to the moon and back

LOTR updated

A wonderfully gloomy and drizzly day yesterday. Wonderful because the weather provided incentive for me to stay inside and work on my article...which is pretty much finished, yay!! Just need to proofread it before sending it off. Jeff and I both spent yesterday indoors, working and reading and eating and playing music. It was an "apart but together" sort of day, where both of us spent most of the day in the same room together but were absorbed in our own activities.


After I finished working on my article, I took out my guitar and did some practising. I've been going through "Chords & Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar" by Arnie Berle (Amsco Publications, 1986). I'm still working on barre chords, and have been going over and over a few exercises in the book involving several widely used chord progressions, going through all the major keys. The point of the exercise is to develop some facility in playing the chords all over the fingerboard and avoiding making jumps from chord to chord.


At first it was absolutely agonizing...it took me eons to figure out which of the two barre forms of each chord should be used (or if the regular open chord was more appropriate), and where they were. And it's -still- somewhat agonizing, but not as much. It only takes me days to figure out the barre chords now instead of eons. :-)


Pretty liberating feeling, though, not being restricted to the first three frets. For you non-guitar people, an analogy would be having a top-of-the-line computer and a DSL connection, but using it only for word processing. Fine for some, but others may want to check out the Internet. :-)















Hey, apparently there's a new version of Into My Mother's Arms (author Sharon Jennings, my sister was the illustrator) on bookshelves as part of a Mother's Day promotion. The book has been packaged with a Mother's Day card inside, and the card has one of Ruth's illustrations from the story (a mother brushing her daughter's hair). I WANT A COPY!!!


And finally, here's a recent Sara/Annie conversation overheard by my sister:



Sara and Annie are playing in Annie's room. Annie is listening to her music doll chime "You Are My Sunshine". It is making her sad, so Sara sings it to her in a cheery way.



Sara: "Is that better, Annie?"


Annie: "Sara, I love you to the moon....and back."


Sara: "I love you too, Annie."


Annie: "To the moon and back?"


Sara: "Forever, Annie."



Today's Blatherpics:

In the boathouse, doing some songwriting.

Emma Powell.

Jeff driving the boat.


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