ah spring... ah-CHOO...
been doing that all day...
at least today's headache is a bit less nasty...
than the one from yesterday...
but today's is making me dizzy too...
which means it's in my ears...
but there's something else in the air around here...
and it's WAY more insidious than mere nose tickling pollen...
the temperate weather, sunshine...
and the untimely onslaught of daylight savings time...
have combined to open doors...and windows...
and the privacy of colder days is gone on a sunbeam...
I arrived home, turned off my car...
and then I heard...something...
I knew that it was supposed to be music...
but as far as I was concerned, it wasn't making it...
this...from a former jr high instrumental music teacher...
who has been in a room with as many as 150+ jr high "musicians"...
all warming-up at once...
but this wasn't a fledgling saxophonist...
exploring the altissimo register...
a would-be trombonist practicing glissandi...
or an erstwhile percussionist perfecting a paradiddle...
this was noise... pure & simple...
sounds without purpose...
pure experimentation like a 3 year old pounding on a piano...
it was a...banjo...
and not the skillfully executed "pickin's"...
of a Deliverance-esque line...
flowing in & out & around in a game of tag with itself...
this was "strumming"...rhythmic disruption of the strings...
in a very "ukulele" type fashion....
no skillful, artful chording either...
just fingers up & down, back & forth over the strings...
somewhere between "the big finish" on a ukulele solo...
and the frantic, climactic strumming of a flamenco guitar...
nothing even vaguely musical...
just noise...
I located the "noise", across and down the street...
it's a rental, and they're fairly new...
I hope it's just a phase...or that they learn quickly...
I was just enjoying the recent departure...
of the rock band 2 doors up the street...
that rehearsed in their garage until after midnight...
with the doors open & NO sound proofing...
and then there's the 3 brothers that live across the street...
who take turns cranking up their car stereos...
when they're working out side...
and have also "adopted" an old upright piano...
that's horribly out of tune...
a fact that doesn't seem to stop them from playing it...
so now that spring is here...
I'm not sure...
am I allergic to the blooming flora ?
or the blooming, inconsiderate, non-musical neighbors ?
4 comments:
Hi catsinger,
Kentish sackbutt player here who enjoyed your pix of renaissance musicians. Love Byrd, Taverner, Ockeghem and Josquin and so many others - too many to name.
Helen from the hopgardens of Kent, UK
hi Helen...
I love sackbutt & would probably invest in one if they weren't so expensive...
I got to play my cornettino with a trio in the Chicago Early Music Ensemble back in the mid 1970's...
our Ren singing group is currently working on Byrd's "I Will Not Leave You Comfortless"...and at the church, [St John's Anglican,est 1850] we're preparing Byrd's " Passion of St John" for Good Friday...it has a 3 part[S,A[T],TB chorus with 3 soloists...& is fraught with all sorts of neat hemiola, etc...
thanks for visiting...come back again !
I'm not sure I can think of any instrument that it is worse to be bad at than the banjo. My sympathies. Maybe you should give neighborhood music lessons out of self defense.
uhhh...banjo lessons ?
no way...
"how to burn a banjo" lessons? maybe...
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