Music In My Mind

I’m a person with a very visual memory.  I think in picture which, if I need to speak or write, I translate into words. When I am reading, all the words translate into images and the story unrolls in my mind like a film and surrounds me.  Music is also stored as images rather than directly as sound.  Everything in my brain is visual; it is all translated from the pictures when I communicate. To learn a song I practice it over and over and over again until pictures flow in patterns in my mind. Those images hold the music … Continue reading

Nine Very Good Posts and a Catholic Conference

The Chant Cafe had a marvelous post titled Doing Something About It rather than merely complaining about a problem. VERY GOOD.  In this case, it is about the music for Mass and the persons who are working hard to DO SOMETHING about the problem rather than just complaining about it.  In particular, I found the upcoming Words With Wings interesting and exciting.  I hope to get this when it comes out so that I can use it in my home school efforts. House Unseen, Life Unscripted, is a blog I very much enjoy so when I saw the article Why … Continue reading

Conservative Rock Band

How about a post about a rock band? I couldn’t resist blogging briefly on this interesting, conservative, rock band.  I like most kinds of music, including rock, so when another blog I enjoy commented on them, I listened, I liked and I decided to copy cat and do the same. I don’t yet know how to post a video from another web site other than youtube so use the link and take a listen, they sound pretty good to me. … Continue reading

Of Autoharps and Sewing

I woke this morning to a screaming two year old who was just plain GRUMPY and determined that I not be left alone to think and blog.  Coming on the heels of an evening spent with this same child being unwilling to leave me alone to read before bed, I find myself with a head-ache and nothing much of depth to say. Sometimes life just does that to me.  Nobodies fault exactly since two year old children can be difficult simply on principle. Autoharp:  I do like thinking about my autoharps.  I call my smaller instrument FRED.  Fred is a … Continue reading

Good videos: Learning to blow an Ocarina better and other Musical topics

I suspect if someone had explained this to me when I was in 5th grade taking recorder to qualify for band I might not have flunked out!  I never mastered how to blow that thing so it sounded even decent and the band director decided I hadn’t practiced.  I blew and blew on that thing but I sure didn’t improve! Anyway, anyone wanting to learn an instrument should explore Youtube as a resource.  Lots of fun stuff on there for learning an instrument. Here is one for the autoharp I love so much: This is from an instructional video available … Continue reading

Ordinary Goodness: Indian Flute-autoharp duet, Scottish tune, Humor in music, and a Vocation Well Lived

This is a duet between Native American Flute and an Autoharp set up as a “diaprizm…a diatonic autoharp with floating penatonic chord bars” [Hal Weeks–musician] It is a lovely piece. Sometimes we need this sort of thing as a balance to all the difficulties in life.  Things like sudden surgeries can really get a person down and it is important to balance these with reminders of nicer things. How about this piece: JoAnn Smith playing a Scottish tune, Sky Boat Song.  Pretty song played marvelously well! And of course, one should enjoy the humorous side of life brought to us … Continue reading

Mark Gunn: Autoharp Music

I like Mark Gunn’s music.  I like the instrument he plays.  I enjoy celtic music.  I love the humor in his funny songs.  I am a Tolkien fan and so his Hobbit songs are wonderful. I guess I am a fan.  His style makes me think of a traveling bard. I enjoy the wonderful music out there on autoharp, and there are several incredibly talented musicians whose skill on the autoharp is just amazing. But I really LIKE this artist’s use of the instrument.   … Continue reading

New Additions to my Autoharp Collection

Well, as I said in my last autoharp related blog post, I am delighted with the OS GD diatonic autoharp. It delighted me so much that when I spotted a lovely walnut and cedar GDA autoharp in a slightly scaled down design I was instantly smitten with Autoharp Acquisition Syndrome or AAS (tongue in cheek joke among people who enjoy autoharps so much they end up with several, usually one chromatic and several diatonics). This lovely instrument became mine after some budget negotiations with my beloved hubby. So now I have a lovely sounding walnut and cedar autoharp that is … Continue reading

Autoharp Updates

1.  Well, I cannot say I have made much progress in learning to play my autoharp since I’ve been side-tracked by other parts of my life. However, when a good used Oscar Schmidt Autoharp with Chuck Daniel’s bars and fine tuners added became available for around the price of a new one I jumped into owning a GD diatonic autoharp. As I see it, I’ll get a taste of what all the fuss is about diatonic autoharps at a comparatively low price and have a good loaner for introducing new people to my favorite folk instrument. It is a good … Continue reading