Cheating On My Way Of Eating

I sit here upset at myself for eating off diet. I have this Way of Eating or WOE that works for me and I keep having days like today where I get derailed and fail to avoid the foods I don’t even want anymore. Blew my carb count AND my no grains. I suspect the sauce had sugar in it. All together, I failed. I hate cheating on my diet. I cheated on a diet I love. What. An. Idiot. I LIKE my way of eating. Feel better ON this diet. Am clearer minded ON this diet. I considered fasting … Continue reading

AUTOHARP DREAMING

The autoharp is an instrument I never tire of hearing or strumming. Not that I am a musician by any means, I love music, but my natural talent is meager at best, and my inclination to make time for practice is weak. However, I have persisted in collecting several lovely instruments and wanting to play them in spite of myself. Enter Habitica. I wrote about this useful tool in another post here. On the site of Habitica, there are groups called Guilds. I joined a guild for people who were struggling. The premise of this group is to discover ONE … Continue reading

Apology for my lack of posting

I note that I am neglecting my blogs, there are several reasons, all due to being quite busy!  I attended a Society for Creative Anachronism event called Gulf Wars in March, which was a blast. I also decided a few months back to begin updating my skills in puppetry and add ventriloquism to what I knew. It seems there are now some excellent resources for ventriloquism online, so this has been a great boon to me. AND I have been working on ONE song playing it on each of my autoharps in an attempt to learn to play something.  I … Continue reading

To Know Myself!

I realized this evening that I love ballads.  Songs like The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald, and Bristlecone Pine.  I realized this when I heard the song, Bristlecone Pine, on an interview with Bryan Bowers and found myself obsessed.  I had to know what CD had the song, and it turns out the CD is named for that ballad.  Then I purchased that CD just for that one song! This caused me to wonder, am I ever so obsessed with a song that is not a ballad?  Truth is, generally NO.  I do love Church music of all kinds, especially … Continue reading

Western-Eastern Fusion Music, or what I Learned when I asked if a Chinese Pipa could play American Folk Music

One of the good things about being American is that we tend  to explore elements of many other cultures, and add them to the many uniquely American elements that have grown up here. All the members of our family value the cultures of our ancestors.  My niece will likely do the same, after all, she is one of us. My niece is also musical and enjoys playing her piano and musical people often play more than one instrument. So I began to explore folk instruments from the culture of her ancestors. I wanted to find something interesting that might be … Continue reading

Bodhran

Bodhran: a shallow drum traditionally used in Celtic music and similar to the flat drums used in some Native American music. I purchased my very first drum at the Winter Festival of Acoustic Music. Why a bodhran? It makes this marvelous sound, is light weight, easily stored and easily carried. The bodhran is an amazingly flexible little drum.  Also, I just like it. It isn’t something I went to the festival expecting to purchase but as always the stimulus of music spurs my creativity and need to explore.  That, and the drum was discounted as was the bag to carry … Continue reading

Winter Festival of Acoustic Music 2013

This weekend was a BLAST.  I attended, for only the second time, a small but absolutely fantastic gathering in Irving, TX called the Winter Festival of Acoustic Music.  This year, Chuck and Karen Daniels and Charles Whitmer were the workshop leaders in autoharp. 2011 The first year I attended I took workshops with Charles Whitmer.  Mr. Whitmer opened my eyes to amazing variations in strums.  I learned exercises to take home and practice and I didn’t even have my own autoharp yet!  Also, I was fitted with nice brass picks by Chuck Daniels (brass on the fingers and plastic for … Continue reading

Sacred and Religious Music

Religious music is wonderful for reinforcing our understanding of our Faith and excellent for building our Catholic cultures, but not all religious music is appropriate for use during the Mass. Just up front I want to let my readers know that: I am totally in favor of singing the mass as the norm rather than speaking it;  I am completely in love with the high quality older music that has survived the test of time; I believe the choir should be in the loft or at least well out of the line of sight of the congregation because it is … Continue reading

Music Theory

Learning to read sheet music (dots on lines) is a form of literacy I never quite managed to acquire and always wanted.  As a child, I could learn a tune by ear but was discouraged from learning music from that starting point by a teacher who insisted that I learn to name the dots on the page and then learn to play the dots after I knew their names.  It didn’t work for me at all. My brain is hardwired oddly and I struggle with names. For example: I recognize my friends from the way they move and gesture; I … Continue reading

Mountain Ocarina

I recently gave in to an urge I have had for over a year to purchase an ocarina from Mountain Ocarina.  Finding time to practice is important and I’m having success with five minute sessions. HISTORY The Ocarina is a simple instrument most often made in the shape of a potato with seven or eight holes on top and two on the bottom.  Instruments resembling the ocarina have cropped up in the cultures of South and Central America, ancient China, and India among others.  Generally the native versions are made of clay, which is fragile.  Mountain Ocarinas are not fragile. … Continue reading