Musical Marchers, this is our last day, and our BIG day. The moment of our final recitals is at hand. Full information to follow, but the short take is this: We want to see and/or hear you! Our music practicing will not stop tomorrow, but now is a moment for all of us to come together and cheer each other on! Whether you want to simply play the scales, or dive into Liszt or Van Halen, we'd love to bear witness!
SO, should you be game, simply train a video camera or audio recording device upon yourself, and then link us forthwith to the results. No song too modest! We'll be there for you like so many adoring parents at your first recital.
Full challenge wrap to come, but now is the moment of sharing. Onward Marchers!
Yesterday was the last day of the Musical March challenge. Our goal was to "make music" or practice our instrument for at least 20 minutes daily. I missed about four days, and hit 75% for the challenge. Still, I'm so excited to have gotten back into the piano after a long dry spell, and I'm launching Musical April immediately.
I asked willing challengers to submit a video of themselves at the end of the month, and I made mine late last night. I post it only b/c I feel it sets the bar extremely low. I'm hoping it will give others confidence to share their own virtual recitals. Next month, I'm going to work on audio quality, and musical proficiency....
Laurel R.
Awesome! You definitely need a blues name, if you don't already have one. The old ailment-fruit-President formula seems to work well. http://www.joshmillard.com/bluesname/2 months ago
Laurel R.
Er, sometimes it works well, and sometimes you get Diverticulitic Greengage Van Buren.
2 months ago
Friday was a late night. Somewhere after midnight we arrived at a swank Brit-inspired club/lounge place that had a piano in the bar. Naturally, I sat down immediately and played for a few minutes until the nice waitress pointed out that there was a DJ. She said I could play when he stopped. I apologized, and went without a fight. Later, post-DJ, I tried again, but then the manager shut me down. This was probably best for everyone. I wasn't playing loud, nor was I unruly, but, you know, I'm still a total novice. I did argue, however, that the lounge would be more interesting if they allowed an "open piano, instead of a generic club background music. She smiled at me politely, and I it was all good fun. Anyway, I'm counting those five, valiant minutes. Especially as I did NOT practice when I finally made it home....
Woh, I got so sidetracked last week with launch of DIY Health and other things, that I SLACKED on updates. Lot's of catch up posts coming. Pay no attention to the lack of exercise. Focus on the piano practicing.....
And here's my recital contribution. I'm not sure if it's possible to post a track directly, so I've uploaded a couple tunes to SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/champagne-flutes/sets/musical-march-2 I wasn't nervous when I recorded them, but I am now!!
And for your viewing pleasure, since videos have been encouraged, an almost-a-year-old video of my jazz band. I might have video-ed myself tonight, but I have to keep my laptop on the opposite side of the house from where I'm playing in order not to overwhelm the built-in mic, so all you'd have seen would be my rather untidy kitchen.
Laurel R.
Whereas here you get a close-up of my cargo-capris-over-running-tights ensemble and our super classy storage-room-above-a-café rehearsal space. In defence of my outfit and helmet hair: I biked 30 km in spitting rain to get to this rehearsal.
2 months ago
Oliver R.
Laurel: Amazing! You're, literally, a rock star. Also, I had your soundcloud track on repeat for a while this afternoon. So cool. Stay tuned for Musical March awards ceremony, AND launch of Musical April.
2 months ago
Laurel R.
Thanks. :) And yay for Musical April! A few days in March this challenge really was what convinced me to practice when I didn't feel like it, and I'm so glad to have had it and had company in practicing. Sometimes it's a bit lonely being a small-town musician, and here there were folks from all over practicing and being inspiring. Seriously awesome.
2 months ago
The advantage of last night's 2 AM practice session was that I didn't need any warm-up to belt out festive hymns at this morning's Easter service at Kimberley United Church, where I'm the choir director and occasional trumpeter. Apart from a couple of transposition glitches (inconveniently misfiring synapses next day being a disadvantage of 2 AM practice sessions), the trumpet descant on the old chestnut 'Jesus Christ is Risen Today' sounded suitably triumphant, if I may say so myself. But by tonight the old chops felt worn out again. Oh well.
Sort of back on track, sort of by accident. I decided to dig my cornet out of my closet at what was going to be the end of today's practicing, just to play an aria on it, and ended up keeping on for another 20 minutes flailing through JB Arban's Variations on The Carnival of Venice. I'm going to blame the messiness of the variations on my horn's sticky valves rather than on my own dubious digital dexterity.
