Diversions
02/12/2012
I posted these on Facebook, sharing them from other people's posts. I'm putting them here on the assumption that most people who read this blog aren't Facebook "friends" with me (sorry, I can't use "friend" in that context without the quotes.)
This one was from Janet: a truly mind-boggling miniature Bag End. I simply can't fathom the skill and labor that went into this. The builder says she figures that if she had worked 9-5 with an hour for lunch it would have taken her two or three months to do it. I would have guessed two to three years, at least.
And the video below was posted by my son Will with the comment that this is what it feels like to play in an orchestra. Click on the "ZKO Rollercoaster" link for more information.
ZKO Rollercoaster // GREAT EMOTIONS from virtual republic on Vimeo.
That is the way I feel when I chant the Gloria and Credo at Mass when I am on the retreat. Reading Gregorian chant is a bit like riding a roller coaster because of the way that the notes are written. You can really see yourself going up and down in a way that you don't see, or at least I don't, in regular notation.
Also, I know both of these chants fairly well, but not perfectly because I only sing them a few times a year, so it's a bit of a challenge. And then, once you start, you just keep going. There's no place to rest and if you don't pay attention at every moment, you can easily fall off the track.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 02/12/2012 at 11:30 AM
An experience I've never had, and I suppose never well. I can't really read music--at best only at the level of laboriously sounding out C-A-T. I've never even played the crude music I do play with anyone else, or only a very few times. And I discovered a year or so ago when I tried to play with a metronome that I'm all over the place rhythmically. I mean, I speed up and slow down a lot.
One thing in the way of education/training that I would certainly do differently if I had it to do over would be to have stuck with some kind of musical training in my teens. I learned some rudiments but never progressed much beyond that.
Posted by: Mac | 02/12/2012 at 12:32 PM
Anyway, I started out to say and got sidetracked: it must be a really rewarding experience to negotiate these things successfully.
Posted by: Mac | 02/12/2012 at 05:12 PM