December = music month

Music corner

We have all been having a lot of fun playing with the keyboard again. This has been tucked away in another room but with the finishing of painting the alcoves (oh, did I forget to tell you they were done?!) I dragged it into the living room again where we have all been having a go at bashing those keys.

I have a Christmas carol book that gets pulled out every year and each year I get a little bit better. I can now play all of the songs competently though only a quarter of them with any true confidence. I love how this has spiralled into my youngest having a go too. I think that we are all gaining so much by having more self-played music in our lives.

This is a time when I remind myself that the journey is as important if not more important than the end result. I am enjoying my practise time. I have no fantasies of being an expert just enjoying where I am and pushing myself just a little each day. And those days when I don't want to push? Then I play the songs I enjoy and feel good about how far I have come.

Power cut

Scrabble by candlelight

A late posting from me today after all the excitement of yesterday. We were dealing with the aftermath of the 'big storm'; I really don't think that we felt the full force of it here, I slept through it! Thankfully we're all okay, the tiles are still on the roof (thanks to J spending several hours up there on Saturday) and even our split oak managed to survive the winds (it will be coming down this winter but preferably after the leaves have fallen). There are numerous trees that have fallen locally and the council and fire brigade were dealing with these on the roads throughout the early hours.

Personalising a ukulele

How it arrived, I've already removed the strings and machine heads.

 J has decided that it is time to learn the banjo. He picked up one cheap with a dodgy repair... it promptly broke. He has since been keeping his eyes open for another that he could afford but in the meantime, in a moment of madness, he snapped up this little ukulele. As he doesn't appear to intend to learn to play it I am left confused as to why he bothered but, due to it's cheapness, I feel no guilt in giving it a makeover.

The whole body was decoupaged using an old atlas and PVA glue.

 The original faux wood finish was utterly knaff. The top photo was taken at night so doesn't show the true horror. My intention was to decoupage it in an old newspaper (I have an Edwardian one knocking about) but spotted the pages of an out of date atlas that was far more colourful. Using watered down PVA glue the paper was torn into odd shapes and stuck down.

Finished! We now have a unique musical instrument.

After several coats of varnish I have a finished refurbished ukulele. I replaced the strings which has given it a more mellow sound - if a ukulele can ever be described as mellow!

What I don't like about this is that the beautiful maps come off as quite garish on the finished instrument, I wish that I had stuck with the newspaper idea for some gentle sepia tones. But I'm not too bothered, we now have a playful looking instrument that can be knocked around without anybody worrying about it being too precious. I am surprised at how often I've picked it up for a play as I've not touched my guitar in a long time (it's tucked away as I don't want it to get bashed... I think that there's a message in here somewhere).

Re-discovering music: keyboard

Time for practice

So much to study but so little time.

I have such a long list of things I would like to do but instead of applying the scattergun approach and not getting anywhere I have decided to focus on one skill. This month it is playing the keyboard.

As a child I always had access to an out of tune piano and self taught myself to play. Lessons were never an option and I never progressed beyond grade 1 (does it count as being self-taught if I'm still at this lowly level?) but I had fun. As an adult music has been pushed so far to the side lines that I usually only have a go about once a year, before Christmas, with an easy carol book. And each year I get frustrated with how my minimal ability is deteriorating.

However, I do enjoy playing music so my goal, for the month of January, is to practice on the keyboard at least 5 times a week. No limit on time, 5 minutes is enough on a busy day though I will try for half an hour on average.