Christmas Party

Yesterday was our family’s annual Christmas party. Mike was there, obviously, as were his dad and grandma, Dan, Lindsay, Melanie, Kenny, Jeff, Joey, Denny, Shannon, Ryan, and the regular people my parents invite.

At one point, I went over and talked to Marilyn, someone who has been coming with her husband to these parties for as long as I can remember. Her husband, Frank, dressed up as Santa Claus when I was five!! (We have the home video.) Anyway, though, I recalled one particular thing abou the party when I was six. Dad was talking to Marilyn, and commented for the camera that she is a very accomplished musician, specifically with the piano. Well, I’m still interested in learning how to play, thanks to Jason showing me the C scale and the arpeggio. So, I pulled out one of my Beatle music books, because I learn best when there’s a visual, instead of someone just describing how something’s done. So, I asked if she’d show me how to read piano music, and she went over it, and went over the main three chords for the keys of C, F, and G, I believe it was.

After that, I was just naming random songs that I like, such as the Halleluah Chorus, and she was just able to think about it for a second, and start playing. And she is an incredible sight reader. I showed her In My Life, the Beatles song from Revolver, and she was just able to start singing it, perfectly in tune, perfectly timed, everything. She only sang about two lines, cuz it was something she was showing me on piano about the piano lines to play, but still!! I’ve seen people sight read, and come close to the tune, or sight read perfectly with the notes, but slowly because they’re unsure of the speed, but I’ve never seen anyone just look at music and start singing up to speed, perfectly in tune!!!

And then, this, this is the most amazing part. I was thinking of Jason throughout this entire thing, and I was mentioning how he’d offered to teach me piano, yada. yada, yada, and I told Marilyn about him giving me a taste for classical. Then, I told her about how he’d had me listen to Bach’s Fugue in G minor, and asked if she’d heard it. She said something about how much she liked that piece, and SHE STARTED PLAYING IT!!!! She actually started playing it!! But she didn’t have it memorized, so she couldn’t do that much, but then I remembered that I still have that copy of it, cuz I forgot to give it back to Jason. So, I nabbed that copy, and she played through most of it, but when she got halfway through page five, she stopped because she didn’t have a foot pedal to use, since it was a keyboard I’d brought down. But still, she played the Fugue!! It was awesome to hear!!

Let’s see . . . Ryan gave me a twenty dollar gift certificate to Best Buy, Shannon got me this bath soap set thing or something like that, and apples. (Lol. Because of what I’d put in here about liking apples so much. She didn’t know I meant the Delicious Orchards ones. Oh, well. I like other apples, but the D.O. ones have spoiled me for life.) Anyway, Melanie got me a key chain of a pineapple, which was awesome. Not only do I still collect key chains, I don’t have one like that. And she got me a John Lennon tapestry. Admittedly, I already have it, but hey, I don’t mind having two. I shall have a house with double doors later on, and put one tapestry on each door. Actually, that’d be a pretty cool entrance to my future Beatle room.

Okay, I’m gonna go, cuz I think I’m using up all my space here. JASON!!!! NOTE ME ALREADY!! I MEAN, COME ON, I’M MENTIONING THE FUGUE!!!

–Notes–

Oh that sounds like a lovely time. I wish I could play piano, I guess I’ll settle for sax. Wow. I’m wearing a Beatles shirt right now. Well…I thought it was amusing. Hope you don’t mind I added you to my favorites. Later Days [Polysemy]
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The fugue rocks! everyone must hear it, it should be law that you need to hear it. anyways, sleeping horribly, think I have strep throat, and a nasty fever. and to top it off, still have the writer’s block. I’m just to untired/stubborn to go and rest. drop me a line when ya get this. See ya round. [Harlequinn’s_Tear]
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Dear Kate, I am mailing you up copies of the lessons in the piano book that taught me to play. It’s quite easy to understand, if not as thorough as I’d have liked. But, it teaches you the chords, scales, terminology, timing, etc. Hope it helps. I remember how well Jason played…what, 6 years ago, I think? It’s one o’ the few things I still miss about him. [HyacatDuncan]