If you are thinking about learning how to play an instrument, the guitar is the easiest. The following will never be barriers to learning how to strum a guitar:
1. You don't have a right hand.
2. You are tone deaf.
3. You cannot read music.
4. You don't have much money.
5. You have no sense of rhythm.
6. You can't sing.
We'll assume that you have a right stump or hand, so let's start with tone deafness. To tune a guitar, you can get a guide to doing so on the Internet . I also use my piano, and I use my little electronic tuner. The electronic tuner will indicate exactly when your string is in tune. You might not be able to hear that it's on or off pitch, but the tuner will tell you when it is. A tuner is $14.
You also don't need to be able to read music. Any song you want to play can be found on various websites for free. I use Chordie.com. This shows you the chords and how to situate your fingers on the strings in order to play them. I can read music, but because I have only been playing since December 2008, I cannot play chords from piano music on the guitar....but I can play many of the chords as presented on Chordie.com. Some chords are extremely difficult. I have a solution to that to. Don't play those songs. A huge number of songs have super easy chords. Or better yet, find a way to cheat a little bit. For example, if you have a chord that you can play correctly only on the last three strings, just strum the last three strings. The guitar police is not going to come into your living room and catch you at this. I have tiny fingers (size 3.5 ring finger) that will not cover more than one string at a time. I have to work with the hands at hand. Look, I see children playing guitar. I took classes at Brookhaven with a fifth grader in it. This is very very doable. As always, practice is highly desirable.
You don't have any money to spend on a guitar? A decent guitar is $100. A respectable classical guitar is $200. And I bet Craigslist.org has used guitars for less. If $100 is what you think of as an expensive hobby, better stick to embroidery (which we will get to in a month or so.) Guitar classes can't hurt, and I took them at http://www.brookhavencollege.edu/ in Dallas, but it's not necessary to take lessons to learn this. Anything you want to know can be learned from watching videos on U-Tube, including stringing the guitar. There's TONS of books out there. If you don't care about learning beyond strumming at parties, the best way to learn is to practice a few of your favorite songs off Chordie, and then add some songs each week with a few new chords to learn. The best alternative for saving money on this hobby: Take the money your kid wants you to use to buy him a Guitar Hero ($119) and buy yourself a really nice little guitar for $100 with a songbook and a tuner.
I would discourage you from buying a guitar online. You can save a few bucks, but all guitars sound different, even the same make and model. Play a few in the store (Guitar Center in Dallas) until you fall in love with one of them.
You have no sense of rhythm? OK, I lied. You do need a sense of rhythm. Otherwise, you can't strum rhythmically.
You can't sing? This won't be a problem in your own living room. However, keep in mind everybody sounds better when they are accompanied by a guitar. A lot of people with weak voices have made it by having a guitar to keep them on pitch. Neil Young falls into that category. A capella he would have been considered downright bad.
Within the first few days of buying a guitar, I could play for hours lots and lots of songs I found online. Not perfectly, not fast, but well enough to have a lot of fun. This takes no brains or skills at all until you get into picking!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Watercolor: Watching Paint Dry
Like anything else, watercolor is a discipline that requires practice and patience. Practice, because in the beginning people get frustrated and quit when this is nothing like oil or acrylic. Patience because it's all about timing the layers of paint, not using too much or too little water, and letting the picture paint itself. There's a lot of technique involved, but the thing that makes watercolor look fresh and natural is the fact that the artist is not controlling the medium. For example, once I learned to sit back and let a sky paint itself, my skies took off. Once I learned to not "paint" clouds, waves, leaves, hair, but to let them happen on their own through the drying process of a few well placed strokes, things got looser and much less deliberate.
Watercolor is about timing. For example, before I can go to the next layer of paint, or paint an area adjacent to the one I just worked on, I need to dry that original area. Watercolor on a recently painted area will have a "blooming" effect that you may or may not want. In other words, it waters down the paint you just put down rather than layering. I use a blow dryer and a paper towel all the time. I can finish just about any painting I work on in three hours.
I go to Richland College in Richardson Texas every Wednesday night to Wallace Hughes's class. Wallace is a local artist, and most of what I have learned about painting I learned from him. What I like about his class is we don't learn the "Wallace Hughes Method of Watercolor", we learn our own method. Everybody in the class has a very distinctive style. I can tell by looking at a painting whose it is. One of my classmates and I attended a meeting of the Southwest Watercolor Society a year ago, and I asked him to pick out my painting in the monthly contest. These were paintings of about thirty watercolorists (not our classmates) with their signatures covered with sticky notes. Without the slightest hint he guessed mine on the first try.
