# Happiness is nothing much happening...



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Taggart is in hospital - he's had his endoscopy to remove a polyp from his duodenum, but they're keeping him in tonight. I have just seen him, and now feel a little happier. Most of the day has been spent in worrying so intense that I hope to be excused a few K years in Purgatory.
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My music lessons both went well this week. In *my piano lesson*, I took along the new book Rho asked me to order - Pam Wedgwood's *Up-Grade! - Light Relief between grades.* That's a misnomer, because it's actually a book for those who haven't yet embarked on Grade One. But at last it is a book for adults, with no frogs or kitties cavorting round the rims of the pages.

I played my pieces and after the usual nervous falling off my bike, I managed to keep my concentration on the rerun.
Then Rho asked me to sight read the first two pieces in my new book - *Make Way for the King! *and *Whirleybird*.
And I more or less did!
At last I am getting used to the left hand notes and where to locate them. And this week Rho wants me to do something new with posture. First I had to learn to sit straight at the piano, one leg in front of the other; then I had to keep my hands raised and my fingers curved; and now, between long notes, I have to relax my hands. 
As usual when I learn a new physical skill, this aged body can't cope. After I'd practised my this week's pieces for the first time, my wrists ached terribly, and I started meditating gloomily on whether I'd be opening the Rheumatics Box of Chocolates any time soon.
But today, it is much better; it is almost becoming natural...

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*My fiddle lesson* was fab. Fiddle Guru suggested that I warm up first, so I played some folk tunes that he taught me a year or two back, when he was wanting me to learn tunes by ear, without dots. The Guru accompanied me on the piano, which was very clever as he didn't know what was coming next. And we had fun.

Then we worked on the Section B exam piece, Sicilienne by Kreisler. He analysed it in detail - corrected phrasing - and we also practised my loud bowing - near the bridge, very slow, and pressing 'into the string'. I find this hard because it needs both control and confidence. I'm worried that in this exam I'll get sudden uncontrollable bow shake again, like I did in the last. But I began to feel better as we went on, and then, in the final part of the lesson, when I was playing pieces by Walther, Duval, Telemann and De Fesch, I put it to use and managed some more sonorous and stirring bow-strokes.

To finish up, the Guru played me a 'guest gig', another piece by Willem De Fesch, a Larghetto in A. As usual, he recorded it on his phone and sent it to my email; this helps me when learning new pieces, and has helped me progress.

It also keeps me practising, because I have the company of his tunes; it really feels as if there's someone in the room with me, because the mp3s usually have the sound of Fiddle Guru taking a big breath before each section of the tune, and sometimes has him interjecting 'I'll play this again' (when he misread it the first time) or 'oops!' when he caught a note on his keyboard while reaching to turn his recorder off.

Fiddle Guru also let me have some guest gigs from two weeks previously, when he'd played the Sailors' Song and the Witches' Song from Purcell's *Dido and Aeneas* - Norwich Baroque are to put on a semi-staged version of it in the Spring.

As FG remarked, sailors always come on stage with jolly-tar hornpipey insouciance. The Purcell tune could almost have been Gilbert and Sullivan. 
As for the Witches - it is a fantastic tune in the original sense. So unpredictable - twisted - cackling - gnarled - cronish.

So this lesson had everything - 
*Joyriding Jigs*
*Tranquil Tuition*
*And a teacher who plays like an *:angel:!


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