of them were later attributed to Henry Purcell. Even this one, what I am playing here is thought to be written by Purcell. Not to be a surprise then, how the poor composer finished his life... But apparently, the music was not the reason for his suicide, but a hopeless passion for a lady. But I am thinking, isn't it just so ironic, that he couldn't enjoy what he wanted but his only famous work is played at the beginning of the weddings? Maybe I should consider changing the repertory? {lol}
Anyway, I learned it today and recorded it, so here it comes. This morning, I was still not aware that this will happen. Not to break the tradition, I ordered in the place where I played my gig another smoothie. Two reasons, why not enjoy a bit and also make a guessing game for my guests in this post and mini-concert. So, who wants to play? @ leaky20 nailed last week's game, but @ littlebee4 was so persistent also :)
For all those who would like to guess, the question is:
What are the THREE ingredients of this drink? P.S. @ edprivat, I know how much you like the mentions hahaha. So, look, the coming back happened, but not with toy instruments mentioned in the comments section of your post :) And my piano is still at its place...
P.P.S. @ edje, the guests didn't say today that I was the best part of the breakfast experience, so the hotel maybe made better food today... but they asked would I come back tomorrow too :p
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/pdgtlnrn
Memories...Saturday is the right day to remember some more events that once brought us interesting moments. Sad, tough, or happy ones :) Well, I prefer the last category, as usually traveling means happiness for me! Just visited a place, that is still to come here, but it was a very short visit. Who read my post from a few days ago could know that a few of my days were just swept away. Finally, I got better so what we had left was just two days, anyway, it was fun. In contrary to this recent short trip, I can say that last summer was different. We traveled a little longer, so more destinations could be our host. Mostly I have already mentioned many of them and shared them with you, as well as this visit to the French city, Avignon. In that post, a lot of pictures and a story came about why we ended up there and not in some other city. But I also made a short video from some places, like the walls of Avignon from the Middle Ages, the famous bridge from Avignon which also has its own song, the Palace of the Popes, and the Ferris wheel. Not a lot of things, but I am forgetting to do more footage of the places. I found those short videos and the photos I still haven't used in my post and decided that they will come as well. Unfortunately, just leftover photos, as the other ones already were published and I will not use them again.
However, the moving photos - my humble and short video, can give also another view. First of all, we can see the Ferris wheel that is close to the River Rhone. I was tempted to have some fun from there but logic spoke: let's have first a walk in the old part of the city. That is where the Palace of the Popes is. There is also a small square where a musician was playing... It was nice to see and hear, but due to the wind that is heard so much in the video I removed all the music parts and put another background music. Do you hear the nice piano sounds? That is the last part of a classical piano piece, Intermezzo op. 117 no. 1 composed by Johannes Brahms. Played by my very good friend, when he was playing me the repertoire for one of his concerts.
We walked in the old part of the town, had some food intake, and continued with our mini-tour. @themagus mentioned in one of his comments that he and his good lady usually walk around hours and hours in a place and also get lost sometimes. That is a cool part when you go on foot. You see, we also ended up in some parts of the city that are not so attractive... I mean the photo from left side :)
The not-so-funny thing is when you get lost driving your vehicle in an unknown city. Also, traffic. You can actually see in the video a road with cars, well, believe me, what I wanted to shoot are the Walls of Avignon. Please, try to enjoy the views of the walls instead of the vehicles :) To visit the old part of Avignon, luckily we decided not to use the car. We left it in the hotel park lot, and a 30 minutes walk was our pick. Also, bikes could be used, if we would have them there.
Anyway, after this visit, that we enjoyed but were already a bit tired, we had a walk by te bakns of the river, and slowly strolled back to the hotel to sleep. You know how well one can sleep after a city tour? I hope you know, if not, you should try it out :) Hope you will enjoy also this mini mixed video, a bit of memories from this summer and Avivgnon and a bit of piano classical music. Really, a tiny part of the composition.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/bdnaguhg
Sometimes I catch myself searching for meaning in the most common things that surround us. I'm not superstitious and do not know numerology, but it is interesting to me when I see, for example, that the numbers in the dates match or are symmetrical. Or when I see repeating numbers on the digital clock. Also, it is just weird that these days everything revolves around the number three. I could not leave this number just go into oblivion without giving it a bit more attention. It will even come to this Spread the Vibes post as almost the main actor, and if you are interested to find out why, please continue reading but it would be nice if at the same time you would press the play button on the video... believe me, it will still play when you finish the reading of this post... as it lasts for 9 minutes and 45 seconds...
