M is for... Music!

What sort of music do you like? is a very difficult question to answer. I'm quite happy listening to most types of music, with the exception of hip-hop, R&B, rap and dance music. Here are some of my favourites and the reasons why:

I love Tom Jones and not just because I'm Welsh. He's got a fantastic voice, and his songs are great. I love his new stuff as well as the old, but if I had to pick one song, it would be Delilah, probably because of the connection to rugby.



The Sterophonics were one of the first bands I got into when I was younger. Traffic is one of their early classics. I've seen the Stereophonics live twice; at the first gig I went to I snogged some random guy while they were singing this song. I was going to share Is Yesterday Tomorrow Today but couldn't find a decent youtube video to embed - when I saw them play at Morfa Stadium my friend let me sit on his shoulders above the press of the crowd while they sang it, and it was beautiful.



Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are in my list entirely because of my brother. He was (and still is) really into music, and he used to make me mix tapes of songs he thought I should listen to. It started after a bad day at school, when I listened to R.E.M. Everybody Hurts on repeat for at least two hours. Driven mad, he made me a mix tape featuring a variety of other 'sad' songs he thought I would be better off listening to. In the end, there were five tapes, and Nick Cave featured heavily on them all!



I love musicals. Cats is probably my favourite, but the only one I've seen so far that I didn't enjoy was Whistle Down the Wind, which was rubbish. Mum took me to see Cats in London when I was a teenager; we sat right at the front, and I was absolutely entranced. I was obsessed with the musical for years. I wore out my VHS tape, and am in danger of wearing out my DVD too!



Of course I love classical music, and this Waltz by Chopin is one of my favourite piano solo pieces. I have the sheet music, but as of yet have no hope of being able to play it!



Something fun to finish. I have a soft spot for silly comedy songs too. I love Tom Lehrer, the Arrogant Worms, Stephen Lynch, that sort of thing. This Tom Lehrer song just makes me laugh so much. I have his song book for the piano and am determined to master them all!

I is for.... Instruments!

I’ve posted previously about my piano, so I shan’t go into detail on that again. Suffice it to say that my Yamaha Clavinova is good enough now, but one day I would love to own a proper Steinway & Sons grand piano. We saw a program on TV the other day about how they are made, and I went looking online to see how much they cost. I found one restored antique grand piano on sale for £75,000!!! So I guess I’ll just stick with my cheapy electronic upright for now.

The piano isn’t the only instrument in the house though. As a child, I learned to play the violin, but had to give up after I broke my wrist in a rather unfortunate accident (more on that, later in the month!). I don’t really regret much about not having played the instrument all these years; I haven’t touched it since I was about 14, when I was brought out of ‘retirement’ to take part in the school Eisteddfod as my house didn’t have anyone to enter the individual instrumental competition. Which I won, by the way, royally peeing off my fellow entrants who were all very serious about their instruments! The one regret I do have, is that the instrument that I own belonged to my grandfather, and it is a real shame I can’t make use of it. So I keep it, hoping that perhaps in the future a child of mine will express the desire to play the violin, and it can one day be theirs.

 

My instruments are not the only instruments in the house. Jamie, too, is a musician (a much better one than me, as he studied Music at university and actually made a career out of playing his instrument professionally for a while). Jamie plays the cello and the double bass, so we have one of each instrument in the house as well.

The cello isn’t particularly special, it’s just a nice instrument. But the double bass is something else altogether. It’s over 150 years old, was made in Italy (possibly for Bottesini) and has had a very interesting life, spending a fair amount of time being used by the St Pauls Girls School where Gustav Holst taught. It is very likely that Holst himself played the instrument while it and he were at the school. Jamie eventually acquired it after it had been recovered from the school in poor condition, and restored back to its former glory. He used it during his master’s degree, and when he made a living from playing professionally. It’s been all over the world with him.

 





We’re also very lucky to have a recording of Jamie playing it, four tracks on a CD he commissioned for a present to give to his parents. If you are interested, you can listen to some recordings I've uploaded to the web:

Motivy

Requiebros

Tarantella in A minor

Twenty Eleven here we come

I guess it's tradition, to make resolutions on the first day of the year. This year I'm going with something slightly different (for me at least). Crafting goals!

I am realistic enough to realise that I cannot possibly hope to focus on everything in the year ahead, so I am going to have to relegate some of my hobbies to the back shelf once more. Some things are unfortunately more important than others, and as one of my main goals this year is to qualify as an accountant, I need to ensure I have enough time available for studying and revision. So some of my hobbies are going to be (once again) relegated to the back shelf and put aside. Drawing, painting and any ambitions I had towards learning a new instrument will all have to wait for another year.

The year will be no fun, though, if all I do is work and study. So at the very least, I shall attempt to complete these modest goals:

Photography

These goals have already been outlined in a previous post, but I will list them again for completeness:

• One picture a week for a year
• One picture for each season
• One picture a day for a month
• Object photo challenge

Knitting/Crochet

• Finish my current WIPs before starting anything new (the tiger, clownfish and rectangle granny, specifically)
• Crochet my first item of clothing, potentially this top I found on Ravelry
• Make gifts for friends currently expecting babies (bit of time pressure on this one, as baby 1 is due fairly soon, and baby 2 is due in May). I suspect the pale yellow yarn I was given for Christmas will come in handy for this!
• Learn more "advanced" knitting techniques. At the moment I can do a basic garter and stocking stitch (and I did one lace scarf that had YO and knit2tog) but I've seen some lovely knitted patterns on Ravelry that I'd love to have a go at which I suspect require me to be a bit more competent. Something like this, or this.
• I'd like to add in some sort of crochet X number of Ys but I have no idea what that would be. Maybe a new amigurumi a month or something?

Painting Warhammer Miniatures

An element of my craftiness not yet explored by this blog, but something that I love doing but did far too little of this year. So to compensate, here are some targets for me to hit over the next twelve months:

• Finish painting my High Elf Bloodbowl team. They've been half painted for about a year now, so it's about time.
• Convert and paint some of the individual star player models we've had planned for ages.
• Base every single model that gets painted in this house. I want to be able to say, on 31st December 2011, that there is not one single miniature in this house that has been painted but is still standing on a bare base.
• Make a decent go at painting my Orc army. Ok, I probably won't get the whole thing done, as there's something like 150 models at current count. I'll do a post in a few days and elaborate on this, as I need to sit down and go through the army and see what is what,

Making Music

So I've put learning the cello on the back burner for another year, but I am rather determined to let 2011 be the year I finally get back into the habit of playing the piano. To do this, here are some goals;

• Practice regularly. As in, at least once a week to begin with.
• Get back up to speed on the pieces I already know how to play. Specifically:
• Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata
• Chopin's Nocturne No 19 (Op 72 No 1)
• Field's Nocturne
• Learn and master some new pieces. Specifically:
• Chopin's Rainbow Prelude
• Chopin's Waltz No 7 in C sharp minor
• Joe Harnell's The Lonely Man
• Danny Elfman's Corpse Bride theme and Victor's Solo

That's probably enough to be getting on with. After all, I still need to leave time for things like roleplaying, climbing, swimming, cycling and hiking! I'll try and keep you all updated with my progress!

Happy New Year!