Anybody fancy a chinwag?

[dave brum]

It's getting so blooming lonely in this joyful little sphere of existence...

Hasn't the price of cauliflower gone up so much lately?

[markymark]

Hey Dave!

Where have you been? Hope you haven't been fraternising with that lots from the AB forum!

Can't say I've noticed much about the price of cauliflower as I have been obsessed the price of being a teacher - I never can get used to how busy September is.

[dave brum]

Worry ye not Marky. I haven't been on the AB forum either, or anything to do with pianos apart from the odd piano themed Prom on the TV. But I had been considering changing my user name to Ivor Lappetoppe.

How about the price of fish then? Or the fact that Daz Automatic doesn't get your whites as white as they used to.

[Gill the Piano]

You want to go to the farm shop, boy, Cauli's are cheaper there...
Howzit going then? We've missed you!

[dave brum]

Ive missed you too Gill. sadly I'm still nowhere nearer getting my grade 3. You won't want to hear this but in actual fact, Ive thrown in the towel as far as learning to play the piano goes, however I haven't lost interest in piano music and classical composers who specialised in piano and keyboard in general.

But as far as being a pianist goes.....sadly it'll never happen much to my dismay.

I'm actually starting another sort of lesson next month - refresher driving lessons. I passed my test when I was 21 but I've not actually been behind the wheel of a car for 12 years. The DVLA have actually given my licence back!!!

[Gill the Piano]

Excellent. 100 miles in a straight line down the M40 and we'll take you both out for lunch!

[dave brum]

Hope there's plenty of free car parking there and something can be done involving pianos???

[Gill the Piano]

I've got a Bluthner upright (needs tuning - know anyone?), a Narpsichord and a silent practice piano if it all gets a bit much!
You ARE still playing a bit though, aren't you? What about that thingy you found on tinternet? Was it no good?

[dave brum]

If you mean the gospel piano method I really liked it and would recommend it to anybody.....who has the time. Which is my biggest problem at the moment. No. What I was thinking of was more like sitting at a piano with each hand attached to a jump lead connected to the battery of your little bubblecar, Gill. Like a sort of pianintic jumpstart, or a kick up the batty for the lapsed pianist!

[Gill the Piano]

Or a piano lesson.
Nothing like a little terror and adrenaline to focus the mind...

[dave brum]

You know, the concept of a sadistic piano lesson might actually catch on. And in the Anne Robinson style rather than Miss Whiplash or perhaps Lilo Lill from 'Bread' ...

Nudge nudge, wink wink

But then again, I'd be happy with a conventional one if it'll get me going again!!

[dave brum]

Actually Gill, you gould come up to us and take tea and tiffin in our new conservatory, which is being built now. The whole house has been chaos and I've had to shut my cats in, something I don't like doing and definitely not something they like to do.

But it is necessary. We have the oldest 'chavs' in town en masse working on it at the moment. I've never ever met one of these types who doesn't like tea and bikkies, and that with massive amounts of sugar in, twos and threes sort of thing. And every one of them has a cancer stick in their gobs and consequently reeks of the vile toxic stuff from within ten feet. We had a lounge window replaced and draughtproofed in one afternoon and the whole of my upholstery and carpets were a toxic danger zone so much so that it made my head ache and epiglottis spasm. Five or so espressos doesnt make me as ill as one whiff as this disgusting poisonous carbon monoxide substance produced by the exhalation of tobacco smoke with all the life giving qualities of asbestos dust.

I couldnt even smell the homely aromas of festering cat p#ss and sh@t that I have become so accustomed to.

www.ash.org.uk

[Gill the Piano]

You can borrow my sign from my kitchen: IF YOU MUST SMOKE, DO NOT EXHALE.

[dave brum]

Actually Gill, I could make one myself with a 'copyright Gill the Piano' subtitle...

Chav army are here now. The England shirt, the Noddy Holder accent and the Castella in cakehole whilst coughing simultaneously. And theyve already had two cups of tea.

