Wrapping Up: Music Makes Me Smile

If you had to listen to everything I listened to you would probably go crazy because of the amount I replay the songs that I’m loving in the moment. I've determined over the years that I'm very obsessive when it comes to music. If I stumble across something that hits me in the right way I can't help, but listen to it over and over again until I’m sick of it.

I’ll find a band or artist that I haven’t listened to in a while start listening and get stuck on listening to only that for the next two to four weeks or until I get burned out on it. Doing school, in the car, on a break, at home, or cleaning I will either have this song playing out loud or at least in my head. This doesn’t happen often--probably because my favorite music changes constantly-- but I get super happy when it does. I have a very sensitive musical ear; it takes just the right tone, talent, and style to get me obsessed with that song or artist. If a note and timing isn’t quite right I will not be thrilled with it. Also, if I am playing or singing and something isn’t sounding quite right I would rather not play or sing if it is not meeting the sound quality that I’m looking for. I can’t help when music makes me smile, and it’s so hard to explain why. I hear something great that makes my ear listen harder and a smile creep up on my face that I can’t control at all. It’s rare when something impresses me, but when it does I’m filled with joy!

 Music makes me smile.... I can't help it, can’t explain it, but I love it!  As Lawrence Welk would say, “Keep a song in your heart!”

They Say It's Christmas..... on Thanksgiving!?

It’s that time of year again, the time of red and green decorations and those wonderful tunes that only play during this season! Every year I watch as Christmas comes around and eagerly wait for the stores and streets to be decked out with holiday cheer. But why do they all feel the need to start the week of Thanksgiving? The stores and buildings are rushing our time of rest during the holidays because they are promoting the very next one even we haven’t finished the one we’re on. They really should wait until people are ready to get decorated for Christmas and after they have enjoyed there Thanksgiving break to ‘deck out the halls’ and crank up the music!

People have the same view as I do, but others think that it’s fine to have the Christmas music playing in the middle of Thanksgiving. I, however, have always disliked when this has been done. I think that Christmas music should not be played or sung until the first of December, then sing and play all you want! However, this year was different for me. For some reason I have been waiting for Christmas to come around… the music, the snow (not the cold), and the lights all over the houses. I was already in the Christmas mood the first week of November, and I wanted December to come as soon as possible! I couldn't change when people would start to put their lights up or when the stores would start decorating, but I could start listening to Christmas music and is fed my hunger for the Christmas season for the time. So, now my thoughts and attitude has changed… if you are ready for Christmas do what you wish with the Christmas music, but to all the stores- I would like you to keep your decorations up on the shelves until December or at least till after Thanksgiving.

 

One of the most recent singing groups that I’ve been enjoying is “Celtic Thunder” I first discovered them on a TV special that was playing one afternoon…. my mom and I sat down to see what it was all about, and let’s just say we weren’t willing to leave the living room to eat dinner. It was that good that we brought dinner in with us and watched the rest of the performance. Here’s a sample of what they’re all about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a60LxpKNMOw  Enjoy!

Conversations in Music

It’s fun to have cousins that share the same interest in music and playing music as you do. Some of my cousins have been interested in music since they were very young and have learned to play different instruments throughout the years competing in several competitions. When we were younger we never talked much about music or ever played together, probably because at the time I was taking my not so favorite “piano lessons” and didn’t care too much about music until I started playing the guitar on a regular basis.

In the recent years we’ve had many opportunities to play together with our different instruments. My cousin started playing the guitar a year or two after I started. Whenever we got the chance to play together, which is a rare thing considering he lives in Louisiana, we’d always save some time to jam. It’s always more fun to play with other musicians whether it’s one person or a group of people. For me it’s always a time of encouragement to try new things, and it amazing how you can actually have a conversation through music with the other person. Sometimes you’re just communicating that you really like the sound of something by adding to it, telling the person to “take it away” by quieting down and playing for a background piece, or maybe you don’t like the sound you are creating and you decide to take a different twist to it, therefore, you make eye contact or watch closely to the fingering of the other person at the same time changing the mood of the music. I’ve been able to play with many different style musicians throughout the years a former rock band lead guitarist, fellow “self-taught” player, a worship leader, and my own family whose musical instrument consisted of guitars, mandolins, banjos, pianos, trumpets, and drums.

It’s a pretty fun experience and if you play a piano, banjo, guitar, flute, trumpet, or mandolin I would encourage you to get together with at least one other person who likes to jam. You will have entertainment for hours while learning new things and sharing your own discoveries as well.

