Music, Music, Music

This year I have planned to dedacte to music. All kinds of music, any kind of music.

My first project started well before Christmastime - going digital! After doing a trial run with my tablet after digitizing my lyrics & chords for holiday music, it is definitely a route I want to continue. 

My tablet is a little small, so I may need to use good old fashioned paper in binders sometimes, it is definitely much more convenient to have a tablet sitting on my keyboard rather than two massive binders. It will also waste less paper, and if I am ever going somewhere where I may have an opportunity to sing, inconspicuously bringing my tablet with me is much simpler than keeping all of my music binders with me. 

Of course, the digitizing process is long and tedious. I had to figure out a font that I liked, a font size that was easiest to see and fit on the page. I had to come up with a page look that mimicks my own writing. ✔

Then I have to write out the lyrics (which I am doing in chunks), then write the chords. 

I have two big binders: my regular set list songs from A-K and then L-Z. I have JUST finished the lyrics for the first binder. I want to get the chords squared away in the first binder before moving onto the lyrics for the second. 

That's my long-winded way of saying that it is taking a long time to customize my digital binders. Especially when I tend to find mistakes after finishing the steps thinking it is good to go. A missing "m" for minor, a missing # or b symbol, or a typo writing F7 instead of G7. Very easy mistakes to make and it is brutally obvious when I am playing. 

The next project I hope to start is recording at home. I have pretty decent recording software - intricate enough for me to get confused the moment I open the program. I have attempted to use it a handful of times and always manage to put myself in an irreversibly frustrated state trying to figure it all out. So my very first step will be to read the manual cover to cover and take notes. 

Every single page. 

It will be another tedious task, but I hope to gain some insight and vital information. 

As an additional music surprise, I received the memoir books of Julie Andrews over Christmas, and I am thoroughly enjoying reading about her early life. The chapter I just finished describes a particular performance at the age of 12 where she sings The Polonaise aria twice a night. 

Not knowing what The Polonaise was, I was imagining a difficult aria by all means, but not necessarily the scope or elite level of musical mastery it would require. I had trouble sleeping last night, so I looked up The Polonaise on youtube. What I found was a digital recording of Julie Andrews and that specific performance at age 12. Click here to listen to how incredible and intimidating her early performances were. 

This year is all about music, music, music. 

So here is also a cover of Theresa Brewer's Put Another Nickel In, just for fun. 

I love My Musical Life!