Coming back to numbers... this number 3 which could not stop proving to be important and which encouraged me to write and publish this post today, has a meaning. I know that in some cultures, it is considered to bring luck, but I also found other interesting interpretations. Back in time, when in Greece philosophy still was a thing, the number 3 was considered as the perfect number. It was the number of harmony, wisdom, and understanding. Not bad, I would say... some values we all should search for. Oh, apparently it was also the number of time, so past, present, and future are brought all together. We could also think of birth, life, and death. In one word – it was the number of the divine.
We can go further. Three is often the magic number in fairy tales. Earth is the third planet from the Sun. There are three types of galaxies: elliptical, spiral, and irregular. Our human ear has three semicircular canals. We distinguish the universe in three dimensions. Atoms are made up of three particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. When we want to perform something in synchronicity with others, we usually count until three. Some people should set the counter for future spread the vibes to three... Others will receive a third invitation. There are trilogy songs shared here recently... As I said before, everything revolves around the number three these days.
Three will be also the number of people that I will invite to follow up with this challenge not challenge. I said challenge? Practically, it can be seen as a challenge as there are some guidelines we can follow if we read the launching post. It was published some months ago, soon it will be a year actually... wow, how time flies but one thing is not fading away! The willingness to spread some vibes. Even when the vibes that I bring here are silence or seemingly random sounds made on piano, with the damper pedal lifted through the whole composition. (You are listening to it, right? Just checking, as I said, it lasts for...a bit of time). John Cage already inspired some pianists with his way of thinking and with some of his pieces, like the famous 4:33. Four and a half minutes of silence inspired Nils Frahm to make his piece 4:33 a Tribute to John Cage. Edje picked this track to showcase in HIS POST I AM RESPONDING TO , although the whole album is what he meant to be his entry. An album called Old Friends New Friends, that brought him a real-like listening experience, feelings of a very close and personal sound, brought even closer by the darkness and just a few sparks that reached his place. Was it a perfect set-up to those moments? I bet it was, as I "tested" the album in a similar way. The landscape for that listening has to be a dark place and loneliness.
Lonely piano waiting to bring sound...
I know, it would be cool if my response would be the 4:33 piece, but the landscape is what came instead. Imagine a wide space, before the dawn, the Sun still doesn't seem to bring the light but some stars are trying to break the complete darkness. Fog over the river, which mingles with reality combined with some remote sounds of mysterious bells, probably of fictional beings. This is how I heat the composition In a Landscape, you are listening to. Composer, as I mentioned, John Cage. Many of his works are experimental, even with electronic sounds, and also using everyday objects to make the piano sound different and peculiar. Paper, rubbers, threads, long bolts, penny placed between the strings of a grand piano. Another important thing in his music is structure and rhythmical order. Seems that he liked the numbers also, as for the composition I performed here, his instructions state: 15 x 15 (5.7.3.). It means that the piece has 15 parts, made up of 15 measures each. Each part is divided into three musical phrases of 5 measure, then 7 and 3 measure. Not that a listener would count the measures, parts, and phrases... I could skip or add parts, and maybe you would not even notice, but it was John Cage's idea how this composition would be balanced. Another note was: damper pedal and una corda pedal lifted all the time, from the beginning to the last measure, where the performer has to release both pedals and play a D minor chord without sounding. In this way, we obtain harmonics, which are the higher frequencies that resonate upon a fundamental tone. It is very soft, I hope you can hear it. It is when I at the end release the pedals but I hold the chord. Very soft frequencies can be heard until they fade away completely by themselves.
