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Sing, dance, play an instrument ...... what?


idun
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Now some of you may be multi talented, or have one talent, I am sadly lacking.

I would love to be able to sing and draw or paint.

And when I say talent, well I cook and bake well, but not to the degree where I could say I was talented at it either. My OH is multi talented, music and sports, but he always says he would love to be able to draw or paint.

What would you love to be able to do, or what can you do?

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I would love to be able to SING !

I love all sorts of music be it Blues, Jazz, Rock, Opera and must admit I even find some of the Rap I hear from grandsons ( censored versions I suspect ..) clever and amusing but I can NOT sing in tune to save my life .

I do sing quietly to myself around the house but I would love to be able to belt something out full volume IN TUNE !!!

Otherwise I think I am a happy dabbler - paint a bit, swim a bit, read a lot, walk, sew, cook too much, DIY when needs must and , now we are back in UK, belong to French conversation group and have started Italian...but I still can't sing !
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You should get together with Mrs Gluey, Sue.

Loves to sing, but changes pitch about five times in each bar!

[:D]

Now sings when vacuuming, cooking, gardening, whatever.

However, as an early ballet dancer she has great poise and stance: and very good expressive body language. and loves all music, as do I.

Years back we went to a 60th birthday of one of her then directors, Derek; lovely man. Bored, as I tend to be as such gatherings I wandered into the large conservatory and found a large splendid electronic organ. Derek and I chatted: I am something of a musician too, having played rock guitar, sax, drums etc. Dragging out some music, Derek and I started quietly having fun. Gradually, all the other guests (seems they were bored witless too with the meaningless tittle tattle) drifted in. A small Northern lady (known in the office as The Poison Dwarf - oh life can be cruel) also came in and turned out she loved to sing but was also utterly tone deaf!

Not dismayed Mrs G and the PD formed an instant duo and started singing popular songs; older stuff from musicals etc; and they both had wondrous body movements and passion and really put their hearts into it and sang their little socks off!

The audience were both rolling around with laughter and speechless with admiration.........

And gave a long round of applause and shouts of "Encore!"

Which makes one think.................

[8-)]

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Mint - don't you play the piano?

 Another one here who loves music. I've always had a piano, and before we moved here sold my old one then bought a small Yamaha on ebay here.

After that, at first I practised regularly but since hurting my left elbow and right shoulder can't play for more than a few minutes. Also becoming lazy - it's hard work, keeping in practise.

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I sing, always, sometimes in a choir, and always in church.  Anything I like. I dance (or at least I did until the hip went) and am assures I wil be dancing again once it's done. (Feb next).  Ballet, ballroom, folk, historical, but not jazz (body won't bed that much), also been on stage quite a lot with am ops.

Cannot paint, nor play an instrument (would love to have done so, just left that to other family members), we are a very musical family but only my sister turned professional.

Unless I need to concentrate always have classic or easy listening in the background .. or sing away when cooking, ironing etc, often making it up as I go along.  And yes, I DO sing in tune!

I've never sung in the bath - there I read - my other passion!

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[quote user="Patf"]Mint - don't you play the piano?

 Another one here who loves music. I've always had a piano, and before we moved here sold my old one then bought a small Yamaha on ebay here.

After that, at first I practised regularly but since hurting my left elbow and right shoulder can't play for more than a few minutes. Also becoming lazy - it's hard work, keeping in practise.

[/quote]

Yes, Pat, I do.  Unlike you, I brought my piano with me.  I couldn't bear to be parted from it. It's moved with me quite a few times.  It's a Knight and cost considerably more than I wanted to pay but it's given me years and years of pleasure.

Practising, yes, gets harder as one gets older.  I have been trying to play a piece of music, new to me, for about 3 weeks now but I still haven't succeeded yet.  Getting there though, only a tiny error or two to sort out.

Don't you just love working out the fingering and going through the music in your head, even though you are not playing, but just to know how you will tackle the piece when you do go to your piano?

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I think you've got me going again Mint [:D]

I haven't tried any new pieces for ages, just go back to the old   favourites. Mostly the classics, but I also love Gershwin's songs, which are surprisingly difficult to play. He must have been so clever technically.

A few years ago I bought Blues Piano, which shows how to play blues chords, progressions and scales which I had never learned.

To counteract all that I have a series of 4 books of Geordie songs, so if anyone wants to join in ....

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 When we have a get together here in England, there is usually a sing song that just happens. And if Cushy Butterfield is sang, the last chorus is the words to the advert of Newcastle Brown Ale. And when they finish like that, it always makes me smile.

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[quote user="mint"]Rose, great to see you back................and looking as lovely as ever![kiss]

[/quote]

I wish I could play the piano... I have one and I tinker but I've never learned... one day maybe?

I am back from another long walk too... 1006 km this time from Seville to St James.  And I am looking a little trimmer too... I managed to lose 25kg this year... five years cancer free and feeling pretty good!

I hope all is good in your corner of France [kiss] [kiss]

p.s. I havent baked a carrot cake for ages

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[quote user="Patf"]ps Gluestick might like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBkF_priCUE

One of my favourite youtube clips.

[/quote]

Thank you, Pat and yes I very much did.

Not actually sure if I like the soprano sax. a sort of cross over with the clarinet which when played by such as Goodman I prefer.

That said, my favourite sax player (tenor) is/was Stan Getz.