But - in a strange twist, I have no need to spray half a can of Airwick around the khazi every time they've been to my lavatory for a pre-work and post-lunch bodily evacuation. They have bowels that smell of a British rose garden in June.

[Gill the Piano]

Must be the diet of fags and sugary PG Tips!

[dave brum]

I'm out of breath just from tidying up after two weeks of disorder in this house, and now I have to go and mow the lawn and do some painting in the conservatory. Then I shall require a Turkish bath and a foot massage with some nice soft piano players' hands. No time to chat, sorrry!

o Duw mawr, mae hi'n boeth yma

[dave brum]

Jan, I still have that Halloween picture you sent me a few years ago. I must go through my photo CDs and fish it out.

Is Hannah having a party then???

[Nutroast]

Hi Dave, no, it wasn't her party, it was her friend's bash. They went to a "Build a Bear" workshop leaving me and my husband at home alone, which was the perfect recipe for talking the dog for a walk and going to the pub - and wondering why everything was so quiet

She had a great time. Much choccie cake was consumed.

I had a fun day yesterday, repainting the bands on a wooden cider barrel with hammerite. Funny you should mention cauli, that's what we have for dinner tonight. Ours are finished, so this one's from another farm. They're also organic like us, but seem to manage to breed less bugs in theirs than we do!

J

[Gill the Piano]

What's a 'Build a Bear' workshop????

[Nutroast]

Gill, that's a question I had to ask too! The children get to choose the colour and design of the bear they want from some cut-out fabric. It's then stuffed for them, though they get to put in a heart of two first and then finished.

Hannah told me that she put in some wishes with her heart and I asked what they were. She said they wouldn't come true if she told me and, anyway, she couldn't remember what they were

[Gill the Piano]

...but she'll still know if they come true, right? Strangely enough, I saw a carrier bag in a customer's house today with 'Build A Bear ' on it!

[dave brum]

There is a High Street chainstore that sells bears, and all the equipment you need to build your own bear, called (rather strangely) Build-A-Bear Workshop. They sell Pudsey Bears for the BBC Scallies in Need appeal.

Every year for the Christmas market all the big stores have their own bears, even Webbs garden centres at Wychbold and West Hagley have them. But you have the 2011 Fraser bear, Spencer bear, Lewis bear etc.

When we were kids, we didn't have no build a bear workshops. I used to like dismantle-a-radio workshops.

[Nutroast]

ppp, quiet around here, isn't it? Where is everyone?

I've been practicing one of Bach's minuets over the next couple of days, clever chap, wasn't he? Plus Grieg's Morning Wotsit. Very nice - or at least they were before I started on them! The dog started crying when I opened the lid on the piano yesterday

On the plus side, we've filled the old barrel with water to help get the wood ready and leak-proof for the apple juice to go in at the weekend

[Gill the Piano]

Like the bit about the dog; evidently no taste!
My husband once accused me of not having restored my harmonium properly; 'There's a dreadful clatter when you start pedalling', he said. 'That's the catflap,' I said. Our cat had no musical taste either. Or perhaps she did...

[dave brum]

On Saturday morning if I have time, I shall devote an entire morning to Christmas carol practice. No better time than Christmas to re-engage a man and his piano, and in any case I had a new seasonal music book last year from Gill.

[Nutroast]

I need to do Christmas carol practice too, but now the small one is learning the recorder, she wants to play too. All well and good except her ancient recorder plays sharp and can't be played with anything that happens to be in tune. We've bought her a new one for Christmas, but she can't have it else she'd know she had it.... good grief, did that make any sense?? I'd let her borrow mine, except I'm very possessive about my lovely new recorder, snob that I am

There's always Christmas next year for me to be ready for.

Love the bit about the catflap, Gill!

So much for practice, I'm changed into my scruffies and ready to spend the rest of today painting the tractor. The dog can sleep easy until later.