For recording this composition, I couldn't use the electric piano I have at home. I needed a grand piano. Luckily, a friend of mine could offer me his studio, a place where he practices and records music. BUT! He recently changed a complete octave of strings, and the tuner was there about a month ago. It has to be tuned again now, as the strings loosen until they are not completely set. This can cause some tones to not have a perfect pitch, but I hope you don't mind too much. I recorded the video and the sound from the resonant box, it is what you see on the video. And it is a video, believe me, although you can think it is just a photo as minimal moves you can notice. It is because the damper pedal is lifted all the time so they dont move as normally would, and the hammers we can not see from this angle as in a grand piano they are below the strings.
The crime scene for recording the piece...
If you are still here, reading this post, and excited to see who will be the three invites in this edition of Spread The Vibes, here we go with the announcement of the lucky winners (although they still dont know how lucky they are ;) )
@ewkaw , third invitation to take part in spreading the musical vibes. I bet this time you will not skip it, right? {angel blinking} Deadline: 30 days... deal? :D
@edje , set your counter to three, and bring me your three promised posts! Would setting a deadline help? :D
@por500bolos , surpriseeeeee!! Trilogy thing from the third attempt, you are my third invited hiver for taking part in this challenge! Extravagant and rare music from the personal LP collection... or more of your tracks? You will know how to amuse our hearings!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/aopwxgbq
...and then she asked:
Where is the game post? where?? :P Well, I have to tell you, I deleted it when it was just halfway written here... The post that had to come as a "game post" was deleted as I didn't like it. I recorded this same piece, Carol of the Bells, yesterday evening, and it was not the thing. I saw the image blurry... made it even worse by converting it into monochrome video. Had some missed notes while playing and didn't like some parts I added... I found myself in a free-falling mode towards not so positive overall state that usually happens before the Christmas holidays and the delete worked perfectly to forget the whole thing. The sky hasn't seemed any brighter this morning either, but eventually, I recorded again the piece and this time it will not be eliminated. This time the bells are coming to the stage, performed by these ten fingers I have got. Well, the mind also has something to do with the thing, as I heavily changed the song.
The song Carol of the Bells has a story that is not so simple. The original one is written by the composer Mykola Leontovych in 1916, upon a Ukrainian folk chant Shchedryk. He arranged that folk chant for a cappella mixed four-voice choir. Two decades later, Peter J. Wilhousky rearranged this beautiful melody for the orchestra and with new lyrics, and the song became associated with Christmas. This tune has been featured in some movies and an incredible number of arrangements and covers appeared since it was published back in time. (around 150 different versions). As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I also played it differently than the base score I got, I added my new parts and took off parts from the song, changed the structure and text of it.. so we are adding one more cover, hive exclusive cover.
Where the game part?? So, as I promised @ewkaw, there will be a guessing game post, soon. Well, Friday is when the promised post would have to come to this FUNNY new place and with a different topic - mushroom theme, but I also like to play in my music posts. My only concern is if the question should be easy or a more complicated one...? Well, let's go with something that everyone can find the answer to if enough curios:
What is the original Ukrainian folk song about, and which animal is mentioned in that song? Have fun searching for the answer, and if you like, you can listen in the meantime how this mipiano version of Carol of the Bells sounds :)
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/zplyngjx
I just saw a post that talked about focus. Talked about, maybe not the best term... The music was the real focus, and it was spot on. A talented musician singing and playing the guitar very very well! Not taking the focus and attention from the music itself with a long, written post. Although the lyrics of the song that was performed by @edprivat (sorry for the tag, I haven't tagged you for so much time now so you can survive this one ;D ) describe a person longing for attention from another one, there are different ways to what and how we can focus. Why instead of longing for being in focus from other eyes, we focus on them and that way share some happiness that we all have in us? Why sometimes happen that we don't focus on things we like to do? Why sometimes happen that we don't pay attention to actions that make us happier so we can give away that feeling and energy to others? Hm, we are getting lazy and we are seeking easy distractions. It is not always easy to take action, work is needed to be done. Being a good musician or painter? It doesn't happen during a night. You have to work hard to develop your talent and build up skills to compose, produce, perform music. Being a painter requires a lot of imagination and visualization, putting colors on canvas so many times until one idea can seem to be nicely shaped. Work, work work and for that is needed a strong attitude not to lose the target.
