Friends, Family & Carers Forum

[Former-Member]

@Shaz51 .. the first pic has come through, the cute baby meerkat.  Gorgeous baby he is too.

Oh okay ... my hubby is on quite doses of laxatives every day.  Parkinsons disease causes bad constipation, as does the steriod medications he is on for his encephalitis and adrenal failure (auto immune disorders).  Its a big problem for him.

Sherry 

[Former-Member]

@Shaz51  the pictures are finally through.  They are all lovely .. thank you.

Sherry 💕🤗

[Smc]

@Appleblossom, I took five years to finish a two year ceramics Cert. 4, so you're not the only one. 🙂 Had it's advantages. Being an artistic course, taking it slow meant there was more time to develop both skills and style.

Had fun at a friend's 50th birthday party last night. He's musically inclined, so a good part of the evening was spent sitting around playing bush band style folk music. I took violin and viola, and played a bit of both depending on the song and who else was playing. There was one other violist, and maybe 5-6 fiddlers? One flautist/whistle player, an accordionist, a few mandolin/banjo/banjo-mandolin type instruments, and three different variants of guitar, one of which I'd never seen before. A bodhran got picked up once or twice, but mostly percussion was good ole foot stomping.

I took an orange cake with to share for supper. It had about a cupful of orange pulp in it, and I spread the top with some citrusy jelly because it came out of the oven at the time we were meant to be leaving... no time to let it cool and ice it. Really yummy. Anyone want some? 🙂

[Adge]

Yum Orange cake @Smc Yes please.

Thanks @Former-Member

Adge

[Former-Member]

Hearing aids for dogs @Former-Member

[Shaz51]

sitting with you my @Former-Member 

can not wait to see @Former-Member  picture for dog`s hearing aids

[Adge]

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.-Charles Schulz

I love you no matter what you do, but do you have to do so much of it?-Jean Illsley Clarke

[Shaz51]

heyyy @Former-Member 

I hope you like leggings

[Appleblossom]

@Smc Cake looks yum and the birthday sounds lovely.

I have often liked the idea of Irish music culture but not really been able to tap into it.  I used to just look on because I did not know the songs.  Eventually I have found a way to do music that was accesible to me.  

Meerkats on the leg @Shaz51  Where do you get these pics

[Smc]

@Appleblossom, I think I recognised about 2-3 of the songs we played. For the most part, I'd listen to the first round or two, then start to join in, simple "one note per bar" first, gradually getting more complex as I got to know it.
It's a very different way of playing compared to Classical music. Classical, you're reading off the score and following your own part carefully. Folk/Celtic, you're listening to the other musicians and playing to complement what you're hearing... while there's a set tune at the base of it, a lot of what goes on around that tune is improvisation.

There was one teenage girl there who was taking lessons from the guy having his birthday. She'd learned one or two tunes off him, but otherwise she joined in playing "single note per bar" spiccato style in time with the music. It was really nice seeing all abilities included, and it got me thinking that this would have been how fiddle and other folk instruments would have been taught in days gone by. Pick up an instrument, join in as you can and learn as you go. 🙂 I was comparing music to language... so if formal music classes are like formal language classes, folk music "education" is probably more like a child learning language by hearing it, starting with "babababa" and moving onto "mum mum" etc.
Continuing the language analogy, I reckon my Classical music education is a good basis, because it's almost the equivalent of knowing a classical language like Latin. Even if you're among people who don't speak Latin, being the basis of so many other languages, it gives a starting point for picking their meaning. An understanding of time signatures, melody and harmony can be applied into any Western musical genre, and a fair few others too.