A Short Story- The Spider

So as you might already know I’ve been playing guitar for church for the past six years. And let me tell you that I’ve experienced many adventures along to way. I was thinking about one funny story, and thought I would share them with you.

It was a regular Sunday morning where we sang, announcements were made, and then the Pastor got up to preach. Towards the end of the sermon I realize that there was something big and black slowly coming down from the ceiling. I looked a little harder and then I realized it was a spider that was hanging by its thread just to the left of the preacher (it’s a small church, and I was not the only one who saw it). It climbs down then stops, climbs down some more then stops, and climbs down some more. All this time I’m watching it closely to see where goes for the following reasons: I can’t stand spiders, and from where I was sitting it looked like it was going to land right on top of my guitar. Which I needed to play in about six minutes. I was getting nervous about the spider that was about to land on my guitar, and wondered if anyone else was seeing the same thing.  I leaned over to my friend and asked if she saw the spider. She too had been watching it for the past couple minutes. I kept watching the little black dot.  At first I thought it landed on my guitar, so at that point I was trying to figure out what I was going to do if it was sitting on my guitar. I would have probably flicked it off somehow, that would have looked really funny. Then I saw it crawl up the side of the piano that was sitting right next to it. I was relieved that it was not where I was going to be, but I kept an eye out. I would not want a surprise visitor to come up next to me while I’m occupied playing the guitar. I would have not enjoy that! Haha! Later I found out that several others were watching the spider as well, and it brought a lot of laughter and chitchat after the service.  Anyway, there’s just a story for the post this week!  

Soundtracks- we’ve all heard ‘em!

They’re quite interesting when you start to pay attention to them, which I find intriguing that most people (including myself) don’t actually notice the music as a song, yet someone created that piece of music and has given it to many musicians to record and use for a particular movie or TV show. Obviously I’m not talking about the soundtracks with lyrics, such as in musicals, but rather the pure music soundtracks.

I’m not a huge movie person, but when I’ve watched movies I recently have been noticing the background music in them. It always seems to come in during a transition scene, dramatic scene, sad scene, and those of which have some dramatic emotion. We’ve all heard them, but have you ever stopped to actually listen to the tune? Even the TV commercials have some sort of tune to them.

Every soundtrack is going to be different and sometimes it’s not even created by actual instruments, and it may be a computer or keyboard. Go watch your favorite movie and try and figure out whether it’s created by an orchestra, one man band, computer program, or a keyboard.

Here’s an example of a song being created by a keyboard- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq1UVboz36E

Here’s an example of a song being produced by a one my band (I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Piano Guys, right?)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FblHCHOLAcQ

You should look up the making of some soundtrack sometime, I’m sure it will make up become more appreciative of the all the work it takes to put 30 seconds of music to that one commercial or TV show.

 

 

 

Random tunes, Winnie the Pooh, and Christmas!

Every now and then when I’m in a random mood I play random music or listen to random songs. This post is going to be random- I'm giving you a warning now!

When I don't want to do something or think about doing something, but I know that I have to do it (like for instance write a blog post *cough-cough*) I'm normally drawn to the piano. I guess it’s a way I can sit and think, get in the zone, talk myself into getting things done or just delay/waste some time. If I'm being honest, it’s probably the last reason.  So what do I play when I'm thinking or stalling my to-do list? Sometimes it is something pretty and put together, something that doesn't sound as good, something monotonous, it might even be the Winnie the Pooh theme song. You know you are singing it in your head now….admit it! You're welcome. J

Anyway, once I was done playing some repetitive, random tunes on the piano I grabbed my laptop, got on the couch, and started typing. As I was considering what to write about I began thinking about Christmas music. Yes, it’s a little early to be thinking about Christmas, but recently for some crazy reason I've been in a Christmas-y mood and have been craving the Christmas lights, Christmas snow (even though I am not ready for it to be that cold quite yet), and Christmas music! So I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite artists I like to listen to during the Christmas season. If you're looking for a joyful, upbeat, toe-tapping style of Christmas songs go check out Beckah Shae, Francesca Battistelli, or Scotty Mccreery if you're into the country sound. Or maybe you want a more traditional sound of those wonderful hymns and seasonal songs you might enjoy Point of Grace or 33 Miles a little more. These are not the only artists that have put out great variations of Christmas songs, but they are some of my favorites.

What are some of your favorite artists that have produced their own versions of Christmas songs?  