I need to focus, that is true. Center on my piano playing and practicing, as days are passing and once again, I dont get to my white and black keys. In the lack of free time, I made some of it (precious time) to practice during the late evening, with the headphones not to bother neighbors and family. Moved again my piano where I can study any time of the day/night. Results? You can listen to it in the video, a composition titled Le Onde, and the lucky composer who gets my attention is Ludovico, once again. Well, I can not avoid his pieces, he has been here and will be, although so many new and young generation pianists and compositions are getting in my eyeshot... And they will come, here, many of them that I just store in my soul right now (oh, and in drafts of this our platform). Beautiful ideas and ways of playing, recordings, too much right now but I want to focus! Me and my piano today!
A friend of mine, a nice lady who lived in so many places across Europe, that was born so close to the place as me too, but we have never met until some years ago here in Spain. She used to paint, a lot. Had some exhibitions, was selling her works and all, and now I think she just has so many other more important things in her life so no focus on painting right now. But the painting she gave me as a gift a few years ago is presented here. A detail from it, a spotlight on one rose. Maybe somehow the vibes can reach her from this blockchain and remind her, why not have the painting brush again in her hands...? But peace of mind above all, she will know when and how, if the vibe reaches her somehow.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/vcygjjws
The devil is here...but just in the name of the following musical piece that I am playing in this video. One week ago I uploaded a composition, one waltz that I learned and recorded on a request by one hive user. It was a nice piece, an uplifting Venezuelan waltz, Mañanita Caraqueña. I was happy that I achieved that goal, learned it, and published it... that was a relieving feeling. In the comment section of that same post, I received a new request from someone else. This time a kind request was made by @fermionico:
...habiendo escuchado varias de sus piezas, me preguntaba ¿cómo sonaría "El diablo suelto" del maestro Heraclio Fernández Noya en tu piano? Gracias de antemano, sea o no positivo para tí el reto.
...having listened to several of his pieces, I wondered how "El diablo suelto" by maestro Heraclio Fernández Noya would sound like on your piano? Thanks in advance, whether or not the challenge is positive for you.
A challenge can not be skipped!! Well, some of the challenges in the musical field like Spread the Vibes, or It can't be true are those that I write and prepare with a lot of od fun and pleasure. Also, I already learned several compositions on request, and I really find a good motivation to practice those pieces that were asked for. Still have two compositions that are waiting for my fingers, and some collaborations too. Unfortunately, they don't always come true, but I will try to be more organized and make my parts in some joint projects that are pending.
So this devil thing... the name was frightening already ;)) But I accepted! El Diablo Suelto, in English it would be The Devil on the Loose is a waltz, composed by Heraclio Fernández in 1888.
This composition has been arranged and performed in various forms and on different musical instruments. It was the tradition to make those transformations and arrangements back in time. Heraclio Fernández was one of the most important piano composers in the 19th century in Venezuela of the small forms of pieces. I found various different versions and also played by different instruments. I hope the version I play will be in pleasure for the listeners, and will not run away while listening to it. I played it in a classical and more closed style, I have to admit. Somehow, the devil doesn't want to mess with me, I think my "angel side" is prevailing hahaha. Ok, just a bit of a joke, I enjoyed the time spent on practicing it and it was recorded yesterday, but as I mentioned in my post, I accidentally deleted the recording, so I had to do it all from the beginning today. One funny fact: at the beginning of the composition, there is one chromatic scale (the fast ascending notes) and with the last note in that scale, I almost hit the phone I was recording with (you can see it in the sixth second of the video). Luckily it stayed in place and I was able to record the piece... after not so many attempts!
Gracias @fermionico por este desafío, espero que te guste el resultado! 🎵 🎵
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/qbfijgtb
If you have not been worried today, I urge you, not to change that state. Stay worry less, if it is anyhow possible. When someone says me dont worry, one legendary song comes to my mind, always. But worries will not take the lead in this post. Well, confusions, maybe yes. And if you have not been confused today, I think, after this post, there are chances you will be...I mean, it is pretty contagious, to be confused. One thought if misunderstood, leads to another one and so on, words, phrases rolling in the wrong direction. Hey, mind, is there any brake that we can pull on?
