Subject: Adventures in Creative Futility: Organ Lessons 33 and 34 Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 07:25:32 -0700 From: "James H. H. Lampert" To: The "Adventures in Creative Futility" Network Well, after over a week's delay on Lesson 33, and a couple of days on Lesson 34, here they are, my first two lessons after I almost didn't do my first recital. Lesson 33 We finally went back to work on Flor Peeters' "Little Organ Book." At Maestro York's suggestion, I tried "Now, my Tongue. . ." practically cold (would that make it a serving of cold tongue?), which I'd touched maybe twice in the past two months (make up your own bad puns, gastronomic or sexual as you see fit; please don't share them). I had a few false starts, but actually, I played it reasonably well. Well enough that Maestro York decided to start me on another piece, the setting of "Father, We Thank Thee for the Night" on page 9. I seem to be picking it up rather quickly, and if I'd had enough free time to practice it, maybe by now, I'd have it. We also talked briefly about "All Things Bright and Beautiful" and "Morning Has Broken," probably the only two hymns I'm sufficiently interested in to where I'd like to learn them as an end in itself, rather than just as an exercise to build my skills. I also gave Maestro York a copy of my Beethoven arrangement; he already had another student in mind who would probably benefit from learning it. I also managed to get in almost an hour of practice time after my lesson, during which I poked around with both "Morning has Broken" and "All Things Bright and Beautiful," and also (having been inspired by the upcoming concert by Robert Ampt and Amy Johansen at Spreckels, and by my discovery that I could figure out the tune by ear) Waltzing Matilda (Just experimenting, I've found that one measure seems [so far] to work best with, of all things, a VII-dim chord [?]; kind of surprising for a folk song). I found that I could get fairly sophisticated with the pedal part on it. Probably more sophisticated than I'm capable of playing consistently well. (YET!) Speaking of pedaling, something has occurred to me about my "very unconventional" pedaling on the Beethoven: it leaves room for a possible left-foot accompaniment. Wouldn't THAT be fun (assuming I could do it AT ALL)! Lesson 34 Unfortunately, I had no opportunity to practice between Lessons 33 and 34. I did, however, manage to make some progress on "Father, We Thank Thee . . .", and also on some pedal exercises we had started in Lesson 33. -- James H. H. Lampert http://www.hb.quik.com/jamesl