I love to enter contests. Sometimes I place, sometimes I don't, but just getting my items on display and listening to the comments while remaining incognito in the crowd is fun. I've been in a few art sales, but have found the Texas heat to be prohibitive. Since I have a day job, I don't think I'm hungry enough to sacrifice my weekends for what might not result in a profitable pastime. For the better known and publicized art shows, you have to have a booth with walls to hang your work. If this is a three day gig, you are looking at booth installation, taking your pieces down at night in case of rain, having a place to store them at night, and a hefty enrollment fee in the $350+ range. Some shows require that you be approved by a committee that will look at your work on slides including a slide of your work up in your booth. So you have to buy a booth, set it up, and take a picture of your work hanging in it just to be vetted. Don't think you want to build your own? $525 starting price. Need help installing (you are an artist after all)? That's another $100. So for $1,000, I might get to be in a show where I can sell a few nice paintings for $200 each. Contests are great. $15 entry fee, drop it off at the library conference room, and show up at the award ceremony to eat really nice party food and maybe wine and cheese!
The key is to keep this as a hobby. I do give away prints of some of my artwork as corporate gifts. This doesn't require a lot of fancy print work (although you always could go that route if you wanted.) I take my paintings to FedEx Kinko's, slap it on the color copier, reduce it to 75%, and print up as many as I want. I get my mats online at http://www.stu-artsupplies.com/ and clear envelopes at http://www.clearenvelopes.com/. So far, these have been well received. Way better than company pens or slick brochures.
Watercolor is about timing. For example, before I can go to the next layer of paint, or paint an area adjacent to the one I just worked on, I need to dry that original area. Watercolor on a recently painted area will have a "blooming" effect that you may or may not want. In other words, it waters down the paint you just put down rather than layering. I use a blow dryer and a paper towel all the time. I can finish just about any painting I work on in three hours.
I go to Richland College in Richardson Texas every Wednesday night to Wallace Hughes's class. Wallace is a local artist, and most of what I have learned about painting I learned from him. What I like about his class is we don't learn the "Wallace Hughes Method of Watercolor", we learn our own method. Everybody in the class has a very distinctive style. I can tell by looking at a painting whose it is. One of my classmates and I attended a meeting of the Southwest Watercolor Society a year ago, and I asked him to pick out my painting in the monthly contest. These were paintings of about thirty watercolorists (not our classmates) with their signatures covered with sticky notes. Without the slightest hint he guessed mine on the first try.
I love to enter contests. Sometimes I place, sometimes I don't, but just getting my items on display and listening to the comments while remaining incognito in the crowd is fun. I've been in a few art sales, but have found the Texas heat to be prohibitive. Since I have a day job, I don't think I'm hungry enough to sacrifice my weekends for what might not result in a profitable pastime. For the better known and publicized art shows, you have to have a booth with walls to hang your work. If this is a three day gig, you are looking at booth installation, taking your pieces down at night in case of rain, having a place to store them at night, and a hefty enrollment fee in the $350+ range. Some shows require that you be approved by a committee that will look at your work on slides including a slide of your work up in your booth. So you have to buy a booth, set it up, and take a picture of your work hanging in it just to be vetted. Don't think you want to build your own? $525 starting price. Need help installing (you are an artist after all)? That's another $100. So for $1,000, I might get to be in a show where I can sell a few nice paintings for $200 each. Contests are great. $15 entry fee, drop it off at the library conference room, and show up at the award ceremony to eat really nice party food and maybe wine and cheese!
The key is to keep this as a hobby. I do give away prints of some of my artwork as corporate gifts. This doesn't require a lot of fancy print work (although you always could go that route if you wanted.) I take my paintings to FedEx Kinko's, slap it on the color copier, reduce it to 75%, and print up as many as I want. I get my mats online at http://www.stu-artsupplies.com/ and clear envelopes at http://www.clearenvelopes.com/. So far, these have been well received. Way better than company pens or slick brochures.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Learning Piano in Middle Age
Like a lot of us, I took piano lessons as a child and quit around eleven. So when I inherited the family piano, it still took me two years before the excuses ran out. Finally, I was no longer wrapped up in all those important things, like finding a mate. I don't know about anybody else, but that sure did eat up a lot of my time. I told myself if I could practice for thirty days straight for an hour per day, I could justify getting a teacher. After 90 days of straight practicing I went to the Yellow Pages and found a teacher that was willing to come to my house, Eric Scortia. I had no idea I was getting a celebrity and an extremely well known teacher among families in the Irving, TX area, including Dr. Phil's when Phil's kids were children. His website is http://www.vitalorgan.org/
When I started up, I had to make a commitment to continue to practice an hour per day. In order to do so, I had to give up TV for that hour. Fortunately, my boyfriend is the better cook in the household and is OK with cooking while I practice. I'm telling you, having a "foodie" for a mate has benefits on so many levels! Our house is open between the kitchen and the living room, so we can hear each other. Plus, he likes listening to me practice, so it is a win-win. Having him listen to me practice also helps me get past my stage fright. I grew up practicing in the living room with the door shut while the rest of the family watched TV in the den. If I practiced scales, Dad would beat on the wall between us and yell, "Play a song!" Needless to say, I suffered a lot of performance anxiety when it came to piano. When I hear adults talk about their experiences as young piano students, it's not unusual to have a teacher or a parent that turns you off to piano with all the pressure and perfectionism. At least I didn't have an anal teacher. Mine were always very nurturing. Now when I make mistakes, which is all the time, it's not a big deal.
