Category Archives: piano works

Diana Stone Sunny uplands

Maybe It’s Just Me

Delta Ladies, Diana Stones Songs, history, music, Musings, other, Piano, piano works

Wow, Ukraine. I didn’t see that one coming. Just at the point where you think maybe it’s finally  getting better again. Strange days indeed. History repeats itself over and over again. On the home I am  a busy bee now and its all new beginnings and crossing fingers that that the fresh shoots will break through the soil with the various new musical ventures. I am a little nervous still and it will take me a while to get back in the saddle again.   The UK has just dropped its covid restrictions this week and what was mandatory is now advisory. How comfortable people are is a another matter of course, and if behaviour will change much initially. I suspect people will be slow at first and very cautiously lift the veil? Maybe, but we are only just out of February and what with storms and much else, “Easy does it” may still be the preferred approach.  I am slowly working through my legacy  projects and now I am about to tackle the “Delta Ladies” French Album finally as I have been   putting it off for the last 2 years or so for personal reasons. But I think the time has come. There is not a huge amount to be done on it actually, maybe an overdub or two on one track, and the rest will be mixing and editing mostly and the decks are clear to do it finally. I got totally confused about which recording interface to use as well but I have figured it all out now just about. 

Here is a recent Piano tune which I would like to dedicate to those in Ukraine struggling at this terrible time.

 

Away from music time ticks by a little faster perhaps than it did as we go into the third month of this year. This is a very uncertain time for the whole western world, lets hope we are all stil here in a couple of weeks time? I feel a bit “Cuban Missile Crisis, 9/11, we are all doomed” at the moment. Lets hope I am proved wrong. I wish I had more to say.

A Buddhist Prayer for Peace

May all beings everywhere plagued with sufferings of body and mind quickly be freed from their illnesses.
May those frightened cease to be afraid, and may those bound be free.
May the powerless find power and may people think of befriending one another.
May those who find themselves in trackless, fearful wildernesses – the children, the aged, the unprotected – be guarded by beneficent celestials, and may they swiftly attain Buddhahood. 

Hopefully I will see you out there somewhere. 
  

   

The days grow short when you reach…You know the rest.

Delta Ladies, Delta Ladies, Diana Stones Songs, Elephant Shelf, glass cage, music, other, piano works

It’s been pleasant and sunny and autumnal as you would expect from the time of year.
So what’s new?    The routine goes on as ever, practicing, writing, recording taking exercise and pondering the infinite. So the same old same old really. Plus a bit of anxiety creeping up on me again. I get to sleep OK but have constant dreaming it seems so I wake feeling exhausted.
As I write this I am also not in my happy place, I am in my grumpy place. Just because.  There is a glimmer on the horizon of some distant fresh new dawn but. At the time of writing I should have been at a rehearsal which was cancelled at short notice so I find myself at even more of a loose end than normal. I have also hit my tea saturation level.  I am not cooking up any new tunes at this moment either. Its Diwali and tomorrow is bonfire night so there has been a bit of random banging echoing through the dark.  My joints are rather sore too. My head is empty though of ideas and words at present. But hey that’s never stopped me before. I have decided if nothing much occurs I may just try and join a pub band to get a few bob extra come 2022. I get these mad ideas from time to time…..
Perhaps I need to lie down in a darkened room until the thought goes away. I had along phone call with a friend about a few things that are troubling me and that helped me quite a bit. 

 

 

 

 

 

A few thoughts on playing and composing music

Delta Ladies, Diana Stones Songs, Musings, piano works, whatever

I took myself out for a brief ride in the surround countryside today. It’s all looking wonderful out there. I didn’t take any pictures today though.  Life goes on pretty much the same as ever at the moment. A steady rhythm, week in and week out as the seasons change.

A few thoughts on playing and composing  music:

Weirdly I accidently learnt a Flanagan and Allen song, “Forget me not lane” I was playing through a late 1940s songbook. Original paper published music (piano copy), not a reprint. And played it a couple of times and I have now memorized it. The piano copies were made relatively easy to read so usually not more that 5 note harmony and never anything more than 3 ledger lines above the treble clef. Also most things I hear I can play a version of on Piano almost straight off. I could always do this to an extent but the ability to do it seems to have improved a lot. Violin is of course easy to do as mostly it’s only one note with the odd double stop. Its as if my subconscious does all the work now.  Also with the current collaborations I am having to stretch my music muscles a bit to learn the new material.  It’s still predominantly USA listeners to my online music at present. I think this is because its loosely either rock towards prog and or folk or jazz/blues influences. Europe tends towards pop/dance more. A few outliers in the east of europe and on to the far East. Of course the stats only really show listeners with an account in the main so the actual geographical distributions may be a bit skewed.

I realise that one thing I would like to do again is work with a lyricist. I always have music bubbling up but words not so much. In the 80s I use to get people to send me lyrics (in the post) which I would set to music and send them a cassette tape back.