Slightly better than Thursday, but I need to step up my game. The tuba player in my quintet wants to add a fifth show to our three-day world tour. I'll have to remember to pack anti-inflammatories in my gig bag.
Turns out it's actually my Achilles that hurts, not my ankle. After hearing about the injury yesterday, Anthony said it's because I wasn't clipped in. Every text he sent me after that ended in "get clips". I guess it worked. At the end of the day today I went to Paragon and walked out with my first pair of bike shoes and clip pedals. But the pedals that I got are flat on one side so that I could also wear regular shoes. I'm not sure how I feel about the pedals though. One big reason I didn't get bike shoes until now was because I didn't want to carry regular shoes always so the pedals are great for that. But when I do something I like doing it all the way and the pedals seem like they're not legit, like a real cyclist would probably laugh at them. I don't know. That's just how I feel.
Today I biked to the gym. It was a little painful but I found that if I kept my foot in a certain spot on the pedal it didn't hurt too badly. I wast sure what I could do at the gym today. I didn't want to try running because even just walking hurts. I got on the elliptical for 15 minutes but when I got off the pain felt worse. Then I took Pound. Most of the time was ok but I couldn't do any lunges.
Ah!! Work was sooooo busy today. I really didn't think Easter/Passover/Eid/Spring? was that much of an occasion to get one's hair done anymore, but I was wrong. Lots of men's and kids' cuts, and lots of coloring. Legs up, tea in hand, rest and relax now.
My first hill workout ever. With the Nike Flatiron run group. Oh my quads. Oh my lungs. I've noticed recovery time from running has improved vastly since I started running more often. I kind of a had a "DUH" moment when I realized this, but I'm amazed it's not taking me a full week to recover after anything more than 6 miles now. Awesomesauce.
Andrea C.
I had that "duh" moment too when I realized running a lot and training actually improved my endurance and recovery and overall time. It is a great feeling!
2 months ago
Ten minutes of finger practice on guitar. I need a narrower neck, I think. Have you seen the Gibson travel guitars? Both my grandsons play guitar; one's a wizard on bass, so I know someone will use it if I buy one. Then I played a paper comb; not as good as the kazoo. Have you tried a wet finger around the rim of a champagne glass in a quiet restaurant? I highly recommend that. Especially if there are kids there being made to behave properly. :)
zuzu p.
Are the Gibson travel guitars smaller? Now I'm intrigued...
2 months ago
Trish G.
They are smaller. They look like something a travelling musician would carry on his back. They sound really good, for all it lacks in width. When I'm with the 17 yr old bass player grandboy, we spend a lot of time in music stores. He loves picking up all kinds of intruments and playing around with them and no one will stop him from picking a $5,000 box if the grandmother's making small talk with the staff.
2 months ago
Fraidy L.
The finger on the glass is annoying. We used to do it as kids to bother each other.
2 months ago
Practiced piano a wee tiny bit today too, playing through a chart I wrote back in November. I still like it. I only wish my Jazz Council fellows were still around to play through it with me.
Social Workout began life focused on fitness, but our goal has always been to help people live well, in all senses of that word.
Few things bring more mind-body "wellness" than music. But making music takes practice. And, as for exercise, sleep, or diet, the discipline required can be daunting. Many people never get past singing in the shower, or Guitar Hero, and so live with deep, unsatisfied longings to express themselves musically.
This tragedy shall not stand!
In Musical March, Social Workout welcomes old friends and new to break this impasse!
Crowdsource Motivation
Once again, we apply our battled-tested process of crowdsourcing motivation. Participants commit to practice their instrument — any instrument (including voice) — for 20 minutes every day, and to log this activity each day on the site. We will all track our progress, and cheer each other to symphonic victory.
Virtual Recital
We encourage all challenge participants to post videos of themselves singing or playing early and often. For the bravest among us, we'll be hosting a virtual recital on the weekend of March 29th. That is, we'll ask all willing Musical March participants to post a video of themselves performing a single song of their choosing. Trust me, the crowd will go wild, and we will award limited edition virtual concert t-shirts for standout performances.
SO, dust off your ukelele or French horn, and dig out some sheet music. Everyone's got a song inside them, and this month it's coming out!
Join a team or create your own! There are lots of teams on Social Workout, and each gets its own page. A team can participate in
any challenge as long as at least one team member joins the challenge, and the challenge host adds the team to the challenge.
![[avatar]](/img/avatar-default.jpg){kind=avatar}
![[team]](/img/team-default.jpg)
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