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Nope, in Maidenhead - fabulous arts centre called Norden Farm. They have a nice Steinway C and I think artists often use it as a paid rehearsal! My friend told me that the audience were cheering and baying for an encore once when unbeknownst to them the artiste was already in a taxi hammering up to London!

There's a bostin Steinway on the top floor of Fortnums right next to the 'Diamond Jubilee Tea Room'. And it's played too, but not when I was there the other wick.

I want to go to another free piano recital at the Conservatoire but Monday is one of my days at the bookshop (and Friday mornings from this week). Joanna McGregor - doesn't she have dreads and look about 30 despite being way over 50??

Corkscrew ringlets cut to shoulder length on Sunday, which she shook impressively as she played.

I HAVE to see you play. Look out for odd blokes with wigs false beards and trenchcoats and dodgy Russian accents on a Sunday at Fingest! I surmise I shall have to raid my local partywear emporium.

Discovering a previously unheard Magma track. Just when I think I've heard it all. Every new work by them leaves me in a state of awe and Christian Vander is a wayward genius.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magma_(band)

Lost 1 stone 4 pounds since easter (Actually still not as light as I was two and a bit years ago, but I put on a lot in between.

It's forced on me by a wake-up call from my glucose meter. Don't want to die suddenly, don't want to lose my eyesight or my feet, so it has to be out with the carbohydrates to a VERY large extent which was hard for the first week or so particularly as I don't eat meat, but plenty of fish and cheese, sweet potatoes instead of ordinary ones, no rice, no pastry, you can do worse than live on goat's cheese tomatoes and peppers, and no calorie counting whatever. I can have peanut butter! (in moderation)

And there we were celebrating this morning because Eric's put on a pound after his radiotherapy... if we could find a surgeon to do it, I'd be a willing donor to get some fat on 'im!

Why, seeing Lady Ghislaine de Cambridge back, of course.

Being served in Edgbaston Aldis by a woman with a massive beehive. Mari Wilson has much to answer for.

I made peanut butter this afternoon!

Used jumbo roasted peanuts and the small food processor which sticks on the bottom of the little whizzer I normally use for soup, about 2 minutes. Very noisy at first, then started to get a bit hot, I stopped just before it was really overheated and lo and behold - peanut butter! No other ingredients. And of course it was warm. Mmmm. Too bad the carb count is so high that I have to be very sparing with it. I might try to see if peanuts will blend with walnuts.

It probably turned out relatively expensive too, the amount I made, would probably be cheaper to buy a pot of Skippy. I love peanut butter

Sun-pat Gizzy

For you Gizzy - Gorgeous George:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIrXOZClb3E

(thought The Peanut Vendor would be a tadge too obvious).

Meeting a load of young musos by the piano in the LoB, and suggesting to a librarian the possibility of an official 'open piano' day in the Library in the future.(tying in with what I said about it being a lonely old pastime). DUETS???

Enjoying motorbike spotting on holiday in Inverary

dave brum wrote:Meeting a load of young musos by the piano in the LoB, and suggesting to a librarian the possibility of an official 'open piano' day in the Library in the future.(tying in with what I said about it being a lonely old pastime). DUETS???

Well, what are your organisational skills like? Get someone to help share the burden, and try to run one - you wouldn't necessarily have to actually lay yourself. Duets day... hmmm. How about something which puts people together who hadn't got anyone to tinkle beside? I've never heard of anything like that, you could be the first

Suggestive Gizzy

The ball is in their court now, Gizworth. But I remember sending an email suggesting virtually the same thing to the LoB a couple of weeks after the place opened in a blaze of glory last September. Now the suggestion has been made verbally it might actually carry more weight. In the music library there is a performance space which backs out onto an ampitheatre into Centenary Square...which would be ideal for a piano learners' meetup.

The trouble is that adult learners aren't as keen somehow to want to showcase their talent because teachers are so biased (in general) towards child learners. Mabs used to do an end of term learners concert that was 99% children and the one she's doing this year she's told me it would be pointless to participate...and I for one have no wish to rain on the talented children's parade (there are even teenagers that take part in her concerts). Which is why there is a need for an ALL AGE and ALL GENRE (classical/jazz/gospel/world etc) 'come and play' event with the backing of the Library. The duets would naturally follow, as would the piano soirees in various houses in and around the Second City.

