And it was my favourite!

School talent show drum duel!

Practice makes perfect!

TGI Friday!

Yes I know I missed yesterday, but it was curriculum night at school, soccer, homework & somewhere in all of that we all had to eat dinner. How did my life suddenly get so crazy? Oh yes, back to school doesn’t mean chill out at the spa or have coffee with a friend. No, it means the kids have a better social life than you & you are just a glorified taxi service. And make sure you have your shit together at home because the laundry is about to double & the food consumption is about to triple!

I’ve got 2 words to say… Gin & Tonic.

Happy weekend – we have 2hours of drum lessons starting at 9am tomorrow morning!

My thoughtful hubby…

Remember I had a sneaky look at a new steel string guitar a couple of weeks back? Well, this morning hubby suggested we pop into the store & take another look. So there I am browsing the racks & the one I’d had my eye on wasn’t there, at least at first I thought it wasn’t. Never mind, I thought, it’s one of those things, & I decide to look at others. One in particular, that I was sure was the original one, catches my eye. After pawing at it I turn the ticket over to check the price but it also has a ‘HOLD’ ticket in it, so I move on again & I find one that is the same size & shape but a bit cheaper so I pluck it off the rack & have a little strum. Meanwhile, hubby is disappeared off to talk to one the assistants…

He returns a short time later, he looks at the guitar I’m ‘playing’, & we talk about it in comparison to the one I originally saw. He strolls along the rack & mentions the one with the ‘HOLD’ ticket & I declare that I believe that one to be my original choice. I can’t really remember how he got me to look at it again, but when I did I couldn’t believe what I saw – his name & cell phone number was on the hold ticket, it was held for him, for me!

Apparently after I’d talked about it he’d called the store & thinks he spoke to the guy who had been helping me that day. When he explained what he knew about the guitar I’d looked at & the price the guy took an educated guess at which one it was. Hubby’s plan was to pick it up while I was having my knee surgery on Tuesday so I could have it to play while I recover – & of course it would be an early birthday present not just for being a good girl at the hospital. My husband is an incredibly thoughtful guy like this, & even though I’ve known him for 20 years he can still surprise me & give me fuzzy feelings.

Did we buy the guitar? As it happens I didn’t choose that one in the end, that one was made of Sitka Spruce & is apparently the musician’s choice. I actually preferred the cheaper Mahogany that was the same size & shape. If I’m honest the sound is not something I am too into, the steel strings already play better even at my basic level, & honestly I was a complete girl about it & choose by look & colour. When we took it to the desk to pay the guy who served us was admiring my choice, not to mention I had chosen one that was a relatively expensive instrument but had $300 knocked off the price. He pointed out some interesting markings in the wood on the back, wondering if it might have been made by a bear claw – how unique is that! All in all I had definitely made a good choice, even if it wasn’t the one that hubby had hoped to surprise me with. It does mean that whenever people admire it, or ask about whether I play when they see the line up of guitars (now 4 of them!), I will have a lovely story to go with it that makes it quite special.

 

Don’t tell hubby…

When 3/4 of the household are learning to play the drums why not have two kits?

Then, why not move up from the basement & have them in our newly renovated dining room?

Oh, and why not have the teacher come to us?

I secretly think it’s all kind of cool but don’t tell hubby!

The birthday gift…

I have been re-learning guitar for 18months now & I thought I was doing well enough to now upgrade form nylon to steel strings. So, when I had to pop into the store to pick up a birthday present for my younger sons friend (who I knew was getting a guitar & lessons for his birthday) I couldn’t help having a peek at the steel strings for myself. I started out on the ‘cheaper side of the room, thinking yes these are pretty nice & sound waaay better than mine, but the assistant, who’s job it is to sell me the most expensive one he can of course, I get that, managed to steer my over to the really nice side of the room.

Now, this store, where we also have lessons, has recently changed hands so they are selling off a lot of good stock. Of course I’m sucked into this because I think I’m getting a good deal right? Yes I probably am & hubby has offered up a shiny new guitar as an early birthday present – so even better.

At the birthday party this afternoon the parents kindly made it a grown up get together too, which was very sociable. When everything was in full swing a friend of the host picked up the ½ size birthday gift & proceeded to strum pleasant tunes that gathered quite a crowd of kids. I continued chatting but all the time aware that this was going on just a few feet away. If I’m honest I was trying to ignore the fact that this person was clearly far far better than me, not to mention the fact that she was playing on something that looked like a Ukulele on her.

The best of it was I had just been talking to another friend who was there & is also considering picking up lessons again, about how I felt I could now justify an upgrade in instrument. How great the steel strings sounded when I casually played the three chords of ‘Thinking Out Loud’ while perched on a stool in the middle of the store. Clearly I have a very long way to go & have no business upgrading, but do I still want hubby to splash out? Of course, I can play one song right, that more than most people, & it will sound so much better!

A rare treat…

We just got home after a family outing to watch Harry Potter & the Philosophers Stone at the Orpheum downtown. Nothing rare about that I hear you say. Well, it is if the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra are sat below the big screen playing the entire score live.

It was fantastic!

Tuneless torture…

So I’ve been learning to play bar chords since March, & to my great disappointment I rapidly discovered that they have nothing to do with ordering large glasses of wine! My guitar teacher introduced me to a Jack Johnson song that is terrible (which he agrees), but quite good to practice to. I was actually relieved to miss last weeks lesson (he was doing a gig) because frankly even my ears were finding it painful whenever I practiced. Even up until yesterday I was embarrassed to say I could still only scrape through the introduction. Then suddenly something clicked & I played the whole song (well, apart from the bridge in the middle which seems physically impossible). I did it a couple more times & even hubby thought I’d improved. Fab! I could go to my lesson today & feel like I’d progressed…

We always chat a bit at the beginning of the lesson, & to be honest it’s my mouth just trying to save me from the extra humiliation of my tuneless strumming. Sadly my teacher has got wind of this & actually said that I couldn’t put it off any longer. I was honest & said I was having trouble with the bridge – which he expected as everyone does in the beginning – so we went through that a few times with & without the music to follow. I kind of felt ok at this point, knowing I would still be bad, but more confident than if it had been the previous week…

OMG! It was terrible!! It was as bad as it would have been last week – maybe worse. How was it that I could go through it however many times & think I’d nailed it then my fingers made me out to be a liar? Apparently I’m being really hard on myself, he thought that I had improved greatly, & at least now could recognize which chords I was supposed to be playing along with the song, so yes that is definitely an improvement. I was so relieved when he said we would just work with it for another couple of weeks then move onto something else I can practice over the summer – Phew!

However, he is now on the lookout for a song I like that ALSO has bar chords for me to practice – NOOOOOO! Save me from myself & further humiliation, not to mention subjecting my loved ones to more tuneless torture!

Today I chose to…

• be sensible & rest my poor knee
• do some stretching to help my aching SI joint
• do all the laundry so that tomorrow is free
• practice my bar chords over & over again because I’m going to bloody well nail then if it’s the last thing I do!
• make some cards
• Eat salad for dinner so I can then eat a Hagen Daz ice cream bar & not feel guilty (I am a size 0-2, this is not something I have any business feeling guilty about)
• relax in a hot bath & finish by book!
• Build my Lego

Today was a good day!!