Anyway, if worries and confusions come, you can make just one good thing out of them. Transform them into something else, something better. Try to create something useful from the given opportunity. I managed to diminish the worries that came these last days, some were serious, and some just unnecessary. Confusions, well, they are here many times, and to be honest, they follow me like a shadow. But we can see the matter from the positive side: if a shadow exists, even in the form of confusion, it means that it is sunny! Radiant and shining, weather, thoughts, and music!
Pebbles also have a shadow...
Yes, music. And exactly it as one of the sources of my confusions, a composer, a musical piece, a response to one of my Spread the Vibes post. Which one, well, that was a real challenge to make me un-confused. But finally, it happened, and it is all clear, but still, the idea of making out something of that was here in the moment of making this post. So, on purpose, this morning I recorded the audio of how I played a piano piece composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Amore, as this was the composer that was the first source of my disorientation. I could record something by Ludovico Einaudi, but then this would not be a confusing post ;)
Also, I made a video this afternoon (to be honest, I shot one in the dawn, but it was not good later when I edited it) on the seashore. It was nice, sunny, with some clouds, mild waves and some seagulls here and there, a small boat sailing... Calming and relaxing, so I had to make something with the recording to mess it up. Instead of letting you know, that will be the part you can tell me if you want to play this guessing game. I could ask how many seagulls do you see in the sea...? Or, how many times the tripod shook in the wind...? Or, how many times has the phone tried to zoom in...? But the answer is simple and easy, to an even easier question... there are two things that I influenced in the video. What they are? As always, a small tip will fly to the wallet of the person that guesses it correctly the first. The guessing game will last for at least one day. So, what is wrong with this video? Two things! Have fun and I hope you will enjoy the music and scenery!
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/iiomihvh
It's the time! Finally, it's time to start to fulfill the promises, requests for compositions, collaborations, and challenges as I am doing terribly with these things. I am not making it up, it is true! There are some agreements that I am postponing for several months already, and one of the first ones I owe a collaboration to is @andrewmusic, the god-level electric guitar player! I saw one of his posts yesterday, playing awesomely, so mi, what are you waiting for?? What? Also, EdPrivat had to step away from a joint project, as...yeah, I have not done my part of the song Jealous. There is also one Tchaikovsky piece that was requested and I also want to respond to a Spead the vibes post as soon as possible. Mañana, the perfect phenomenon where I would not think about anything and what I have to do or not, is always escaping me, I never reach it and I don't know where to find it. However, at least one Mañanita I was able to reach. Mañanita Caraqueña, a composition I was requested to play some time ago by a hive user @osomeltrozo from Venezuela.
This talented and funny hiver shared the scores in the comment where he nicely suggested to me that he would like to hear me playing this piano piece. I printed out the music sheets and practiced for about 10 days this waltz. It seems light, bright, calm in the beginning and end, and cheerful in the middle section. As I have never ever played anything by any Venezuelan composer, I had to look at who the composer was and what about the style, but there was not so much information on English about this composer. I found in Spanish, that Evencio Castellano was a pianist, organist, and composer, born in 1916. He graduated in 1944 as a teacher and composer and he was studying in New York from 1947 to 1949 piano improvement. He acted as a Chapel teacher at Caracas Cathedral, was teaching at the Higher School of Music, and founded the Collegium Musicum in Caracas. But, instead of his biography, let us see how do I feel about this piece. Never heard any other piece from this composer, but I loved it. It was a bit challenging, in the beginning, to figure out the rhythm and harmony, as I wanted to learn it just from the written text before any hearing experience. Just me reading it and interpreting it in my way. Now, when I learned and recorded, I listened to another recording. I play it slower, at my pace, but cheering up in the middle section. The visualization: morning sun playing on the roofs of a city, where I have never been before.
Maybe because of that, I have chosen to add some short videos in addition to my playing, catching some details from a painting I saw in a small exhibition. The painting represents Madrid, not Caracas, but still, I found it perfect with its vibrant colours! The painter is Pepa Vázquez, and the title of the painting is funny: Madriz, Madriz... I like especially the vibrant purple, blue and yellow details, and some contrasting green details - trees- in the concrete jungle of the capital of Spain.
