There's lots of reasons to lift weights: Toning up, staving off osteoporosis, increasing metabolism, increasing energy. Let's address these one at a time.
TONING UP: Obviously if you workout with weights, you will develop your muscles. Although muscles do not weigh more than fat (a pound of muscle and a pound of fat weigh the same), a pound of muscle WILL take up less space than a pound of fat. One third the space of fat to be exact. I have gained ten pounds in the last five years. I'm not happy about it, but the good news is, I still wear the same pant size that I did then (and looser). I started going to a personal trainer a year ago. I was about to turn 50 in January, and as I told him, I wanted to be in great shape for the BIG 5 - 0. He started me on all kinds of weight machines, free weights, and core exercises (balancing). Although I had been lifting weights at the gym by myself for since the early 90's, I was in a rut and my workouts didn't have any effect. So when he started me on the leg curls, I could barely do it at any weight. And I had been doing lunges for years! I gradually worked up to ten pounds per leg. When I started on chin ups, I couldn't do that either. Now I can chin 70 lbs. You won't believe this, but your muscles will get stronger a lot faster than you think.
OSTEOPOROSIS: We don't have a choice in the matter. If Mom and Grandma had osteoporosis, it's unavoidable. I'm white and short. I'm so genetically predisposed it simply doesn't make sense to hide my head in the sand and take osteoporosis medication after my bones become effected. I'm huge on prevention, or at least mitigation. I consume soy everyday for this reason. Here's a short item I found on the web about that:
"Soy and Your Bones
Written by Gloria Tsang, RDlast updated: September 2005
A new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in September 2005 found that intake of soy food was associated with a significantly lower risk of bone fracture, particularly among early post-menopausal women. Researchers studied associations between soy consumption and bone fractures in more than 24,000 postmenopausal Chinese women averaging 60 years of age. After following these women for 4 1/2 years, researchers found that the women in the highest soy intake group (13g soy protein daily) were at a 35 - 37 percent lowered risk of bone fractures than women in the lowest intake group (5g soy protein)."
The other thing you can do to mitigate your bone loss is weight bearing exercises. If you start young, you will be light years ahead of the game. Wait until you start shrinking and you will be that much weaker from lack of exercise. I started doing yoga as my weight bearing exercise of choice and eventually became a yoga instructor for five years.
My grandmother, probably 5'2" at one time in her life, died of old age, badly stooped from osteoporosis at well under 5 feet. My mother, 5'3" died at 61 of bone marrow cancer and was probably 4'10" from shrinkage of the bones from cancer and osteoporosis. Whatever it takes to get motivated, latch onto it. Bone loss is a very big deal. The stooping is not poor posture; it's tiny fractures. (By the way, if you DO want beautiful posture, lifting weights is the answer for that as well.)
INCREASING METABOLISM:
Fat doesn't burn fat. Muscle burns fat. The more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn. Therefore, you will reduce your fat the more you lift weights and build muscle. My metabolism came to a halt in my early 40's. Had I not done something to kick start it, I would have gotten bigger and bigger. I get up at 5:15 almost every morning and head down the gym to work out. It might be on weights or doing cardio work, but the key is to do something. Otherwise, I can forget about burning off what I eat. For people who know me, I love to eat more than I should. But look around us. Doesn't everybody? If everybody worked out religiously, they could burn off a good percentage of the excessive calories they are eating. But since they don't, they get to wear them. I'm telling you, exercise is 25% of any weight solution. The other 75% is getting the portion sizes down and eating the right things. I love my Weight Watcher leader, but she doesn't talk about exercise AT ALL. I guess she doesn't want to be a hypocrite. But the truth is, she's leaving out half the program. And her members would be far better served if she would emphasize this part of the equation.
INCREASING ENERGY:
The question I get from a lot of people when they see my artwork or hear about my piano practice schedule is "how do you have the energy for all this?" Lifting weights is really the answer. If I let me muscles go to jello, then they would respond like jello. Because I workout, my mind is sharper and I can get a lot more done (including at work). I WANT to do more. I sleep great. I am more emotionally upbeat. The key is to not let the excuses get in the way. This isn't just about better health, it's about a higher quality of life. They say living well is the best revenge.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
I am One with the Bike
When I first start biking in the fall or spring, I always go back through the soreness associated with the seat. Once I get past this (it does fade by the second week of weekend riding), biking is the best way to enjoy the weather and local sights. Dallas has so many great bike trails with beautiful foliage and birds, and not too many pedestrians.
