Enough of the weird

Okay, so i don’t want this blog to turn into a collection of random news stories, but please forgive me one last one. I’ve eaten a few strange things in my life, peas on toast, tomato sauce sandwiches, but now, the BBC is reporting, Jamie Oliver is proposing feeding squirrels to schools! Maybe this is another way of Gordon Brown increasing cash-flow in schools, but I hope the dishes all have warnings for those with nut-allergies! 

Many strings to my bow

Tomorrow I have the unusual requirement of playing the cello and the double bass in the same concert. Not at the same time, thankfully, but nevertheless it’s not without its problems. The fingerings are different (the cello fingering covers a fourth, and only a tone on the bass), the bow-weight and finger-spacings are different. It’s only to accompany some pupils, but is an interesting prospect. Other orchestral players will double instruments – violinista/violists, flautists, clarinetists etc. – but I don;t know how they do it. Myself, I try to divide my brain in two, which leaves me with about 50% of the mental concentration on playing each instrument.

Wish me luck.

‘NATO’ to jam mobiles in theatres

No, not our friendly war-debating NATO, but the National Association of Theatre Owners in America. I found this link on another site to a story about US action against ‘cellphones’ in American Theatres. There’s been a lot of debate about jamming phones in theatres and concert halls, and most people (myself included) are in favour of it. What I found more startling was the comment meant as an aside in the ‘Christian Science Monitor’ article that Catholic churches in Mexico are already using Israeli Military jamming equipment to stop interuptions to church services…

Just run that by me again…who brokered that deal?!?

You couldn’t make this up…

You’d be hard pushed to find someone in the UK who isn’t sceptical about one facet of European Union legisltion or another, but I read with incredulity an article in the New York Times today. Apparently pipe organs in churches, of which there are estimated to be 20,000 in the UK, powered by electronic means rather than manual bellows will fall foul of new regulations concerning safe amounts of lead in public places. Hopefully the writer had his tongue in his cheek when reassuring the public that “existing organs will not be affected“! I have to admit it wasn’t the first subject that sprang to mind when considering what aspect of a pipe organ could be a health hazard.

NY Times: “Europe declares pipe organs health hazard”

He was part of the furniture…

I write this post today from unfamiliar surroundings. My computer is on the opposite side of the room to usual, which in itself is a little unsettling. It’s also on the dining table. A plain, flat table which makes it seems like it’s part of a trendy open-plan office. Except it’s not, it’s in the dining room.

The computer never really sat on the world’s most elaborate piece of furniture. I mean, it was shiny and black – something which was quite trendy and popular in the nineties. It had drawers and a little slidy-out shelf for the keyboard which had always come out too far and started to lean downwards (something it had done since the day it was put together). I remember the eagerness with which it was built, from it’s self-assembly pack in my bedroom when I was 14. It’s travelled with me to Birmingham, and then on to Cardiff in transit vans and cars.

Today, however, it died. It had been looking weak and tired for a while now, a little unsteady on its legs. Whilst moving it back into place after the decorator had gone, one end fell away and it went crashing to the ground and splintered into a collection of black wood and screws.

It seemed so familiar, and now it is gone.

Our computer desk, with sliding shelf and two drawers: 1993-2006.

Etudes – “gesundheit”

Can you keep a secret?

If I tell you something, do you promise not to tell anyone?

I think I’m addicted to studies! I always tried to keep my distance from them, but now I’ve turned into the kind of musician I always feared. Left with an unexpected, and unscheduled, 45 minutes to practice, I whiled away the time with scales (standard thing), then Popper and Duport studies – not a single piece in sight! Suddenly I started thinking about what I have been working on lately, and I seem to be eating my way through studies. It started as a slight craving, and now it’s a full-blown addiction. I can feel my hormones and endorphines changing balance.

Quick – send for the musical equivalent of Gillian McKeith!