My organisational skills are good, but somehow they always seem to go wrong. Probably because other people have a habit of interfering!!

Adult beginners are usually more self conscious too, and run a mile if asked to play in public. And most teachers have a 99% sprog pupil register, if that, so you aren't being victimised - it's just that you are a rarity!

Well adult learners have just as much of a right to play as kids, could this be something to do with the fact adults are more likely to give up, or even not to be as earnest as (pardon me doing an impersonation of Eddie Calvert blowing his own.....) moi??

Adults tend to see kids learning and see it looking relatively pain-free (because kids are learning all the time) and so have a go. Then the reality of 'no practice = no progress' kicks in and it's at that point the adult either grits their teeth and carries on like our own dear Mr Brum, or gives up saying they 'haven't got time' or pleading 'pressure of work'.
BT have made me happy today: turned up on the dot of 8am, cheerful polite Polish chap who found the house with no whingey 'phone calls saying 'I can't find you,' fixed the telephone quickly and efficiently and was gone in half an hour. Fabulous. Well done, BT!

Gill the Piano wrote:... grits their teeth and carries on like our own dear Mr Brum,

Wish it was that simple. Though playing the piano is something I always wanted to do so if I give up again, the piano will always pull me back like a magnet. Previous times I've given up is to do with what I suffer with (severe prolonged depression, anxiety, worthlessness, no confidence, suicidal tendencies, self-hatred) rather than 'hating' pianos and playing. Music is after all my comfort

Maybe after I've weaned myself off these meds, I'll be able to concentrate more as I'm now doing 2 days a week at my bookshop, so my brain is more active.

It's made me happy today to find a lovely black Trilby in the street that fits me like a glove. I felt like a proper muso playing in it at keep fit.

Going to Manchester yesterday:
In an ideal world, I would be working at Forsyths or studying at Chet's. Welcome to The UK Fantasy Page.

Chet's is a hothouse. All music schools/colleges are v. intense - you'd hate it!
Fab trilby..

But in an ideal world I'd be able to take the heat of music college anyway. I did want to be a pianist when I was young, you know and if my mother had allowed it, I probably would have been. I am a bit like Manchester, I've got Styal but I've also got Strangeways.....

Found the hat in the street!

Joining itunes and downloading three old Welsh songs I can't find on any fileshares or Youtube for £2.37

The thought of actually meeting a certain personidge called Mrs. Green in the month of August



I'll get the boot up the behind I need, with a bit of luck

Too right. No mercy.

I can see all those rule books being torn up and those steel rulers on top of the piano being sharpened as I write, along with the Millwall boots and knuckledusters. The most non-PC piano lesson I shall ever have!

You seem to have forgotten that I don't teach. And that I don't teach because I have no patience. You might wish to reconsider.

Well if you don't teach, why do you admit to hiding a ruler neath your piano then??

And what does it say on your profile?? Occupation: Piano tuner/teacher

dave brum wrote:Well if you don't teach, why do you admit to hiding a ruler neath your piano then??

Haven't you ever read Adrian Mole?

I was one of the first to hear it serialised on R4 in the 80s. But I've forgotten a lot of it, teenage boy with awakening sexuality and a crush on Pandora, parents split up and living with partners (creep Lucas and 'Stick Insect'), letters to John Tydeman at the BBC, cultured postie called Courtney, Bert Baxter, don't remember much about rulers tho....remind me?

Ah yes, I remember now! Grown another three centimetres?? Some kid in school called Donkey Dawkins or something.......

dave brum wrote:Well if you don't teach, why do you admit to hiding a ruler neath your piano then??

And what does it say on your profile?? Occupation: Piano tuner/teacher

Q1 For ruling bar lines on manuscript and for beating unauthorised brats within 5 yards of my piano.
Q2 I've fixed it.

I need not ask what you do with piano wire then.....

Break my nails, swear a bit, cut off bits for people on car parks whose exhaust pipes are sagging dangerously, cobble together a replacement for a Morris Minor accelerator spring.

Set boobytraps with?? (Gill the Child Catcher)

Gill the Piano wrote:Break my nails, swear a bit, cut off bits for people on car parks whose exhaust pipes are sagging dangerously, cobble together a replacement for a Morris Minor accelerator spring.

My best trick with piano wire was to imbed a piece in the first joint of my first finger (LH).