[Feg]

Does opening up the head joint make any difference to the pitch? You should be able to lower the pitch by a fair amount that way and you always have a small amount of extra in the bottom joint as well. If you want a temporary recorder to tide you over until Christmas, give me a shout and I'll post one down to you - I'm a recorder teacher and have an assortment of ancient, but playable plastic recorders I've picked up over the years for those 'little darlings' who 'forget' to bring theirs to lessons.

Fiona

[dave brum]

I'm really surprised as to how I've become so rusty after spending so many months away from my piano. I'm definately not grade 2 level now, I play like a badly struggling G1 student. I also have a bit of aches and pains in my right hand, probably caused by either a family history of rheumatism or the hour after hour I hold the steering wheel of my car. But when I'm playing it doesn't hurt! Scales later if theres nothing else to do.

[Nutroast]

Hello Fiona, that's really sweet of you! I'm sure we'll get by though, but many thanks for the offer.

I must admit, I hadn't thought of opening up that joint a bit I'll definitely give that a try and see what I can get out of it.

I brought a broken recorder back from school hoping to repair it, I hate to see unplayed instruments. They somehow managed to get the "tongue" bit under the beak wedged inside the beak itself, it's well and truly jammed. That must have taken a great deal of effort!

Which books do you like to teach from? I'm taking the beginners and we're starting with the John Pitts books, they seem to be very good but I'm always up for other ideas.

J
xx

[Nutroast]

Hello Dave, we posted at the same time, a good evening to you!

I'm really rusty too, it's amazing how quickly it goes. It's not just the flexibility in my fingers, but also my note recognition, so it seems I never really learnt it properly in the first place

[dave brum]

Jan, I used to bite bits of the mouthpiece of my plastic recorder when I was learning (it was the fashion in the first year of primary school). The school would provide recorders in those days, and some of them were wooden, which other kids would bite and chew also. This was before health and safety, and also before cuts to schools music teaching budgets. And of course the mass availability of bubblegum.

Probably won't get a chance to do much in the way of scales tonight. I feel really sluggish tonight. I used to suffer with SAD and I think with the clocks going back and the constant cloudy weather we've had has had an effect on me. I certainly dont feel like a 41 year old, you could add 30 to that tonight! Tomorrow Ive a piano DVD to watch.

How is Gordon these days???

[Feg]

I use the John Pitts books as a starting point but don't find them very inspiring. I have devised my own way of teaching and only use some of the pieces in BK1 and not in the order they are written. I much prefer to write my own exercises tailored to the class I'm teaching that year. If you follow the book slavishly, you will lose their attention quite quickly because it concentrates too much on one note at the beginning and children love to learn new notes

[dave brum]

We used a bright red book called 'The School Recorder Book 1'. It was meant to be used in conjunction with in-school teaching rather than as a teach yourself book. Anyone who got to the green book 2 was considered a swot. I didn't.

One Christmas concert a group of us had to perform the carol '...and the first tree in the greenwood, it was the hol-lee...' at St.Albans Anglican Church in Smethwick. I had given up by then but every time I hear the carol (I have Maddy Prior singing it on one of my seasonal CDs) it always reminds me of that.

[Feg]

We used a bright red book called 'The School Recorder Book 1'. It was meant to be used in conjunction with in-school teaching rather than as a teach yourself book. Anyone who got to the green book 2 was considered a swot. I didn't.

I've got a copy of the red book, somewhat faded now I'm afraid, and the green book They teach notes in a far better order, but the pieces of music they provide as examples are considered to be very old-fashioned now.

[Gill the Piano]

Our recorder book was black. Can't remember what it was called (Descant recorder Book, perhaps?) but it started off with 'London's Burning' through to 'Go and Tell Aunt Nancy'!
I got Grade 5 recorder in 2000 for a bet - five quid!! Being v. asthmatic I had to sit down to take the exam, but the examiner was nice and let me do aural tests between the pieces so I coul get my wind back!