Pig Sty Avenue

I learned the LH quite quickly, really: maybe 3 or 4 hours at the most? So today, I got back on an old Danemann grand to start both hands. Painfully slow, of course, but no real mistakes. The learning processes going on are fascinating to me. It's so multi-layered. I've learned each hand, but it's almost as if I'm starting again when I go to 2. Meanwhile, I'm having to read the music again, even though I've already learned it, but now of course the new task of reading 2 clefs simultaneously. Sometimes I decide not to look at the music, but look at the keyboard and my hands, and try to weld together the memories for each hand. I had an exchange on Twitter with my old pal Philip , who doesn't agree with learning each hand first. I thought that RH>LH>2H was orthodoxy. I tried to jump the LH stage with The Poacher, mind, and I think I could have done that eventually, but learning LH first, I'd say, is probably going to make it easier in the long run....

This afternoon I managed to get a go on this Yamaha Arius. "Authentic sound and natural touch," apparently . First time I've had a go on a digital piano, apart from a quick shot on the ones in Biggars . Played a few scales, and then got back to The Poacher LH. First thing I noticed, playing high up the keys as I do, they seemed to be ever so slightly closer together, which made me liable to, say, play A and hit G# enough for it to sound slightly. Maybe the keys weren't too close together, but on an old acoustic, the fingers slide between the ebony, whereas they will rub on the plastic of a digital? I've never played a modern acoustic, with plastic keys, and I'm keen to see how that feels. The sound was nothing like an acoustic. Kind of dull, lacking... the plumpness of a real piano. And the action, no, no, no. An acoustic has a kind of rocking sensation to the keys, probably something to do with the hammer action. It's quite a subtle thing, but ev...

The plan to jump from learning RH and then jumping to 2H didn't really work. I plodded through it 2H, but there's a lot of new moves to learn with LH that need to be learned on their own - several chords, for example. The fingering at bars 2-4 is pretty easy, and that's repeated at 14-16, but elsewhere - like 11-14 - the chord progressions are a bit tricky. I was delighted to realize today that there's a sad-trombone in LH at bar 18, (the end of the 'suddenly slower'); brilliant. The RH I can play at the proper speed, about 32 seconds , (note to self, mind and wear cool sleeves, something a bit Tom Waits, if recording video of myself piano playing for YouTube). So I had the notion to time myself playing LH. When that gets to 32s, I'll be right for 2H. So the 1st go through was... Two and a half minutes! So that's five times slower. It's those chords, and frankly, the fact that my sight reading - especially on the bass clef - is gash. Nil de...

Most of the West Side beds, I'm going to plant with Hungarian Rye this winter, because it's neutral as far as rotations go. The Mid West and NW beds were liable to flooding last year, and we don't know yet if the drainage system is going to cope this coming winter. It'll be flood tolerant if needed, and carry on breaking up the clay from the pond and the path. I need a kilo, maybe 2. But let's look at the price of a kilo, with postage to Glasgow. Greenmanure.co.uk -  £16.85 amazon -                   £8.85 Fruit Hill Farm   -          €2.20 (Bloody good price, but that's before postage, which is absurd for Glasgow, (€18.45!) Might get a better deal if you're in Ireland) And that's it. You can get more deals on rye with vetch (tares) but that would bugger-up a crop rotation. So, sorry to say [spits]... Amazon it is. I'll leave a patch go to seed next year....

Because I've been away a lot of July, and because the fig seeds were in an enclosed environment not needing watering, (two recycled tin trays in a cat litter tray, in a vermiculte-only growing medium, covered in clingfilm to keep the moisture in), I took my eyes off the figs. Delighted I was then this weekend to see that 40-ish of them had germinated. I can't tell now what sort they are, the Turkish 100s sown in May , or the Brazilians from Israel sown in June . The latter were sown in only 1 of the 2 trays, on top of the Turkish,  so logically the germinated seeds must be Turkish, with perhaps a few Brazilian Israelis. Whatever. I've now got wee figs growing. They just seem to be germinating now, so that's 6-8 weeks on.

That auld poacher, is getting like Lilibullero , as a tune to irk family and neighbours, so I need to get it under the belt. Had RH pretty well for ages. I've played the LH through a few times, but not fluently or at the right tempo. My biggest problem with pieces has always been, RH, fine, LH, fine, 2H, oh my God! So I'm just going for 2H, missing out learning LH on its own. And that seems to be working, when I got down to the 1st proper practice of it tonight. Concentrated for 40 mins on 1st 4 bars, and spent the rest (20mins) going through it all. Got through it, can't say "sight read", but read and plonked along slowly anyway. I'm just going for ABRSM Grade 1 100% now. I want to play the blues, yeah, but I need to learn to play first. And The Beatles never learned to read music? Yeah, yeah, but I'm not one of The Beatles. Just focusing on the grades, and screening everything else out. Bottom line, grade 6, say, means you can play most popular music...

I've gotten the bug back. I've missed only 1 or 2 practice days in the last 4 weeks, and I always practise for at least 30 minutes, often an hour, so I'm probably averaging 40 minutes a day. So the time has come. I've retrieved the ABRSM applicant number from the gmail account, I actually registered a year ago. The exam dates are from early November to December. I can apply after the end of this month, and that's what I'm going to do. I want to learn to play all kinds of stuff, but I need to get a few grades along the way first.  So here we go. No more procrastination or excuses.

I mentioned my latest fig fiasco the other day . There were actually 4 figs in the pack, and I'd tried the sink-test with only one of them. They were going mouldy, so in for a penny, in for a pound, I eviscerated the remaining figs and put the pulp and seeds in a large glass of warm water. Thousands of seeds, almost all floating. But, long story short, precisely 15 of them sank, and will be sown. I'm going to get foraged figs in this hedgerow, come what may...

Practising today I did, as usual, all of the Grade 1 scales and broken chords, a few runs through of the old Poacher, RH, and then went back to the "12 bar blues" I started on during the week. I've pretty much got the LH with it, but it just didn't sound very blue. Bit of googling reveals why, it's in a straightforward piano scale, not the blues scale, which is in the pic here, C minor. Playing it in a regular piano scale is what makes it sound rather dull. So, now, I'm reminded of what Little Carmine said to Tony Soprano: "You're at the precipice, Tony. Of an enormous crossroads". Maybe I should just forget, for now anyway, about the ABRSM and the grades, and focus on the blues. Because that's what I really want to play. 5-10 years from now, I see myself playing in a bar. I could, theoretically, be able one day to play Chopin's Ballad, say, but my family and friends, whilst undoubtedly impressed, would be listening to it rather duti...

I've been at the University of Greenwich for work. There's a common room by the library at Mansion Site with this Danemann 5' 2" grand. As a University, no one would describe Greenwich as easy going, and the lid was firmly closed with a stout padlock. By bloomin' Jingo, it took some negotiating to get them to unlock it, but I got there eventually, and got back into a daily practice.  Funny how a strange piano can lure one back onto the straight and narrow path of daily practice. Nearest pub is over a mile away, and frankly there's sod-all to do in the evenings so that might have something to do with it. This is the first Danemann I've played on. According to Wikepedia, they were popular with " British embassies, the P&O Lines, Harrods and many educational institutions" which explains what it's doing there, a teacher training college before it became part of Greenwich University.  Omitted to take any music with me, so it was Lin...