Having the best piano lesson I've EVER had! I am so happy - was in there for 45 minutes from 1515 until after 1600 and they're only half an hour!

I told Mabel she should be a life coach as well as a piano teacher!

And did you LEARN stuff too?

Yes I did. To summarise:

1. Prep tests are a waste of time and money (she doesn't even recommend them for her kids)
2. Don't worry about making a ballsup with SR because they're only meant to be played once and then LEFT ALONE. Too tempting it is to want to play an exercise perfectly and so I just look for places I went wrong and keep going over them, which should NOT be done in SR. The important bit is the preparing, time, key, tapping the tune...and just doing it once and once only. Doesn't have to be right but just keeping going is key (in both senses of not stopping to correct a mistake whilst playing, and also not to give up on the Laura Shur).
3. Goals. Mabel said having a bash on a church organ in August thanks to Gill would be a better goal than getting Grade 1 because it would make me feel more confident and not scare me. (She said she's always give me a mock G1 exam anytime on her piano with marks and everything) Plus she's having all her adults playing in a concert at hers in July, which I told her to count me in on, so that's another goal.
4. Repertoire, play at least one past piece once a day (which I do anyway, I do about nine or ten!)
5. She'll help me with Hyfrydol before I go down to Bucks to meet Gill
6. and whilst she was heaping all that praise and encouragement on me, she gave me a homework piece from Classics To Moderns book TWO!

Next lesson on 8th July, when I may know about her adult pupils playalong evening (I know one of her other adult learners, Karen - who did a duet with her daughter at one of Mabs' concerts years ago that I played at and is now a grade 7-er)

Excellent; very productive lesson. Keep it up! And re prep test; we told you so!

Gill the Piano wrote: And re prep test; we told you so!

Yes again, you were right. Are you sure your real name is Jiminy??

I think she was quite chuffed when I told her about the organ opportunity. But the whole point was the positive energy she radiates. I usually feel about 40 years older than I actually am, because of my condition. BUT today I felt twenty years younger, and that was also due to the facts that a) I wasn't knackered out at keep fit like I usually am and b) Tuesday is the day I don't take any antidepressant (from 1st July it'll be Saturday as well). Right, I dunno why I'm wasting my time on here for?? I'm off to play some repertoire (I never said, my HW piece is 'Waltz' in D minor by Kabalevsky on p29 of CTM 2. That's 2. Book Two, the blue book, not one but......

One other thing she mentioned was if I wanted to do exams, theory exams may be less stressful for me to tackle than practical piano ones, and I do theory with Mabs as well. Studying theory is just as good for piano playing, with all the different keys and how they work together in the circle of 5ths etc.

Theory is an excellent help for your playing; you recognise keys without a key signature and it gives you mental short cuts. It's what the Highway Code is to driving...

Might be best to keep schtum about exams until Mabs mentions it again. In the meantime I'm doing up to the end of the AB Eric Taylor theory workbook for g1 for next lesson. And I'll still take a butchers at the new AB g1 book next week to see if I can play them easily!

Don't forget your fab Rudiments that you picked up for threepence ha'penny - you'll find that absolutely invaluable and I don't know why they ever stopped publishing it.

Of course Gill, got it somewhere. It was essential throne room reading at Brumingham Palace at one time but it kept getting wet

That'll be your shaky hands then.

I tend to leave my impersonation of Shaking Stevens to the school toilets these days. But that room is the only place where I can get a modicum of P&Q away from screaming TVs wives and cats so I can get down to some serious inward digestation

Thirty years of looking for this and tonight I find it on Youtube. And there are TWO episodes of it - Brummie heaven!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3IN0Gl3Atk

Never heard of it before. Looks like fun though. And as long as I lay my head in my lapdog I can hear it!

If Eh Brian It's A Whopper had been set in M*nch*st*r instead of Brum EVERYBODY would had heard of it!.

At school, I did a four page critique of the book of the original TV series of this. Got me nowhere though...

Watching news reports does not make me happy at all, but with regard to the Rolf Harris case the BBC footage has a clip of him doing 'Jake The Peg', which used to make me roar out with laughter as a child. The current inhabitants of HMP Belmarsh are in for a hell of a larf as a three legged man's coming to entertain them, can ya tell what it is yet???

What a lovely start to the day....Jake's going to be my earworm today for sure!