Our old favorite was White Rock Lake. White Rock can be circumnavigated in an hour by a beginner (9.33 miles). It has gorgeous trees and 217 species of birds. There are lots of places to stop and relax if you get tired. White Rock has all levels of riders going around it. We get passed up by most bikers, but we have the pedestrians beaten!
Our new favorite is a trail off Royal going south to Northwest Highway (White Rock Creek Trail). The pedestrians are minimal and the trees are plentiful. You're basically riding through the woods on a paved trail.
Katy Trail is the worst for riding bikes as it's really a pedestrian trail. I don't like slamming on my brakes to avoid mothers with strollers or unpredictable dogs on leashes. Fun biking requires riding on autopilot and enjoying the scenery for it to be a true blast.
BENEFITS OF BIKING:
If you have knee problems, the doctor will recommend the stationary bike to strengthen it. Why not go the next step and ride outside? This is also the least damaging exercise for your joints. Hey, you're going to have to get your cardio in somewhere....why not do it on the one thing you learned and loved as a kid? All you need now is a bike and a bike rack (and don't forget those padded biking shorts.)
DANGERS OF BIKING:
We can't ride on city streets anymore. There's a lot more cars, and on a bike we're totally unprotected. Back in the 1980's I knew one woman who lost her leg when a driver on an isolated road hit her on her bike, throwing her 30 feet from the road. He drove off leaving her to die. This was in Tucson, and she was just lucky that another driver came along to rescue her. Another acquaintance of mine in El Paso, while driving drunk, hit a young person on a bike and drove away in a panic. I don't know if the biker lived. The driver eventually turned himself in. Here's the thing, we can try to brave it out, but what's the point when there are so many cool bike trails? Riding a bike on the street is about like walking on the street. You're equally unprotected. With people talking on cell phones, texting, and eating while driving, it's so not worth it.
BUYING A BIKE:
I've never paid more than $100 for a bike. My racing bike I bought for $100 from a guy in a cyclists club (worth over $1,000 new) and my el cheapo road bike I got at a garage sale for $25. Until you know whether you're going to ride the bike on a regular basis, why invest a lot of money? There are so many people who buy a bike and never ride it and you can find them all online. Before you buy it, ride it and make sure it's your size by riding it up and down the street. I've found buying new online is half the price of the what you can find in the store. Hint: Try out a bike in the store, then go find it online (Amazon).
BUYING A BIKE RACK:
Here's where you might want to spend some bucks. To get to the trails, you have to transport the bike. A cheaper bike rack will not protect your car. You will have to get one that positions the bikes away from the car so that it doesn't scratch up your paint job.
HEALTHY LIFESTYLE:
Health doesn't just happen. It actually takes an incredible amount of effort. Besides all the remedial work (medication, weight loss, kicking addictions, etc.), health requires a lot of proactive preventive measures. Like cardio to work your heart, avoiding greasy food, staying active mentally and physically, reducing stress, avoiding destructive people. We cannot expect a doctor to prescribe our lifestyle. It's up to us to (1) figure out HOW to get healthy and (2) make the CHOICE to live healthily (3) actually LIVE a healthy lifestyle.
I'm very lucky my boyfriend is on board with living healthily with me, but if he weren't it wouldn't matter. Just like not waiting for a doctor to prescribe my lifestyle, I can't wait for my mate to share or approve my lifestyle. I see lots of couples where one is a health nut and the partner is a couch potato. Oh well. My boyfriend not only supports me in getting my cardio in, he drags me out the door to do so. So yes, I'm very lucky he's a major walkaholic.
I'm far from perfect at being a fitness fanatic. In fact I live healthily about 50% - 75% of the time. I lie in bed when I should work out; I eat Mexican food a couple of times a week. But to offset these lapses, I have to make up where I can. The key is to make it as enjoyable as possible. I vary the routine as much as possible to keep it interesting and avoid burnout. Biking is one of the many ways we play outside together. It brings back all those feelings of joy we had as kids riding our bikes all over the place, he in Athens, Greece and I in Dickinson, TX. It's universal.
Now please enjoy my piano teacher, Eric Scortia, playing the piano.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Playing Guitar: Starting At Any Age
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!
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 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
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