Musicals

Why do you like to watch movies??? Is it the drama? Action? Suspense? Music? Special effects? To be honest I’m not huge fan of watching movies, and I don’t normally care for the ones coming out these days. However, there is a genre of movies that I can’t seem to get enough of…. the ones that were made around the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s. I love them so much that I spent a whole summer just watching old movies. I probably watched twenty plus old movies, and most of them were musicals.

I don’t watch movies for the action or special effects, but I watch primarily for the costumes, music, songs, and occasionally actors. Yes, I’m one a person who was obsessed with Hayley Mills, Doris Day, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, etc. at one point in my life. Through that one summer in which I watched a bunch of old movies I discovered some of my favorites. They became my favorites because of the songs that were sung and the actors who sang them!

 

The first one is Summer Stock, a movie not many people know about, but is well known for its songs. The song “Get Happy” sung by Rudy Garland became famous through it, but for me that was not the star of the movie. “Happy Harvest”, “If You Feel Like Singing, Sing”, and Dig-dig-dig-dig for Your Dinner” are the upbeat, snap-your–fingers type of songs.  There are also some slower songs like “Friendly Star” and “You Wonderful You” that are so beautiful sung by Judy Garland. Yes, these songs are pretty old-fashioned, but I’m certain that they will get stuck in your head. They have mine, but I absolutely love them so I don’t mind that much!

 Another movie with excellent music and singing is By the Light of the Silvery Moon. I was a little skeptical about this one just because of the title, but it turned out to tie in first place with Summer Stock. I loved the songs, acting, and singing in this movie so much that I decided to re-watch it about four times before I had to return it! Doris Day and Gordon McCray are amazing singers, and they are even better together! My absolutely favorite songs from this movie would have to be “Ain’t We Got Fun?” and “Your Eyes Have Told Me So” I adore these songs because of the way she sings them and the way her voice just effortlessly glides over the notes in a way that leaves me very impressed. It has defiantly become one of my favorites!

I’ll leave you with this quote from “If You Feel like Singing, Sing!”: “If you feel like singing, sing! Tra-la-la your cares away! There’s something about giving out with a song, makes you belong, helps you to find a piece of mindful day! If you feel like humming, hum. Fiddle-dee-dee-didy-dum! Just look in the mirror and do a duet, and raise your voices along! Tell your friends to go places if they start making faces, if you feel like singing, sing!!”

Musical Goals

         I’m not a very patient person when it comes to learning music, or accomplishing any “hobby” activity for that matter. If I can’t sit down and learn at least part the song I looked up, I get frustrated. For I while, any song that I would look up on the computer, whether it be guitar chords or a video tutorial, I could play at least a rough version of the song in one sitting. If I could accomplish that, I am satisfied and continue on learning the piece. But, as time went by, I realized that most of the songs I wanted to learn would just be impossible to do in one sitting. So, in order to be sure that I would learn the whole song I’ve had to set goals for myself.

 My first encounter was when I first started watching Downton Abbey, I’m sure most ( if not all) of you have either seen or heard of this TV series. I’m not a huge fan of the series, but I absolutely LOVE the opening theme song! So, as I usually did when I heard a song that I wanted to play, I looked up the piano tutorial for the song on Youtube. I never found a tutorial—I guess it was too new, but I did find a recording of a guy playing it from sheet music. I started looking around to find where I could at least find the sheet music…. I’ve become very good at this. J  After searching for the sheet music I finally found it and found some loop-holes in order to be able to print in out (no I did not to anything illegal, I just couldn’t print off the page because it was in the form of a picture), anyway. So, that night I printed it off I decided that I was going to learn it by the end of summer. After several months of wrting out the letters of the notes, memorization, and practice I was able to learn the whole thing by my deadline which I am very pleased about it!

 

After I completed that theme song, I gained more confidence in my playing abilities and decided to learn another one. At the time I was dreaming about being able to play a song titled, “What Love Is This” by a Christian artist named Kari Jobe. It was a no-brainer that this was the next one I was going to learn. Just like the previous song, I looked it up on the internet, found the sheet music and started the same process of learning. This time I’m determined to have in memorized by the end of the school year, and I would love to be able to play the whole song completely by memory. It’s a huge task, considering the song is much harder than Downton Abbey, but I’ll get it someday!


If It wasn’t for deadlines and setting goals I would get nowhere quickly, but thankfully I found a way that works for me!

Going Back

After all the years of learning different instruments, I did eventually go back to the piano. Almost every day, I hear my mom playing the piano or I hear some beautiful piano pieces in certain songs.  As I listen I can picture what their hands are doing and how to create that melody myself, so one day I decided to sit back down at the piano and try to plunk out a melody.

