Tag: music

An arbitrary milestone on piano

~ raludwick

A little over nineteen (19) weeks ago, a friend living across the street was moving and he couldn’t take his old upright piano to his new place. He’d gotten it free from a friend and so I got it free, aside from splitting the cost of piano movers (needed even just for across the street) and a piano tuning, as it hadn’t been in a while.

So we got a piano in our living room.

A dark brown upright piano from Franklin Piano Co sits with the keys showing. On the leaned out music stand is a piano method open to a version of Amazing Grace. Classics to Moderns and the Rocky Horror Show song book are closed to the right with a notebook. On top of the piano is a record player, a lamp, some other books and various pieces of art which are too long to describe here (email me!)
A piano. In our living room!
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The Autoharp

~ raludwick

I’m currently learning to play the Autoharp.

This is an autoharp:

autoharp_openmic
It’s an Autoharp! At the JoCoCruiseCrazy open mic night.  Original by Scott Russell, under Creative Commons.

It’s also the first time I played in public, but fortunately to a very understanding crowd — open mic night on JoCoCruiseCrazy 2012.

I started playing last August after I decided that I should just stop dreaming of making music again and just do it. I picked an autoharp because Cory McAbee of the Billy Nayer Show plays one in an awesome fashion, especially live.

But learning on your own is hard. Amazingly, the Pacific Northwest and Seattle has an extensive folk and autoharp community and I found a weeklong autoharp camp. I just went and learned a lot in a week, even though I was a beginner. I really recommend “music camp” if you want to get started. There’s apparently also a guitar camp up here in the PNW!

I try to practice everyday. I really do. But more later.