Comments:

2004-02-21 13:52:18
I don't know what I would ever be able to do if I could never play my clarinet again. I hope you can pick up the piano again. I bet you could find a teacher in the Chicago area who has done work with blind and partially blind students, Chicago is such a wonderful musical haven. It's amazing what music can do to make someone feel better. Have fun at the diarist shindig tonite. I'm jealous. -------------------------------

2004-02-21 14:25:20
jack's right about the lessons, i'm sure you could do a search. he's also right to be jealous not to be attending tonight's "do," with the rest of us blog groupies. yay! -------------------------------

2004-02-21 19:27:15
Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt were also ungodly talented at piano performance. Let's not forget Rachmaninoff's contemporary, Dmitri Shostakovich, who was pretty good at it, too. One of the things that made Rachmaninoff so amazing, though, and also one of the things that makes some of his pieces so difficult for mere mortals, is the fact that the man had ridiculously huge hands. Like, tennis racket huge. I seem to recall one of my music profs telling me that your average piano player can reach a span of a Major 10th or 11th, but Rachmaninoff's hands were so large he could reach spans of a Major 13th (1.5 octaves) or 14th. -------------------------------

2004-02-21 20:39:08
I'm the exact opposite - I learned to play by the Suzuki method. Completely by ear for the first four years or so. I *can* read music, but I still play by ear. Music reading comes in handy for singing and picking things out, but I'm not fast enough to sight read pieces I don't know. I wish I could do it your way! -------------------------------

2004-02-21 20:55:30
Shine is my very favorite movie! :) -------------------------------

2004-02-21 20:58:41
you should have worn the corset. i would have. however, i have no issues with itis up to my chin. i wish i could read music. i hate that i cant. -------------------------------

2004-02-21 22:07:30
Holy hell! 13th?! You should take up the piano again. *grins like a maniac* I love the piano; I've played for 9 years. Unfortunately, I have carnie hands, making it difficult for me to reach more than an octave... -------------------------------

2004-02-21 22:44:23
Starbucks carmel soy triple shot.....let me just die now cuz it doesn't get too much better. -------------------------------

2004-02-21 23:26:07
So loving your journal, hon...xox -------------------------------

2004-02-22 00:17:34
Starbucks Mocha frappucino with extra chocolate, even when there's three feet of snow on the ground. :))) -------------------------------

2004-02-22 01:35:40
When you wear the corset, wear it over a fishnet or mesh or even a lycra body suit. You won't feel as nekkid :) Must have been Geoffrey Rush night, I watched Quills. Looove Rachmaninoff, but I've never seen Shine--you see a problem with that? -------------------------------

2004-02-22 02:03:56
Most of the trained classical musicians I know can't play by ear either (mind you I don't know any people who at the level of being solo concert performers, I just know people who did music at university): it seems to be something you need some kind of imperative to learn, it's not a natural result of musical talent. People who learn to read music early on normally don't have an incentive to really work at playing by ear -- people who teach themselves usually do. -------------------------------

2004-02-22 02:06:18
Oh yeah, and the people I know who taught themselves keyboard or guitar (people who teach themselves seem to usually do it by ear) always feel inadequate as "real musicians" because they struggle a lot to sight-read, even after they finish struggling to read music at all. And the people who can sight read in turn envy those who can play by ear... -------------------------------