Happy New Year!

 

I believe all of us are ready to see this year, 2020 go. It has certainly been a year of challenge, loss, change, chaos.  Yet I have also seen that this year has given us some unexpected gifts. In asking friends, what was an unexpected gift you got out of this pandemic? Some said they got to know their neighbors more. Others reconnected to estranged family members. Another said he got much needed down time. The list goes on. 

Here are some of the things I take away from this year. As you know, I lost most of my work as a professional therapeutic musician due to covid. This meant I had to reinvent myself and my way of making a living and I now work as a caregiver. I enjoy this work and having one steady job to support myself.  While I loved gigging and bringing music to so many different places, it was also a difficult lifestyle to never work the same schedule week after week. I can remember many nights waking up in the middle of the night and asking myself, "What day is tomorrow? Where am I supposed to be? " The same was true about the freelance financial life. It could be weeks before I received payment for a gig and sometimes my savings came close to depletion before I was got enough money to pay my bills and expenses for the month. 

The other gift about losing my professional musician "status" is that I can go back to doing music for the love of it and not to have to strain to try to support myself. I now do virtual music sessions and I love to learn new music to play for my nursing home residents. I love the growth that comes from my continual growing repertoire and new clients. 

Another unexpected gift is that I joined a Handbell choir at a church where I used to play percussion (snare drum).  When that ensemble ended due to Covid, I was invited to play the handbells.  We were able to keep that ensemble going because we can practice from a distance in the large sanctuary of the church.  I enjoyed this new role of mine, ringing the bells with others. To me it became a metaphor for listening to how my notes fit into the melody and how we all contributed to bringing harmony and beauty in a dark time. 

Above is a photo from Christmas Eve just before our ensemble rang, "Carol of the Bells." A great way to end the year. 

What have been your unexpected gifts 2020 brought? 

I am happy to see this year ends with hope. Vaccines on the horizon, a new president ready to take office. I wish you all much peace, good health and happiness this year and always! 

Setbacks lead to new directions

On Halloween, I cut my left index finger while working in a kitchen. Part of my fingertip got cut off, right where I have to fret the guitar. It's now been one month and I am still in a bandage.  Sounds like a setback, right? and, it is. But it also led me in a new direction. I'll tell you about it. 

There's a great guitarist and musician, Harvey Reid who is considered a pioneer in his work in using partial capos for guitar. A partial capo depresses 3 or more strings which enables one to get a unique sound from the guitar that resembles an open tuning. There's a whole website devoted to this topic right here at Partial Capo.Com.  I've explored various partial capo environments and it's not only fun but can lead to some new sounds. 

A few weeks ago, I delved into Harvey's Liberty Guitar tuning which uses a small change in tuning along with a partial capo. The result is that I am able to play a fair amount of music but instrumental and chords with just two fingers. That means I can still play music for my nursing home patients (virtually). 

I spent the morning writing down the tab notation for a few Christmas tunes. It is like working a puzzle, having to rethink the fretboard as I map out the melody and harmony. It is a lot of fun! 

Being injured need not be a bad thing. Of course, I would rather I was not injured. But what I have always seen is that setbacks always lead me to new directions if I look for the opportunities that come. 

If you play the guitar, I encourage you to find out about this method of guitar playing. The other thing it is good for is if you play with other guitarists, you can play the Liberty tuning chords which is a higher voicing than in standard 1st position chords. It sounds nice together. 

So, that's what I have been up to the last month. I am looking forward to Christmas and sharing holiday music and cheer. I am looking forward to complete healing of my finger. You will be hearing all about that too! 

Take good care and stay safe!