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what I did at the weekend
Feb. 12th, 2004 11:30 am[this work is late - Ed]
went to the local branch of Sound Control and bought a little midi keyboard (Edirol PCR50, if anyone is interested!) for this machine, which is now sporting a copy of iLife 04 with the Garageband Jam Pack, and a microphone to record what![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
perlmonger described to the sales chap as "ambient sounds" (but *I* knew he meant cat noises). Then we went to Hobgoblin, and bought Mac's Big Bumper Book of Classical Piano Music, a guitar tutorialesque book for perlmonger, and a book on how to play bluegrass mandolin for me.
this latter seemed a good idea, until we realised that we don't actually *have* a mandolin, so we had to buy one of them as well - this is all part of our desperate attempt to Get A Life. Of course, I managed to trap my finger in the freezer on Saturday afternoon, so I haven't actually tried playing the damn thing yet.
Sunday,perlmonger blitzed the living room (which had got progressively more and more untidy), while I wrote a five page proposal for a private school in Cheltenham - I have no idea whether they have any budget, but it occurs to us that it might be quite a good idea to write a school content management system anyway, and it would be even better if someone would pay for it! Then I cooked up 6 lbs of Dexer mince into a vat of spag bol. Almost a weekend off - hurrah!
I've spent a few hours tinkering with the piano stuff on the downstairs keyboard, and although I'm horribly rusty .. I haven't touched a piano seriously in almost thirty years, although I passed Grade VIII when Noah was a lad .. it does come back quite quickly, and I can still sight read pretty well. And oh my, am I enjoying it. Just playing simple stuff - Bach 2-part inventions, Beethoven sonatinas, Grade V to VI, probably, and not very well.
but I've realised that the current keyboard(a Yamaha PSR-730, and won't do. As a trained classical pianist, I need a properly weighted keyboard, and a full 88 keys. And we don't really need all the clever midi sounds, because we'd rather do that on a Mac. So it might be for sale soon, if anyone is interested.
and the ergonomics where it is are altogether wrong, and are wrecking my left shoulder.perlmonger got out his measuring tape last night (ooh er), and if we move everything in the house just a little, we might be able to fit in a full sized 88 key keyboard - no hope of a piano proper - so we shall have to go back to the music shops at the weekend and have a look around. And Pete's guitar strap has perished, and I need one for my mandolin, and I want lots more music. Oh dear ...
went to the local branch of Sound Control and bought a little midi keyboard (Edirol PCR50, if anyone is interested!) for this machine, which is now sporting a copy of iLife 04 with the Garageband Jam Pack, and a microphone to record what
perlmonger described to the sales chap as "ambient sounds" (but *I* knew he meant cat noises). Then we went to Hobgoblin, and bought Mac's Big Bumper Book of Classical Piano Music, a guitar tutorialesque book for perlmonger, and a book on how to play bluegrass mandolin for me.this latter seemed a good idea, until we realised that we don't actually *have* a mandolin, so we had to buy one of them as well - this is all part of our desperate attempt to Get A Life. Of course, I managed to trap my finger in the freezer on Saturday afternoon, so I haven't actually tried playing the damn thing yet.
Sunday,
perlmonger blitzed the living room (which had got progressively more and more untidy), while I wrote a five page proposal for a private school in Cheltenham - I have no idea whether they have any budget, but it occurs to us that it might be quite a good idea to write a school content management system anyway, and it would be even better if someone would pay for it! Then I cooked up 6 lbs of Dexer mince into a vat of spag bol. Almost a weekend off - hurrah!I've spent a few hours tinkering with the piano stuff on the downstairs keyboard, and although I'm horribly rusty .. I haven't touched a piano seriously in almost thirty years, although I passed Grade VIII when Noah was a lad .. it does come back quite quickly, and I can still sight read pretty well. And oh my, am I enjoying it. Just playing simple stuff - Bach 2-part inventions, Beethoven sonatinas, Grade V to VI, probably, and not very well.
but I've realised that the current keyboard(a Yamaha PSR-730, and won't do. As a trained classical pianist, I need a properly weighted keyboard, and a full 88 keys. And we don't really need all the clever midi sounds, because we'd rather do that on a Mac. So it might be for sale soon, if anyone is interested.
and the ergonomics where it is are altogether wrong, and are wrecking my left shoulder.
perlmonger got out his measuring tape last night (ooh er), and if we move everything in the house just a little, we might be able to fit in a full sized 88 key keyboard - no hope of a piano proper - so we shall have to go back to the music shops at the weekend and have a look around. And Pete's guitar strap has perished, and I need one for my mandolin, and I want lots more music. Oh dear ...