Got Out the Gibson

so, I played a little single note melody on the Gibson last night -- no problem!  So I shined it up, tuned it, and now it's in the case, downstairs in my closet.  Today I played a little -- not too much.  NO problem.  So just gonna take it slow and easy, just simple melodies.  Wrist feels good -- no pain or stiffness.  Maybe I can just baby it back to where I can play simple simple melodies.  that's all I want now.  Just a little playing without pain.  We'll see.

amplitude?

so I use my Fender G-DEC junior speaker for my keyboard output.  Lately I've noticed some effect on my ears -- that o' ringing sound.  I"ve tried various settings.  The standard yamaha piano setting isn't good for me.  Harspichord is better.  Some organ sounds are not good, and some are better.  Lately I've noticed more ringing inducement on various settings.  I'm using the Fender amp because the speakers on the keyboard were bugging my ears.  So now what?  I've got the volume on pretty low already.  Is it the gain?  The amplitude?  Hard to pin down.  The frequency?  Too many low tones?

One nice thing about an electric guitar -- when unplugged it's pretty quiet!  Still can't play yet.  Wrist needs more time to heal.

sight reading Mozart piano sonatas

so, this sight reading is not for performance-level playing.  It's sight reading practice.  Mostly right hand, with some of the left hand.  Taking it slowly.  It's fun!

yesterday

OK, so I'm starting my sight reading exercise with the beatles classic yesterday.  i got through the melody -- so the sight reading works!  no more tabs!  too bad, but i can't play much in a day.  a few minutes and then i stop before my wrist acts up.  better than nothing.  i'm playing my surf green start -- the nylon acoustic is too loud for my damaged hearing!

reading sheet music for guitar

so I'm gonna try and learn - starting from what I learned from my guitar teacher, to read sheet music for guitar.  Depending on tabs is too confining.  I'd like to play the melody line from Bryd's piano music on the guitar.  I got out the old exercises and I'm working on them now.  I can play a little guitar at a time -- but not too much!  I'm using the old classical 3/4 guitar, and also the epiphone dot.  And still playing Bryd on the keyboard.

William Byrd, 1591

so i picked up my copy of Byrd's My Ladye Nevels Grownde, the first piece from his collection My Ladye Nevels Booke.  I've worked on it before, so I'm giving it another try.  this time I'm figuring out the chords in the left hand.  Lots of fifths, which I guess is a renaissance musical style.  fifths are neither major nor minor, so they have an interesting neutral sound.  They are also the "power chords" of rock music.  the piece has fifths, and chords like D and D minor.  The sheet music has no key signature, so it's in C by default.  All the flats and sharps are in the notation.  Also it has some other notation in the notes that I don't know -- renaissance indications.  Some of them refer to "outside" notes that at the time were a little suspect.  I need to read more about this.  It's fun to sight read -- I"m not too particular about accuracy, as long as it sounds good.  I have the keyboard on a harpsichord setting.  The fifths give it that renaissance sound.  this piece is too long, 8 pages, but I only play a page at a time usually.  Someday I'll make it through the whole thing, I suppose.

what to play?

not sure what to play.  feel scattered and unfocused.  I sit down to play, and nothing sticks.  Probably time to give it a break, and just wait.

jazz piano

well, if I can't play guitar, then it's the piano.  I have a book of 40 jazz standards for piano, voice, and guitar, so I'll start using it to learn some basic songs for jazz.  Improvisation will come later.  I'm going to try a more modern sound than classical pieces.  Something I can improv with.