Estimado @osomeltrozo, aquí viene tu solicitud. Espero que te guste, practiqué este vals con mucho gusto y no sé si he captado la vibra de la obra. Tendrás que escucharlo y decirmelo, pero honestamente. Espero tu respuesta y con la esperanza que ha merecido la pena esperar esta interpretación. Un gran saludo ;)
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/lulqizbf
What does a teacher do on a Sunday afternoon? Is she/he resting? Does she/he enjoy a day without school? Possible, yes, it is very possible. But sometimes, a teacher like me, who likes to play, invents new games for the students, as well as for the rest of the adult population. In this post, we will find two games, one shown in the video that I drew for the youngest students, but hive users will also be able to play. My traditional questions, challenges, or games that I like to set ;))
What I have used As we can see in the video, this is a DIY project! That sounds like a huge project, but, in reality, I used just a few things: the idea to make a board game for the youngest - a colorful piano keyboard, one piece of paper, a pencil, and some colors. After drawing it and coloring it, I cut a piece of cardboard where I stuck the paper with duct tape. That tape serves as a protection of the top of the board space. I could have taken it to an office to be plasticized, but this way everything is handmade and much cheaper. Gratis!
Purpose The purpose of this board game is to learn the name and position of the notes, matching them with the keys that we can find on the keyboard. In the school, we have many similar games that we made for the younger students, but believe me, the little bit older ones also like to play! So, we made some cards where, for the written notes, along with the position of them in the stave, an order of colors is established. (The stave (UK)or staff (US) is the set of five horizontal lines where the notes are written). Thus, the first note in the scale is C, it is red, and it is written below the stave circling a ledger line. The second one is blue, note D and it is written just below the stave, etc... Each student will have a pawn and move it according to the number that the dice is showing after rolling the dice. The field on which she/he stood represents one piano key, painted with a color representing the name of a note. They are supposed to tell me the name of the note and how it is written in the stave. It is made for the smallest ones, of course, as the best way to learn is through games at that age.
How I made the drawing in exactly one hour, not counting the preparation before taking the video. I set the time-lapse mode shooting, where for one hour of recording I can get 1 minute of time-lapse video. It was an enjoyable one hour on my balcony this afternoon, instead of taking a traditional siesta! Oh, I skipped it today, but never mind, I loved the process of making this thing and also, I am pretty satisfied with the result, that came out like this from the first attempt. For the background music for this video, I recorded a song that I am playing on the piano. It is Watermark, by Enya. A long time ago, I recorded and published this song but without the audio interface I have now, so this is a new recording made for this board game drawing video. Why so calm song? As my fingers were drawing and coloring so fast, we need a bit of tranquility while seeing it ;D
A small guessing game for HIVE members! Excited? No? Come on, let's play, it will be easy! The question I wanted to ask you today is:
Which note does the yellow piano key represent on my invented colorful keyboard?
Easy, right? I need just one letter, the name of the note! The reward is a symbolic tip of 1 HBD that I will send to the wallet of the person who first responds correctly. Remember, playing the game is more important than the outcome, so why not try?
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/gzkfigsj
“You’re changing every day, right? Your curiosities and ambitions change, your ear changes, the music you like changes – and the music you want to make, too.” This truth is one of the Ryuichi Sakamoto's quotes, that I would like to emphasize just right now, at the beginning of this post. We do change every day, consciously or unconsciously. For better or worse, you choose, but if you have a well-laid foundation and know where you want to go, the world is yours. Of course, the question of whether you want to step up or not. How fast you will progress also depends on the energy you will dedicate to that activity. Sometimes, you have a good idea and you know that certain activities would contribute to the overall well-being, but life brings other circumstances that occupy your attention, so changes and activities take place more slowly. But, the fact is, we change, and we change our appetite, preferences, interests. Our perspective also changes, so that can happen with the way to experience music too.