Why is it important to have a teacher? Why can't I just practice and learn new songs on my own? I did take about a two year hiatus from Eric and I wound up going from an hour a day to about an hour or two per week. I practiced the same old songs for those two years. I was so glad to get him back and my progress is back on track.
As an adult, what is different from learning as a child? As a child, I was not enthusiastic about learning how to read music. Therefore, I would have my teacher play the song for me and I would play by ear. The shortfall of this technique is that, as you get older and want to learn new songs, you cannot learn anything you don't already know the melody of, and then you have to do your own arrangements or keep getting friends to show you how to play songs and have a really good memory. As an adult, I no longer wanted to play strictly by ear. I was willing to do the hard work of learning how to sight read, which Eric is big on. We do some sight reading of fresh songs every lesson. Now there's something that will get you over your fear of playing in front of other people: sight reading on cue. I've often wondered, "How does Eric stand it? It's so bad the first go 'round." Well, that's about the only way for me to get better at it. And he's never complained.
Do I participate in recitals? For the first five years I did. It was me in my forties, three high school aged siblings, and 25 kids ten and under every Mother's Day at Northlake College. The audience was made up of parents and grandparents. How's that for pressure? I don't know if I will keep putting myself through that since it's stressful, but the good part is I have a goal to practice for whenever I have to work on a piece for the recital date. What I wanted to say to the families at the recitals was that I knew that many of the parents in the audience were frustrated pianists and needed to start taking lessons again along their kids. Dr. Phil did! Eric says he has lots of adult students, but they don't want to be in a recital. If you can get over the group picture (I look like the teacher rather than another student) it's good to have the experience of playing in front of an audience. The video clip attached is me in 2004 at a recital after two years of lessons. The second one is me today. Playing in front of my boyfriend with a camera is only slightly less stressful than playing in a recital. It's all about the journey, not the destination, with all hobbies.
I do not expect to ever do this for money. At one point I dreamt of being a wedding or party pianist and I started practicing wedding music to develop a repertoire. I now think it may very well never be in the cards for me to be good enough to play at parties or weddings and that's OK! I play for my own enjoyment which is a worthy cause. Perfectionism takes away from my enjoyment. I don't want to be the critical teacher or parent to myself. There's a lot to be said for doing a hobby because it's just so fun, regardless of talent! Want to keep your mind active to ward off dementia? Learning the piano is a lot more fulfilling than crossword puzzles! The secret is practicing an hour a day. With that kind of schedule, you will become hooked and your progress will be dramatic.
Next week: Watercolor
When I started up, I had to make a commitment to continue to practice an hour per day. In order to do so, I had to give up TV for that hour. Fortunately, my boyfriend is the better cook in the household and is OK with cooking while I practice. I'm telling you, having a "foodie" for a mate has benefits on so many levels! Our house is open between the kitchen and the living room, so we can hear each other. Plus, he likes listening to me practice, so it is a win-win. Having him listen to me practice also helps me get past my stage fright. I grew up practicing in the living room with the door shut while the rest of the family watched TV in the den. If I practiced scales, Dad would beat on the wall between us and yell, "Play a song!" Needless to say, I suffered a lot of performance anxiety when it came to piano. When I hear adults talk about their experiences as young piano students, it's not unusual to have a teacher or a parent that turns you off to piano with all the pressure and perfectionism. At least I didn't have an anal teacher. Mine were always very nurturing. Now when I make mistakes, which is all the time, it's not a big deal.
Why is it important to have a teacher? Why can't I just practice and learn new songs on my own? I did take about a two year hiatus from Eric and I wound up going from an hour a day to about an hour or two per week. I practiced the same old songs for those two years. I was so glad to get him back and my progress is back on track.
As an adult, what is different from learning as a child? As a child, I was not enthusiastic about learning how to read music. Therefore, I would have my teacher play the song for me and I would play by ear. The shortfall of this technique is that, as you get older and want to learn new songs, you cannot learn anything you don't already know the melody of, and then you have to do your own arrangements or keep getting friends to show you how to play songs and have a really good memory. As an adult, I no longer wanted to play strictly by ear. I was willing to do the hard work of learning how to sight read, which Eric is big on. We do some sight reading of fresh songs every lesson. Now there's something that will get you over your fear of playing in front of other people: sight reading on cue. I've often wondered, "How does Eric stand it? It's so bad the first go 'round." Well, that's about the only way for me to get better at it. And he's never complained.
