Thursday 25 February 2016

Becoming an expert

A couple of nights ago, I put up two You Tube things - 'Fool on the Hill' and 'We can work it Out' - both Beatles of course. They were examples, to my mind, of the correct use of the recorder and accordion.

Some instruments were just never meant to be played on their own, and acquire a universally bad reputation if they are. Drums are the prime example. I think people should be prosecuted for drum solos - even (especially) Ginger Baker.

I am in two minds about bagpipes. There is the lone piper playing a lament and there are the massed pipes of a Highland military troupe, and both have their place - Scotland.

You know when you pick up a REALLY interesting pebble on a foreign beach and take it home to put on your mantlepiece, then when it is there you wonder what you ever saw in it? I feel the same way about Jimmy Shand. I have had absolutely wonderful times in the Highlands of Scotland, listening to Scottish accordion bands and even going so far as to tap my feet, but when I hear it being played in an English pub I want to run for the door.

Pianos are potentially solo instruments of course, but they have to be practiced with daily for best results, which can end up with that scene in 'It's a Wonderful Life', when everything is going wrong for the father - "Oh, Daddy..... (sob)....." I pity the parents who cannot afford a piano (or a house large enough to hold one), and have to settle for a recorder for their child.

When The Boy was about 9, they bought him a full-sized drum-kit. It was set up in his little bedroom, which was about 10 feet from their bedroom and about 20 feet from their living room. They had one set of neighbours on the old semi-detached farmhouse, and luckily (or unluckily) the father next door taught African drums. I did not spend much time in that house until after The Boy completely destroyed the kit in one of his then famous temper-tantrums. Ah, peace.

Right, I have just come to a natural break. I have just looked out the window to see a group of teenage Spanish girls taking a selfie with a traffic warden. How do I know they are Spanish? From the shape of their backsides. Years of observation has made me an expert.

20 comments:

  1. The teenage Italian backside is just arriving here. Numbers will peak at Easter.

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    1. That's about how long it takes me to peak these days too.

      To everyone else, my Google has slowed down to a near standstill again, so I am giving up tonight.

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  2. Hey Tom - I have been following you btw, but just now made it public! I am bold.

    We had a piano when we were kids - my dad and his pal dragged it into the house. That was my mom's rallying/guilting cry when we wanted to give up lessons "But your dad nearly BROKE HIS BACK bringing the piano in the house because yOU WANTED Lessons!" Which thinking about it is weird because our parents weren't rich - why would my mom care if they had to stop paying for lessons? hmmmm

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    1. We had two pianos where I grew up - one upright and one full-sized grand. We weren't rich.

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  3. Never saw that You Tube post. According to Google it does not exist. Have you asked yourself why Google persists in persecuting you? Could it be related to your propensity to see what others cannot?

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    1. I took it down. You can always tell when I have drunk too much - I post up music late at night. It's my equivalent of singing in the street.

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  4. I saw The Beatles post, commented and then you took it down .... why was that Tom ?
    We had a baby grand piano and we weren't rolling in it !! I had lessons but messed about too much ...... the old girl who taught me used to wack my fingers with a ruler when I got the notes wrong !!!! .. old cow !!! XXXX

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    1. See two comments above. Some piano teachers punished students by slamming the lid down on their fingers. That didn't even happen in 'It's a Wonderful Life'.

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  5. I bought my mister a piano for his 30th birthday.....he started lessons but soon got fed up and we sold it. My daughter in law has had her piano in storage for years and has only just been able to bring it out now that they have their own home....along with two cellos. I like to think that if and when they have children they will inherit her musical abilities.
    ps If you saw a picture of my arse could you tell me my heritage?

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  6. I agree with you on the bagpipes. When I lived in Zurich, I'd occasionally see a lone bagpiper at the shores of the lake playing his heart out for the tourists, I guess. I don't know about most people, but I wouldn't be visiting CH in order to hear the bagpipes. Ditto for Peruvian pan flutes.

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    1. I really love the Northumbrian pipes. Maybe it is the way they bend the notes. Scottish ones are dominated by an out of tune drone.

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  7. I have devoted serious thinking to the state of growing old and knowing everything. It is so easy to ignore anyone who disagrees simply because they are wrong.
    I've left instructions for the bagpiper.

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    1. I don't think wisdom necessarily comes with age either. The accumulation of facts often gets in the way of open-mindedness. Old people in the countryside don't know what the weather is going to be like any more than children, they just pretend they do.

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  8. My brother was a professional drummer in a rock group....
    I never saw the draw myself.

    Noise noise noise

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    1. Drummers are all mad to a man. I know a few professional ones, but thankfully I have never met Phil Collins.

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  9. Looking at a few Spanish rear ends I have concluded that I must have Spanish ancestry (i.e. a large one)

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    1. They don't have to be large, just slightly pear-shaped.

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  10. I'm sorry, but it takes me 3 minutes to even post up a comment like this right now, and I just cannot be bothered to carry on trying to reply to everyone without spending all day on it, let alone put up another post. I'll be back when it speeds up.

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    1. I was just about to say it has speeded up again, when it slowed down - GRRRR.

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