The way how certain circumstances affect us is amazing. Usually, good and positive ones make an even better base for our inspiration and creativity. Though for a musician, creativity would mean composing its own music, and at this stage, I am not able to do that. On the other side, inspiration is a thing of magic, as it can bring a special way how the already written music is received and performed later. What happened about a week ago, is that I listened to a piece, that for sure affected me a lot. Saying that it was so inspirational is just a weak explication. Mind-changing? Maybe we are approaching a little bit more now the target, but heart-touching would be even closer. Powerful emotions like calmness and fulfillment prevailed while listening to this masterpiece. It starts as a choral composed by Bach, I had the feeling I am listening to a piece composed by that Baroque master played on the piano, slowly and steadily. And then, in one moment more sounds just expand everywhere. I would recommend listening to it without any distraction to hear the full beauty and meaning of it. The piece in the question is a composition by Ryuichi Sakamoto ( photo source ) from the album async.
Did you like the piece? It is amazing, right? I am so happy that I found it in THIS posts that an excellent music connoisseur posted a couple of years ago. Many posts can be found on that account, @qsounds. If you want to listen to extraordinary music, you can find a wide range of different types of music, accompanied by a story and wrapped with a personal message. Quality and good taste, above all. From classical to experimental, electronic, ambient, soundtracks, dance, techno, and much more. You will have a cool musical journey there, so fasten your seatbelts before you start. After listening to that piece, there were no doubts for me, I knew that a new edition of Spread the vibes, challenge not challenge post will come to the surface. Do you know what is it about? If you hear it for the first time, a short description is coming. Ready?
Somewhere back in February, the very first edition of this challenge started here. The aim was, and still is, to bring more interaction, engagement, and quality music to hive. Not just as a random post, but linked to each other! Responding to someone's music with your reaction, your own experience you got from that post, receiving musical and personal vibes and spreading them again to others. With your musical choice, you invite others to follow up and do the same. The most important feature: enjoy the process of creation! Just then, the good vibes can be spread. There are no hard rules, but some guidelines on what your post should contain:
-Your reaction to the music that was shared with you
-Your music selection and a related story
-Your invites of other HIVE members
-Link to the post you react to
-Tags to use: #spreadthevibes and #music
If we see, right now I am missing two parts of the post. My musical choice and the people I want to invite. So, inspired by the work andata posted already here, I searched for some scores by this Japanese composer. I have found several compositions but the most I liked to come to this post is called Energy Flow. The practicing process was enjoyable and lasted for one week, as I haven't time to practice so much, every day a little bit so it is here now. Not a perfect performance maybe, but it has to be like this. It will make more good for me if it comes with some random, almost not noticeable mistakes. One recommendation, turn up the volume as I feel the audio is not loud enough.
The next missing part is where I invite others to follow up. Really, no rules on how many people you want to invite... and also, anyone who reads this and wants to participate can do it. I will go with four invites now. And, I will explain why each one of you is stated here. :)
@edje : The excellent mind behind this challenge back in time, who hibernates from posting at hive right now. You know, the winter is still not here, even if the sun is hiding. So, please come out and show us some exclusive story, music, idea, humor, whatever! I am sure each word brought here would be a quality-filled one.
P.S. the last edition still waits for the response, but I will turn on my forgiving side if a response comes here :D
@fernanblog : A musician, a psychologist, a great engager, a person ready to help with his encouraging comments, and in a professional approach! A few days ago in one of the comment sections, I mentioned to you that I have one post in my mind where you would be involved. So here it is, the Spread The Vibes challenge is waiting for your response. Take your way, but I would like to hear how music and psychology can go together side by side and help people in the healing process.
@jaydr : A doctor and a musician, that had experience in playing music to his patients and seeing the reaction. I was interested can you share with us this experience and your thoughts on how music can affect our health. And of course, as you are super engaging too and make difference being so short time in the platform. You do it great!
@tdctunes : 8 weeks on hive and rocking! Horray!! Thanks for your nice words in this post, I appreciate your mention, but what is more important, I saw you are into challenges! How cool!! I think we will see just a great response coming from you! So bring here come electronic vibe, I am sure, more than one will enjoy it!
So, dear invited ones, and all who would like to participate even without the invitation, one pianist soul would be happy to see some post responses! Don't forget to be in harmony with yourself, whatever others would wait from you. Be yourself, and just if you like, spread some vibes :))
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/zqbugxfs
Sunday is the day when most people spend the day with family, friends, or just have an extra day for themselves, to relax. To do any of those activities that were impossible to achieve during the days where work was dominant. Back in time, when I published my first #SadSunday post, all those who commented said that actually, Sunday is a happy day! It is, indeed, however, I remember that I stated that some kind of melancholy comes to me when Sunday afternoon knocks on the door of my weekend.