From the piano lessons I took many years ago, I didn’t get very far in my playing abilities. I understood timing and reading music, but reading the notes on a page then interpreting it on the piano was a struggle. Now that a lot of time has gone by and I haven’t been practicing my music reading abilities (or lack thereof), I can no longer take a sheet of music and play it without some help of a pen to write down the letters of the notes. It’s funny how I’ve forgotten the letters of the notes on a page, but never the letters on the piano itself. But at least I remembered something, right?

Even though I couldn’t read music, I still wanted to play… very much. I knew that if I only learned the pattern of the notes and memorized them I would be able to play it with no problem. That is probably the only reason I was able to learn the music during piano lessons. If I couldn’t get it, my teacher would play it for me and then I would able to play It, with no problems.  So, I looked up a video of a simple song, written by a young girl and I would ware out the “play”, “pause”, and “rewind” buttons to memorize how to play the song.  I would watch one about one measure of the tune on my laptop that sat on my lap as I sat in front of the piano, and then played it myself. Yes, it was very time consuming, but I was having loads of fun doing it! More fun than I would have had relearning how to read music and then finding the sheet music. I also think this was a lot easier for me, because I can learn a lot from ear.

I began to continue with this method of learning songs, by looking up a video of someone playing it.  I soon realized, however, that with some songs only provided the sheet music and no videos of anyone playing it in a way that I could learn it myself. Nevertheless, I was determined to find a way to learn these songs, but I’ll save that story for another time.   

Another Christmas Gift

I continued to listen and fall in love with bluegrass music (specifically Gospel bluegrass). I started expressing some interest in another instrument of bluegrass… the mandolin. The mandolin is an instrument that is used in classical, traditional, folk, and bluegrass music. For those of you who don’t know, it’s basically acts as the “drums” in bluegrass music. By its short, rough chop the mandolin creates a counter beat with the upright bass and keeps the fast-pace rhythm of the music. The chop is when you mute the strings to create a sound of only your pick hitting the strings without playing any notes. However, the mandolin is mostly known for its fast melodious tunes used in solos and background music to the vocals.

Some of my favorite mandolin players are Sierra Hull and Celeb Lindsey. Both of them have been playing since they’ve been very little and, in my eyes, have mastered the instrument! Sierra Hull is a singer and songwriter, who learned the mandolin when she was little and has never stopped. She formed a bluegrass/country band who now tours, performs and enters in contests. She has several CD’s out and she is planning on continuing this adventure. See here to hear some of her music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vlfL00J1eY

Celeb Lindsey is the main mandolin player of the Lindsey Family Band. They have been playing as a family for over ten years now and have been producing CD’s and performing all around the country since. As they put it, they play “Toe-tappin’, Heart-touching, Home-grown, Southern fried,   Jesus-lovin’ music”. Celeb has been playing since age six and his talent is clear when you hear him play! You can hear some of his incredible picking here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoJJAqhqatM&feature=c4-overview&list=UUiwVcLh8wf1scEeOjlQ-3Ww

 

  Christmas came once again and the last gift I opened was a mandolin (a gift that I was not expecting to recieve at all!). I cannot express my excitement! Having one of the instruments of the music I love in my hands was more than I could take. It was a very surreal moment that I could actually be able to play the music I loved the most. I also learned this instrument by videos on YouTube (both by watching how-to videos and just watching others play and trying to replicate them) and from the “teach-yourself-how-to-play” music book I got alone with it. I am nowhere close to being as good as these two people I’ve mentioned, but I hope to pick it up again soon and start practicing again and hopefully get much better at it! This instrument definitely puts a smile on my face when I hear it!

An Instrument of Bluegrass

One of my favorite styles of music has grown to be Bluegrass. Five instruments, Southern vocals, and an always joyful, upbeat sound! One of my favorite instruments to “zone in on” when I’m listening is the fiddle.

Fun fact for today: The violin is called a “violin” when playing classical music and it’s called a “fiddle” when playing folk, bluegrass, or country music. There is no difference in the appearance of the instrument.

Because I loved the sound so much, I began to have a desire to learn the fiddle. I soon found out that my great aunt owned one. We had already planned a trip to go visit my mom’s side of the family down in Louisiana when she said that we could borrow it for a while. We brought it home, and I started learning some simple tunes and notes through music books and lessons on YouTube. I heard several times that this was a tough instrument to learn and took years of practice to get good at, but that made me want to tackle it even more.  It was a challenge that I was determined to accomplish within the year.  I continued to practice and I soon found out that this was probably the hardest instrument I set out to learn. But I learned enough to play violin instead of guitar for one certain song in church during that Christmas. 

