Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts

Hahahahaha...

Okay, so even though I'm not active at all on it, I'm a member of Twitter, which is basically a place for short (140 characters or less) blogs. A place full of Facebook status updates, if you will. Much like Facebook, you have followers on Twitter, and people who follow you also. When you follow someone, their "tweets" show up in your feed. Even though I haven't tweeted in MONTHS, I still check in about once a day to see what people are talking about.

One of the people I follow is Ingrid Michaelson...she is one of my absolute favorite singer/songwriters and a pretty witty person (her blog is good for a laugh, too). One of her tweets made me laugh out loud today, so I thought I'd share it:

what does corn really do for you? i mean...if it comes out exactly the same, how could it possibly be benefiting me nutritionally?


HAHAHAHAHAHA...no other words necessary... :)

My new endeavor...

So, for those of you who don't know, I am learning to play the hammered dulcimer -- and contrary to popular belief, it has nothing at all to do with alcohol. :) You wouldn't believe how many times I've heard that joke already...

For awhile now, I've been feeling the need to do something creative. I've played piano for years and years, and studied musical direction for theatre in college. Even after I graduated I played piano at my church until I moved to Lynchburg to be with Scott. After I moved, it all stopped...

Believe it or not, I was totally okay with that. I was suffering from an extreme case of burn-out. I had a passion for music and theatre, but when they became something that I had to do for hours and hours every day, it became tedious and I lost the love of doing it. It took about three years before I got that craving back. When I finally started really wanting to play again, Scott very graciously let me sit in on keyboards in the Crosspoint band...that was sooo much fun because it was a totally different type of music than I had ever played (contemporary worship music with the occasional secular song thrown in). It's fun to fill in, but my responsibilities with the children's ministry don't let me do it too often.

Then, this summer I found out from my friend Bridgette that she was moving from her one bedroom apartment into a room at her sister's house and she was worried she wouldn't have room for her stuff. She owns a hammered dulcimer that's in pretty great shape and when I mentioned that I thought it was a cool instrument she asked if I wanted to borrow it while she lives in Charleston. It worked out great for both of us -- one less thing for her to fit into her new room, and I could try it out without investing in an instrument.

Once we had a little money to spare for lessons, I contacted Susan, a dulcimer player from York, SC who teaches lessons. I just had my second lesson today, and I'm loving it so far. She's helping me develop my ear and not rely on written music as much, which for a visual learner like me is no small task. :) I'm attending a workshop at her house next weekend about arranging music that I think will be super beneficial. I have no idea where I'll ever play the dulcimer, but for now I'm just enjoying getting to know the instrument and fulfilling my neglected creative side... :)

Thoughts from the brink of exhaustion...

First of all, I should apologize in advance if anything in this blog doesn't make sense. After a very late night last night I went into work extra-early this morning, and I have just shooed my friend Apryl's kids off to bed as I am watching them during her band rehearsal for church. So, I've basically been watching kids for 13 hours (with a one hour break in between) on very little sleep -- and yes, before anyone thinks it, I realize that's what the next eighteen years of my life look like once we have kids. Yeah, yeah, I know. So I'm spoiled with my current childless existence (which, when you think about it, isn't childless in the least bit). I will share a total "Mom Moment" I had tonight, though...Apryl had told her boys that they needed to pick up their rooms while she was gone or a certain rear body part may be hurting tomorrow. Well, Jadon (8 yo) came downstairs showing me a bunch of random things and then was ready to play some video games. I asked him if he had cleaned up his room, and he said no and went upstairs. He came downstairs literally 30 seconds later and told me he was all done -- with the most guilty look, I might add. Not being a pushover (well...at least when it comes to kids), I asked him again if he was sure, and he said yes. So, very nicely, I said "Well, let me go up and make sure it looks okay." That hopeful, guilty look quickly faded into a typical Jadon scowl and he stomped upstairs saying, "Okay, fine." Then I made him tell me that he actually hadn't done anything before sending him up to finish. Definitely a practice moment for about ten years in the future...wait, my hubby will probably read this...I mean twenty years in the future...twenty-five? Thirty?

Well, the reason for our late night last night was totally justified...we went to see David Crowder in Columbia, SC. Kind of an armpit of a town, but David Crowder is worth it. We were running a little (AKA a lot) late, missed the first opening band and only caught the last few songs of Phil Wickham, who is a current fave new artist. (Interesting side note: I learned last night that Phil Wickham is not, in fact, British. I don't know why I assumed he was, but he's not. He's from SoCal. Pretty much the opposite of being British. I don't know if he sounded British (is that racist?) or if (being the huge Jane Austen fan that I am) I was thinking of George Wickham from Pride and Prejudice? Whatever. He's not.) If you haven't heard his stuff, check it out. Even the music snobs in my life (Jamie and the Hubby) approve, so you know it has merit.

David Crowder is awesome in concert. There's nothing else to say (except, of course, what I'm about to say)...he's hilarious and personable and talented and worshipful and every guy on stage seems to care about the fact that people in the crowd paid money to hear them. They played a lot off of their new CD, Remedy, which is pretty much amazing, but they played a lot off of their other CDs, too. It was nice to just be able to sit and worship and not worry about if the hubby was stressed out or if my kids were going crazy for the teacher filling in for me in my class or if enough people had showed up or if people were engaging in worship or ANYTHING. I got to sit. And worship. And not think about any logistics. And just be with God. It's been awhile...too long, in fact. And it made me realize that I'm going to need to make more of an effort because David Crowder will not, unfortunately, be within driving distance on a regular basis. And I need to take more responsibility in pursuing times for worship, whether musical or otherwise. I've slacked, and last night opened my eyes to that fact.

With that scattered post, I'm off to watch Grey's Anatomy. Don't judge me.

Example of typical convo in my house...

Hubby: "Man, my nose is stuffed up. I feel like Duncan Sheik."

Me: "Why, because you're barely breathing?"

Hubby: "Exactly."

I was a little frightened about how well I've come to know the workings of his mind.