Monday seemed to be intimidating with its arrival, so it always somehow hinted at sadness. I seem to have changed that view, or simply Monday no longer means the same to me as before. I am quite indifferent to the days now, it seems that I have learned that every day is a day to enjoy if we know how to use our time, regardless of the circumstances.
I still like this SadSunday series to continue sometimes. There was a time I completely forgot about that and stopped publishing these posts. However, sad music still exists. For example, this waltz, composed by Frederic Chopin is bringing some nostalgic and sad shades to this day. Well, it is not so usual to see a rainy day here in this part of Spain, in the always sunny part of the world, as I like to call this place. It is cloudy and the whole day's rain forced me to stay indoors. Ok, it is not heavy rain, so I could make myself go out for a walk. I guess I won't melt, will I?
These two photos are misleading here, there are not taken today, but last weekend. Today, as I already mentioned, it is cloudy and rainy.
Back to reality and rain, as shown in this royalty-free video by Ivan Khmelyuk posted on pixaby. Today, on my stay-at-home day, I recorded this waltz in B minor. It is the waltz number 2, from opus 69, composed by Frederick Chopin. As I like to ask something or make a game as in some of my recent posts, I have a question in this one too. Ok, in one place, my left hand made a mistake. My finger slipped on one of the keys, and that contributed to one tone being wrong, and that can be heard. My question is, can you tell me in what second of the video happened that accident? I will make a small tip to the one who guesses correctly the first. The game will last for one day. Who wanna play?
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mipiano/vuxjyini
Everything goes so fast, no waiting, no freezing, and all seem so bright! Just one click and it's all there in the blink of an eye. Or even faster. This feeling is new, as I was used to a lot slower response from the tool that served me during the last few years. You know what I'm talking about, right? Yes, that's the feeling when you use your brand new laptop for the first day. I hung out with an old one for a long time and it was the time for this change. Finally.
In fact, I bought this new one a few days ago, but due to various circumstances, we have not been able to set everything I wanted on it until today. Migraine, work, then migraine again, so it's been a couple of days... But Sunday came, as a perfect day for a SadSunday post I used to publish some time ago, but alas, how sad it can be if such positive excitement rules today? We successfully set everything I needed for now in less time than we thought. All went pretty well, here and there a few things, but all good now.
One of the first things that were installed was the PreSonus Studio One 5 software that I use to record my music. Of course, I already tried it right now and recorded one piece. What a nice feeling not having to lose unnecessary time for trying to get the interface to be recognized by the laptop. It went every time lately with the old one in that way, it was a bit frustrating even to think about recording something. So, the first recording went very well. Also, after editing the video, the upload to 3Speak went in less than 30 seconds! That was nice also!
In the next few days, I will start to sort out from the old laptop the documents I consider that I will need. Tons of music sheets, photos, backups, recordings will or be deleted or stored in the external hard disc. Oh, and the endless list of once bookmarked sites also. I know, it will be time-consuming, as I will want to save many things, but I will try to be efficient and not let myself think in the way: I will need this piano score one day. No, in all that mess I don't even know what do I have. Now I see everything clean and running fast, and I do like it. Good organization will take place! Exciting :))
One of the scores that I have on the old laptop is this Nocturne no. 4 in D minor that I play here. The composer is Dennis Alexander, a retired piano teacher and composer from the U.S.A. It is a nice piece, but I think it will be deleted...one thing less to save. I recorded just the audio part of how do I play it and added a royalty free video downloaded from pixaby. I tried to find a sad one, at least something to be sad for this #SadSunday post hahaha.
This was my Sunday, setting this new thing and playing a bit the piano, and being happy because of that. Well, just happy is a weak word right now, but anyway, let me leave it that way.
How about your Sunday? What nice happened today to you? Or a sad event maybe? Did this piano piece, Nocturne brought you sad or nice musical moments? Plenty of questions, to be easier to choose among them... Hopefully, there will be some soul to see them and maybe answer to one of them... :)