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I'm participating in the Wednesday Quotes link-up hosted by Marsha at Always Write. I thought I could write the post for WQ#158 on the weekend but between spending time with family and just taking time to relax, I didn't finish. And I didn't finish on Monday either, because there wasn't time between work and chorus rehearsal, and I just wanted to go to bed after rehearsal! In other words, I was busy with my inspirational hobby. The focus for that round of Wednesday Quotes was on Activities or Hobbies that Inspire. And yes, blogging is one of my hobbies that does inspire me, so I like to make time for it, but I choose to fit it into the crevices rather than plan my other activities around this. And so . . . this brief look at one of the activities or hobbies that inspires me was delayed and I'll combine it with a few quotes and thoughts related to WQ#159, which is Weather/Early Spring/Blooms.
Music has always been a favorite pastime. I started taking piano lessons when I was a preschooler so I've been playing keyboards for practically my entire life. I have been singing my whole life as well. As a teenager I learned some guitar and played clarinet in the school bands, but I didn't really stick with guitar, and didn't find the clarinet to be a particularly inspiring instrument, to be honest. Maybe if I'd switched to saxophone? Anyway. I stuck with singing and keyboards through my teen years. I sang and played in church, sang in the school chorus, sang in small ensembles formed at school and at church, played and sang in a band or two. I studied voice and piano during a short year at college. After college I continued my involvement with music at church, and I joined a performance chorus. I continued to be involved with church music when we moved to New Jersey and then to Maryland. While in Maryland I also started singing in another community chorus, and more recently here in Ohio I've been singing in a women's barbershop chorus.
Maybe what I should have done was add the quotes to my Twenty-Six Lists post this week. The list was my talents and creative skills, so I talked about music there - Twenty-Six Lists - The Talent Pool
No other acoustic instrument can match the piano's expressive range, and no electric instrument can match its mystery. ~Kenneth R. Miller
I love to hear a choir. I love the humanity . . . to see the faces of real people devoting themselves to a piece of music. I like the teamwork. It makes me feel optimistic about the human race when I see them cooperating like that. ~Paul McCartney
My favorite musical experiences have been playing in a worship band with my husband and two of my kids for several years; and singing in the Scioto Valley Chorus. Being able to listen to and play music is wonderful, but there is something extra special about making music together with others. Working together to blend voices or instruments and stay in sync with each other, fitting various rhythms and parts together to create harmony and beautiful sound . . . music that inspires those participating and those listening. It's powerful and uplifting.
Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It's transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, years back, to the very moment certain things happened in your life. It's uplifting, it's encouraging, it's strengthening. ~Aretha Franklin
Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, muysic occupies more areas of our brain than language does - humans are a musical species. ~Oliver Sacks
Flowers lead to books, which lead to thinking and not thinking and then more flowers and music, music. Then many more flowers and many more books. ~Maira Kalman
Mostly, though, I dream of good things . . . I dream that flowers will bloom in the streets again and music will play in the houses and kites will fly in the skies. ~Khaled Hosseini
Gardening is most assuredly NOT one of my hobbies. I know very little about gardening, and I don't enjoy it either. When we lived in Maryland, we had a large yard with lots of potential for gardens, but I wasn't about to do any of the work, so we opted for the simplest possible landscape design. I was happy to have my husband do whatever he had time to do with the landscaping and flower beds, and the result was an untamed wildflower look that suited me in every way.
There are always flowers for those who want to see them. ~Henri Matisse
I absolutely love walking through conservatories and gardens and enjoying all the different flowers and plants in creative and beautifully manicured plantings and designs. And it's always been a treat to walk through a greenhouse and see row upon row of pansies or begonias or poinsettias. That makes my soul happy.
If I had a flower for every time I thought of you . . . I could walk through my garden forever. ~Alfred Lord Tennyson
But since digging in the dirt and actually tending plants myself doesn't make me happy, my choice for the past several years has been to buy myself a cheap bouquet (usually on clearance!) every week or two so I can always have fresh flowers in my dining room. It's a little luxury for myself, but one I consider worthwhile because it just brings some joy and cheer.
In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends. ~Okakura Kakuzo
Where flowers bloom so does hope. ~Lady Bird Johnson
My favorite flowers include tulips, lily of the valley, and daisies. Simple flowers that are signs of spring and hope.
Blossom by blossom the spring begins. ~Algernon Charles Swinburne
Wednesday Quotes 2024 is hosted by Marsha at Always Write. This post was intended to be linked at #WQ #158: Activities/Hobbies/Month End Review but will instead be linked at #WQ #159: Weather/Early Spring/Blooms
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I realized today that, when I commented on your 26 lists post, I didn't comment about your singing and playing piano. I meant to circle around to that and say that I am jealous of your ability to play the piano and your skill at being able to just play a new piece. When I was in college, I had to take two different music classes. Luckily, I got the professor who didn't make us learn to play with our left hands. Of course, the music we made wasn't very pretty! The second class was a different story! I can sing fairly well, but I cannot sing acapella unless it is a song like Jingle Bells or Silent Night...something that is so deeply ingrained in my brain. If I try to sing harmony with another person, I will inevitably sing their part because I can't "hear" my part! You are blessed with this musical ability, Kym!
ReplyDeletehttps://marshainthemiddle.com/
I think my piano playing is good enough (or maybe well-suited would be the more positive way to word it) for how I use the skill, if that makes sense. Mostly my playing is in a worship band at church, so I don't need to be able to blow anyone away with a brilliant piano solo, I just need to be able to fill and style around the chords. I'm very grateful for the ability to hear and sing harmony, and that it comes relatively easily to me, but it is a learned skill that I think almost anyone can learn! It's just more work for some! Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
DeleteAh! You're a woman of many talents, Kym. Even though we grew up in India, my Dad's brothers would do a few barbershop songs together. Have never heard a women's group do it, I'm off to Google for some!
ReplyDeleteI think many people are more familiar with men's barbershop. Here's the Sweet Adelines Int'l youtube channel if you want an almost endless rabbithole! https://www.youtube.com/user/SweetAdelineIntl
DeleteKym, you are so talented. I started playing Three Blind Mice by ear on the piano when I was a toddler - 2 or 3. My mother played the piano and organ at church and led the children's choir, so I started singing early as well. She taught piano lessons when I was in elementary school. My lessons started as she began cooking dinner. She would say, "That's the wrong note, Marsha." I would argue that she wasn't in the room so how did she know. Long story short, some of her students became accomplished pianists. I did not. I still loved the piano and playing, and I can't tell you how many times I embarrassed myself trying to play in church. I sang successfully until I didn't, but I gave up trying to play in my late 50s early 60s when I had a chance to sell the piano and make room in the living room. One of my neighbors then could begin his childhood career as a budding pianist taking lessons from his grandma who was a church pianist. :) That's my musical history in a nutshell. :)
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