 For those of you of a nervous disposition, don’t even think about this link – A Guide to the Popper Etudes for Cello

Profession: Unknown

I try to read ‘Little Red Boat’ everyday, and today’s entry from Anna about being asked whether she was a ‘jounalist’ got me thinking. Asked by a stranger in an airport, she had a major dilemna about whether she was an aspiring / bona fide / fraudulant / qualified / failing blogger /writer /journalist. And lately, I’ve experienced the same.

On the 1st of March I talked about my plans to joing Morgernstern’s Diary Service. And I’m pleased to say it’s happening. It means that I can now say I’m a musician as I belong to a ‘musicians’ answering service’. I was, of course, already a musician – but now it seems to have greater credentials. It has weight. So I’m a musician.

However, if someone were to analyse my time management, or my accounts, they would conclude that I’m a cello and bass teacher. Afterall, I spend 16 hours over 4 days teaching. I earn the majority of my income for teaching. I qualify for a teacher’s pension for Christ’s sake! So I’m a teacher. 

Okay, so I’m a musician who teaches – which seems a bit of a cop-out, like I’m teaching because I’m not succesful enough at being a musician. But then, maybe I’m a teacher who also plays – but this just makes me seem like a desperate wanabe, clinging to the idea that my life hasn’t become what it clearly has become.

And what do I put on an official form? Luckily there isn’t a census looming or I’d be in crisis – you only get the one space you know! Maybe I’ll flit and change as the mood takes me…’teacher’ when I need to seem sorted and responsible, and ‘musician’ when I want to seem arty and Bohemian.

That’ll do it for now…

A Musician’s Baggage

This week we have the decorators in. I say ‘decorators’ – I actually mean the singular. This meant shuffling around the contents of our house in the manner of one of those sliding puzzles you have as a child. The skill of those puzzles is being able to think at least 6 moves ahead, which just doesn’t happen when you’re dealing with real furniture. With real furniture you tend to prioritise according to the weight of each item.

Our house is a mess. I write this now as the lovely Sarah roots around under, over and inside furniture looking for her copy of the Bach double violin concerto, and the hunt is not going well. You see, the problem is that each and every musician takes around their own small version of the Bodleian library with them whenever they move. You have your solo music, your chamber music, you orchestral excerpts and photocopied parts, you have your teaching books, then you have your cds, your dvds…you have so much stuff. I mean, we could open our own small branch library. I’ve always fantasised about having a room where the music, books and cds are kept – a quiet room. But for now it’s stuffed everywhere – which makes the hunt for the Bach difficult.

Is it just us, or does every musician have this much baggage? Doesn’t it really get on the nerves of your other half if they’re not a musician?

Excuses as a stream-of-consciousness

Okay, so not the best start

My blog is barely a few weeks old, and already I’m leaving it a little neglected.

My excuse? A busy week – here are the highlights:

Stress, piano accompaniment for a competition, stress, winning pupil, teaching, frustration, pupil concert, training strings, stress, lesson, Bristol, London, Reading, Shostakovich, conducting, badly, stress, upset tummy, toilet, hunger, nice food, toilet, teaching, decorator, stress, mess, stress, schools assemblies, stress, blog.

So there!

I promise to be better.

What’s in a name?

Until WordPress gets it’s own spellchecker, I’ll continue to have open thefreedictionary.com in a different window. By now almost everyone in the world will have googled themselves, so I thought I’d look myself (‘Dury’) up in the dictionary. I got the usual results relating to Ian Dury (the poet and singer who I’m named after), but a few other surprising results.

Firstly I have a memorial. The Dury Memorial, according to the Canadian Veterans’ Affairs Website, is “a beautifully landscaped park, complete with stately maples”. How many people can say they have a memorial?

I was also surprised by a slightly more contemporary reference to do with the Gorillaz. They released a promotional CD of Interviews titled “We are the Dury”. Although they have a rather exciting website at Gorillaz.com, I have yet to find an explanation of the title…