Do I participate in recitals? For the first five years I did. It was me in my forties, three high school aged siblings, and 25 kids ten and under every Mother's Day at Northlake College. The audience was made up of parents and grandparents. How's that for pressure? I don't know if I will keep putting myself through that since it's stressful, but the good part is I have a goal to practice for whenever I have to work on a piece for the recital date. What I wanted to say to the families at the recitals was that I knew that many of the parents in the audience were frustrated pianists and needed to start taking lessons again along their kids. Dr. Phil did! Eric says he has lots of adult students, but they don't want to be in a recital. If you can get over the group picture (I look like the teacher rather than another student) it's good to have the experience of playing in front of an audience. The video clip attached is me in 2004 at a recital after two years of lessons. The second one is me today. Playing in front of my boyfriend with a camera is only slightly less stressful than playing in a recital. It's all about the journey, not the destination, with all hobbies.
I do not expect to ever do this for money. At one point I dreamt of being a wedding or party pianist and I started practicing wedding music to develop a repertoire. I now think it may very well never be in the cards for me to be good enough to play at parties or weddings and that's OK! I play for my own enjoyment which is a worthy cause. Perfectionism takes away from my enjoyment. I don't want to be the critical teacher or parent to myself. There's a lot to be said for doing a hobby because it's just so fun, regardless of talent! Want to keep your mind active to ward off dementia? Learning the piano is a lot more fulfilling than crossword puzzles! The secret is practicing an hour a day. With that kind of schedule, you will become hooked and your progress will be dramatic.
Next week: Watercolor
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Playing in the Clay
I probably have more hobbies than anybody I know. This blog will be part "how to", part experiencing my hobbies with me vicariously, and part pep talk to get people excited about getting out there and picking up my hobbies. This is my first time to blog. I've never even read a blog before. I spend ALL of extra time playing with my hobbies, and we will start with "playing in the clay".
The most common questions I get asked are "Do you own a kiln?" NO way! "Do you own a potter's wheel?" NO! I go down to the local community college and take a continuing education course. I've been taking the same course for four years. For the cost of the tuition, $120 per semester, I get the use of the kiln, the glazes, the wheels, and any input from the instructor I might want. All I buy is the clay and my hand tools.
How did I get started? I started in a high school art class when I was fourteen, but most of my peers started later in life. I quit after college, but picked it up again in my forties. It was like riding a bike. I picked up right where I left off with all my bad habits. "Throwing pots" on a wheel can be the most frustrating hobby in the world. One has to be able to center the clay and keep it that way. But I'm not a perfectionist. I would say 80% of my pots are a little bit off. I've learned to work around it. Nobody is going to get out their ruler and check to see that the rim of your pot is 1/16 of an inch wider on one side than the other side. If you hate throwing after trying it for two months, try handbuilding. Most colleges start you out with handbuilding anyway.
This year has been the year of the casserole dish. Most of my lids are fitting well, and now I am adding all kinds of textures such as sodium silicate (looks like scales) and circular stamps. I thought using them together would be too "busy" but actually it looks great! I'm using stains under the glazes to bring out the textures as much as possible. All of my toys (tools) I find at http://www.sheffield-pottery.com/ or Trinity Ceramic Supply. Last year was the year of the teapot, the year before that spice jar and lamp base, the year before that was the year of the coffee cup and the bowl. It's not that I don't throw other stuff, but I concentrate on that one item more than the others. In October I start taking an overglaze class (China painting.) I will cover it on the blog when I get there.
You can make a little money at this. What kind of prices do I charge? I'd say $35 for a nice casserole dish, $10 - $15 for a coffee cup, $20 for a spice jar. I sold a chess set for $100 once. Basically whatever the market will bear. But here's where I really get a kick: giving them away as gifts. If somebody is having a house warming party, I grab a bowl and throw it in a gift bag and head out the door. Corporate presents? (Yes, I'm a corporate slave.) Nothing goes over better than a homemade gift. Every time that client pours coffee she sees YOUR cup. Need to buy some love from that co-worker that can make or break you? Try a teapot. No more passive aggression. I keep my favorite stuff for myself. Every surface in my house is covered with pottery. The soup and coffee we drink is served in something I made. I never get bored with it.
Pottery started out as my greatest therapy and is still my greatest therapy. When I was fourteen, my sister (17) had ulcerative colitis. She was in the hospital week after week going through surgery, and my parents had to, of course, be with her. Fortunately, my freshman art teacher was a caring person and wanted to be there for me. She'd pick me up at the house on Saturdays and drive me to the high school where we would spend the day on the potters wheel. Through her example, I learned that hobbies can be a wonderful creative outlet for my emotions.
Next week we get into my next hobby: Piano.
Hobby Lady
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