And one of my  favourite Getz pieces is this: Blue Skies.

here:

When I started, trying, to learn to play sax, I had the wrong instrument, an alto sax. Well according to my teacher who played Tenor. Why did I try and learn Alto? Mainly 'cos I adored Take Five and Paul Desmond the sax player with Brubeck played Alto!

I did realise, however later on, how much I loved the deep "bark" of a tenor sax; hence Stan Getz.

Another great relaxing one here...

Here:

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[quote user="Patf"] Mostly the classics, but I also love Gershwin's songs, which are surprisingly difficult to play. He must have been so clever technically.

[/quote]

He was indeed, Pat.

His tour de force being, surely, Rhapsody in Blue?

BTW: Ms Gluey and I have been collecting re-recorded music from the 1920s and 1930s/40s for many years and we have many of the old standards, including, of course, Gershwin.

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I liked Blue Skies especially. As you say, a different quality from the soprano.

I don't know much about saxophone, apart from Sydney Bechet eg Si Tu Vois Ma  Mère. I think he lived in France for most of his adult life.

We live close to Marciac, and go to the Jazz festival sometimes,but I've never been to the evening concerts, where the better known bands play. Very expensive.

A combination of saxophone and dance - wish I could move like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI5l5KvlUQ8

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[quote user="Gluestick"]You should get together with Mrs Gluey, Sue.

Loves to sing, but changes pitch about five times in each bar!

[:D]

Now sings when vacuuming, cooking, gardening, whatever.

However, as an early ballet dancer she has great poise and stance: and very good expressive body language. and loves all music, as do I.

Years back we went to a 60th birthday of one of her then directors, Derek; lovely man. Bored, as I tend to be as such gatherings I wandered into the large conservatory and found a large splendid electronic organ. Derek and I chatted: I am something of a musician too, having played rock guitar, sax, drums etc. Dragging out some music, Derek and I started quietly having fun. Gradually, all the other guests (seems they were bored witless too with the meaningless tittle tattle) drifted in. A small Northern lady (known in the office as The Poison Dwarf - oh life can be cruel) also came in and turned out she loved to sing but was also utterly tone deaf!

Not dismayed Mrs G and the PD formed an instant duo and started singing popular songs; older stuff from musicals etc; and they both had wondrous body movements and passion and really put their hearts into it and sang their little socks off!

The audience were both rolling around with laughter and speechless with admiration.........

And gave a long round of applause and shouts of "Encore!"

Which makes one think.................

[8-)]

[/quote]

Crikey ,that made me laugh --images of the three of us together forming The Alternative Andrew Sisters tribute band eh ??!!

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Glad it gave you a good laugh, Sue.

In Church (Anglican Parish Church), since I sing in tune and reasonably well and since we have the services of a notable Organist and Choir Master who received an MBE for his services to Choral Music, I have had to learn to manage to ignore Mrs Gluey's singing!

She loves to sing and loves the music and now enjoys a voice somewhere between Mezzo and Contralto. If you like a cross somewhere between Cecilia Bartoli and Dame Clara Butt!

Very off-putting for moi...

I have been tempted to emulate that bloke in the folk group, Steeleye Span, here:

I have resisted, thus far, in case the Vicar thinks I am taking the rise out of him!

[:D]

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Confession time - I have always wanted to learn to tap dance (and no, not the joke 'but I fell in the sink').

I cannot sing. A friend organises an annual 'do' at a nearby restaurant that includes karaoke. How do so many people think they can sing!!!!! Really do need ear defenders.
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Quite some years ago, Paul, Mrs Gluey and I were staying at a delightful old style family hotel at Ventnor in the Isle of White.

Unbeknown to us then was the fact, Isle of White was a Jazz mecca and more so since the late Johnny Dankworth and his charming wife Cleo Lane used to run an annual Summer Jazz School just along the coast.

In the hotel, every Wednesday and Saturday, a jazz evening was organised; wonderful stuff!

Having a drink in the bar one Wednesday evening, I was chatting to the extremely accomplished electric piano player, buying him a pint and chatting. Turned out he was a well travelled session jazz musician and one evening, he was playing at a top and very expensive London night club, where many star performers came in to relax in the small hours after finishing their evening gigs....

One evening, in walks Errol Garner; and eventually, he agreed to sit in and play piano for a few numbers. At which point, a well known and extremely wealthy member, invariably well lubricated and well known to the managers, staggered up to the stage and demanded to sing along.......core problem being he was tone deaf and utterly hopeless! They indulged him due to the vast amount he used to spend every week.

So this guy turns to Errol Garner and asks "D' yer know Mishty?" hiccup, hiccup.

Garner, cool as a cucumber simply asks "Which key would you like it in?"

[:D]

P.S. For those who do not know, Errol Garner wrote "Misty": perhaps his most famous work...

[Www]

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[quote user="PaulT"]Confession time - I have always wanted to learn to tap dance (and no, not the joke 'but I fell in the sink').

I cannot sing. A friend organises an annual 'do' at a nearby restaurant that includes karaoke. How do so many people think they can sing!!!!! Really do need ear defenders.[/quote]

Oh, Paul, how you bring back memories!  I was in a tap-dancing group when I was studying.  Still got my tap shoes but, alas, I have forgotten the steps!

As to people who think they can sing.................how fervantly I agree with your remark!  I also include some famous singers but I won't name them here in case someone is an ardent fan[;-)]

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