Friday, February 04, 2005

Measured aspirations

A friend of mine, the mother of Feanor and Quirky, (Does that sound like the mother of Frankenstein and Quadzilla - well, not really).

... Let me start again. A friend of mine always wants to know how I find the time to blog. Well, right now I'm sitting in Vladimir Zuckerman's house listening to a cello lesson while I peck away on my trusty laptop. I rode my exercise bike earlier this morning but opted to study my Hebrew vocabulary instead of blogging.

Recently I did something I haven't done in ages - played my guitar. After going though a few old songs and thinking of many more I would have liked to play, my poor little fingertips wore slap out. Just makes me want to play again soon. One definitely has to put in the time to toughen up the ol' fingertips.

Sitting here listening to the same music measure repeated over and over and over again reminds me of all my kid's music teachers. I consider myself to be one of the foremost experts on music teachers and their different methods of teaching. I mean, heck, I could teach anyone cello or violin if I didn't have to play the darn thing.

What kind of method would you like to learn? How about one of the European methods? I am familiar with two of them - the Russian or the Bulgarian. In the Russian method, you must be willing to play the same measure over and over and over again. In the Bulgarian method, you must discover and let loose your most lucid musical expression by aspiring the sound of a goat. (Don't ask, it's a Bulgarian thing.) Or perhaps you would prefer learning the Japanese method. ::embarrassed pause:: Well, no - I'm sorry, that method won't work for you since you're older than two and still not a child prodigy. But don't worry, the American method may be your cup of tea. My only promise with that one is that I will have you playing like Joshua Bell in no time. He's from Indiana, you know. And since I reside in the same great state of his childhood, some of his greatness has rubbed off on me. So there you go.

Thus are my aspirations of being a string teacher - or maybe - thus are my irritations of re-hearing the same measure.

3 comments:

C. Bright said...

Teeheehee! Anyone who's taken lessons at some point will sympathize and probably fondly recall weirdnesses of their own; but I'm afraid I get benefit from some inside jokes too :p. What we haven't said is that like it or not we talk about Pam an awful lot for a music teacher, so her claims in a way have come true that she is a unique and has made her impact!

Suzanne said...

Studying Hebrew isn't so hard on the bike - at least the blood gets to my head - I'm not so sure about at other times. And by the way regarding that mother of monsters crack, the rest of your children are much more, ummm, normal. (Oh dear, I fear I'm talking myself into a hole.)

Suzanne said...

Now don't go getting ferocious on me - I was only kidding. You know I think you're perfectly sane. (Well, as sane as I am.) And your mom is a peach.