Welcome to my blog, which I’ll call Accompanying Notes.
Accompanying Notes will be the journal of notes on ideas and thoughts I collect and invent during my daily work as a musician: accompanying, piano playing, organ, singing, teaching musical concepts, music theory, choirs, musical theater, collaboration, rehearsal, performance, conducting, writing, instruments, etc.
Accompanying Notes will also include notes on thoughts that accompany me throughout the day and life: mathematics, philosophy, religion, politics, perhaps gardening, health. I get these little ideas that I want to share.
And this will be a place to share information and ideas that accompany my compositions: stories, explanations, new works, performance dates, etc.
Last night on “The President and the People” Townhall meeting, the discussion centered on recent violence in the US and improving police/community relations. Toya Graham, who became known as #motheroftheyear last year for pulling her son out of the Baltimore protest, got to speak with the president and ask him a question. She asked “What can I do?” I was so proud of her!
If I was the president I might have asked, “What would you like to say to your neighbors?”
I suspect she would have responded, “Follow my example.”
The president and all of our elected officials are doing what they can. But why should we wait for them? What can we do right now to stop violence in the world? Check on your kids. If they have guns, take them away. If they are misbehaving, remind them how to behave. And show your kids that you love them. Even if you can’t do anything else, tell them “I love you.” Every day.
Get to know your neighbors; at least be polite to them. Offer to help in some way. You never know how much a kind word can deter violence.Maybe this is the best start for true gun control and mental health. Without these things laws and more police probably won’t help.
In addition, we must all be extremely careful about what we post on social media. Misunderstandings and outright falsehoods are often quoted and reposted as truth. Have you gotten emotional about something later found out to be untrue? These false posts and spam emails that are designed to get people overly emotional about something and repost/forward the story may be more harmful to society than we realize. And we can stop it right now without legislation.
Check your sources.
If you read about a new law that seems completely ridiculous, or heathenish horrors happening overseas; do not repost it. How can you be sure someone didn’t just make up the story to get you to click on his story to make money? Posts that denigrate a religion or culture not your own may help you feel superior, until you find out that post was a lie. Don’t act on lies. That literally causes unnecessary violence in thoughts, words, and actions.
Rather than commenting on supposed facts that could turn out to be falsehoods, comment on principles, ideas, ideals you hold to be true. Don’t repost inflammatory articles. Make your own comments on what ideas you think to be truthful and good.
If you hear someone hit so and so, but you really don’t know if it’s true, you may still comment on what you think about hitting.
This is a tutorial on some of the special points about the use of the piano’s damper pedal.
Pushing down the right pedal of a piano lifts the dampers off the strings so they ring freely.
There are several points along this up and down traveling of which to be aware.
______ 1. The top, when the pedal hits the wood.
______ 2. Where the dampers begin to lift off the strings.
25% down
50% down
75% down
______ 3. Where the dampers have all cleared the strings.
______ 4. The very bottom of travel.
The distances will vary from piano to piano. But the attentive pianist will feel and hear these positions as soon as she/he sits down to play.
Use the damper pedal between the two inner points (2. and 3.) to avoid clunking.
Listen to the sound with the pedal pushed down half-way; 25%, 75%, 10%, 90% etc.
Slowly lift the pedal (float off) to adjust the speed of dampening.
Often bass notes may tend to ring with more strength, because of the momentum of the bigger strings. So you can float off treble notes while the bass notes ring through.
Hold down a consonant chord while the pedal is holding a cacophony. Then slowly lift the foot off the pedal and hear the sound resolve to the held chord.
Although I am the older and more experienced musician, Alyssa took charge of this project. She had a clear vision of what songs would be appropriate to include on this album; and how to present each song, including the approach to my accompaniments. She wasn’t overbearing but gave me complete freedom to create accompaniments that would support the style she wanted. Sometimes I used printed music, other times I could improvise something much more interesting and poignant. It is an album worth listening closely to, and also one you might play softly with a fire in the fireplace, a cup of tea and a good book.
Music can seem magical, but often it’s the conscious choices that allow the musicians to do their jobs, really well, so they make a home for the magic.