I enjoyed playing the violin, but did not feel like I was very good at it. I continued practicing after that Christmas, but then began to feel stuck and discouraged that I wasn’t getting any better. I’m a person who wants to see fast results when I start learning a new instrument (or in anything for that matter), and I quickly found out that the violin was not an instrument that I would get a fast response out of. I was able to do basic bowing techniques and learned mostly by ear, but I think the main thing that made it difficult to learn was having my fingers and hand in a position higher than what they normally are when playing guitar or piano. I accepted that the violin was not the instrument for me, but I continue to love the instrument!

A Guitarist Journey

The desire for learning the guitar began when one of my best friends growing up learned how to play. The more I heard her play, the more I wanted to learn. One Christmas, I received a guitar from my parents and immediately asked my friend to show me a couple chords. Soon, I switched from taking piano lessons to beginner guitar lessons from my teacher. A couple months later, she told me she had taught me everything she knew on guitar. She gave me a good base to build off of, and I started teaching myself different songs and learning what I needed to know as I played.

A year or so later, the man who had been the guitarist at our church got deployed to Iraq for over a year. This opened up an opportunity for me to take his place, so before he left I started learning songs and the chords needed to play them. I’ve continued to play in church for five years now and I enjoy every second of it! Being able to praise God with my instrument is something I will continue to do for the rest of my life!   

I continued to teach myself, but then an opportunity came up to take lessons again from a friend of the family who is an excellent, experienced guitarist. I learned SO much from this man; he taught me many different techniques, chording patterns, different styles of playing, and introduced me to flat-picking and how to read it (which is just plucking one string at a time to make a melody instead of strumming all the strings at once).

I not only learned from teachers, but also learned a lot from YouTube videos. All I had to do is search for what specific thing I wanted to learn and I easily entered a world of personal lessons. This new found resource has been the main supply of material for me to learn all of my instruments. There are series of lessons that will take you from being a beginner all the way to an advanced player.

There is still a lot more that I would like to learn, but I’ve come a long way since that first day I strummed a chord. I would like to learn more scales, become better at flat-picking and build strength in my fingers to be able to play more bar chords. I will still continue watching videos of instrumentals and teach myself the chords and fingering until I can recreate it. This is more often than not what you will find me doing for fun in my free time!

If you have ever thought about learning the guitar give it a shot! Take a few lessons and soon you’ll be strumming your favorite song or writing your own music!

Why I chose music...

        Why? A question I expect many people to ask. Out of all the topics I could blog about, why music? In short, music is very special to me.  It has the ability to pick me up when I’m down and express my feelings and thoughts for something that I cannot put into words.

How did this love for music start? I’ll start at the beginning.

My family loves music and is very gifted in that area; this love for music has continued down to me. At a young age, I started taking piano lessons. This began a journey that led to learning many other instruments and serving others with my new found skills. I began falling in love with the sound of black notes against white pages and the satisfying feeling of creating melody through my fingers.

At first, I didn’t have a strong interest in music in any way, but when I started taking piano lessons I quickly learned that I had an opinion on the music and instruments I liked and didn’t like. As the months went on I struggled more and more with reading music. Having to tell which dot on five lines was the “C” sparked no interest or enjoyment inside of me at all. But my parents said I had to finish at least one more year of music theory before I could move on to something else—little did I know that I would use that knowledge for years to come. 

Instead of continuing on with piano, I made a request to finish my “one year of theory” not on the piano, but on the recorder. Yes, the recorder. The instrument that everyone had as a child, but no one ever seemed to actually learn. There was a class at a homeschool co-op I attended, and through that class I fulfilled my year of theory. Then I retired down my recorder, but I did not stop playing music.

The next adventure in my musical experience was hidden away in my basement. Mom pulled out her flute she played in band when she was in high school, and I began thinking it would be fun to learn. A friend of mine had taken flute lessons and had been involved in a homeschool band. I thought that sounded fun, took a few flute lessons, and signed up for beginner band. I loved band so much I continued playing for three more years and skipped right into advanced band with several friends. As much fun as band was I really had a desire to learn how to play the guitar. After completing a handful of lessons I continued teaching myself how to play. Having stuck with playing guitar to this day, it’s become a true passion of mine. I haven’t found another instrument quite like it.

I realized as the years continued that I loved music and it was something I could pick up easily. I learned and played a lot by ear, which has been a gift and a difficulty, but I’ve grown to embrace this talent and enjoy it in different ways.