My First Wish On The Christmas List

This guy races clean and every just expects to finish second to him. 

Mark Cavendish: Born to Race

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What I'm Doing on the Cello

I am working on the Daniel Demoivre Suite #1 in C Major for Solo Cello. I've read over the Allemande and Gavotte. I don't sound the best that I ever have. I have a long way to go. I'm working out what fingering I like best, and still working on arm strength.

Side note: I never got farther than a decent 2nd position. Despite the efforts of some very good, nay, wonderful teachers. I am now reading up and trying to beat higher positions into my head and hands.

For those of you that haven't heard of Daniel Demoivre he is the younger brother of Abraham Demoivre, the mathematician, and predominately a composer of recorder music. I believe the four suites I have are the only cello pieces he wrote. They aren't really technical but they are good to cut your teeth on.

I've also picked out a Cello Poem by Alexander Papas to work on. The biggest challenge in this one section that goes up into the treble clef. More on this one later.

Delay of Game

Well, it is time to trot out the old Rabbie Burns quote I love so dearly.

"The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agly."

We hit a snafu with the labor situation for Saturday. I was unable to get scabs for the Saturday move so we have postponed the transporting of the piano until Wed. at noon.

Stayed tuned.

So on the way to work today I picked up a piano.

I am being given a piano. That is how I started my first day of substituting for Floyd County last Thursday. I picked up a job covering for special ed. Teacher, my specialty. Well, the first class was an inclusion math class and the regular education teacher was out as well. The other substitute and I got to talking about how we got into substituting she did it for extra money and I was in it to get a foot in the door for future employment. She started talking about how her son was struggling at Rome, he was always spacing out and got really moody. He had a hard time meeting deadlines and constantly put stuff off till the last minute.

 

“Bells will be ringing …”

 

I told her about my ADD, Clinical Depression, and the books I was reading and the changes I had made in my life since my diagnosis. I mentioned how I had started practicing my cello again and she talked about her children and their musical abilities. Then out of the blue she offered me the piano they had in their basement. She thought it was built in the 19^th century, but wasn’t sure of the date. Her husband had done some research on it and found out it could be worth a lot when restored. The makers were Kranich & Bach and the patent on the action was 1880. I’m going to venture an unscientific guess that this piano was built around 1890.

I offered to send her the titles and authors of the books by email when I got home. She sent me a picture of the piano and said we could have it. We just needed to come up with a way to pick it up.

Kristi and I talked it over.

Me: … and she said she’d give us a piano if we came and got it.

K: WHAT???

Me: she said we could have the piano in their basement if we picked it up.

K: How are we going to pick it up? Who are we going to get to help us?

Me: So you want the piano?

K: looks at me like I had just turned into a cabbage.

 

Kristi and I went over to look at the piano on Tuesday and it looks rough but it sounds well enough. There are two keys that are desperately out of whack, but they are way down in the base register. The action of the keys seems to be good and the notes are in tune with each other. All the wood looks to be in decent condition.

The keys on the other hand look like they’ve been cared for by an English dentist. Roots are good but the enamel is gone on a few of them. The KB has passed initial inspection and has been approved for acquisition. Now I need to reserve a 10-14' Uhaul for Saturday afternoon and cleanup in the basement/playground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday or so I’ll let y’all know how the Uhaul rental and the pick up and delivery of the piano goes.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Playing my cello just now I realized how extremely out of shape I am. Less than 10 minutes and my shoulder is worn out.

The fingers of my left hand are even worse. No tone whatsoever. My fingers strike, no they flap down, on more than one string at a time, and the harmonic squeaks are horrendous.

I shall be very glad of the improvement in tone that will come with having a piano to "cross train" on. The piano exercises I can remember are wonderful for building strong fingers.

I have a lot of work and short time to get there. There is a possibility of a flute, cello, and bells piece for Christmas (which is my fault). There may be one before that, too. In addition to that there are some concert flautists in the congregation that want to play trios with me.

Dinner Guests