playing in the dark

Our power was out for several hours this evening--with all the super strong winds outside I'm not surprised.  In any case, I was trying to figure out what to do with myself w/o electricity (no internet, no TiVo, no stove for cooking... what's a girl to do?).  I decided to give my hand at playing piano in the dark (no electricity needed for Steinway).  I've been working on Danzas Argentinas by Ginastera, and my teacher had made a comment at my last lesson about my phrasing at one particular section of the piece, and although I'd been working on it since then, it still hadn't really clicked and felt comfortable in my hands.... until i played in the dark, that is.  Wow, my other senses were so amazingly alert and in tune without my being able to see my hands.  The phrasing of the double melody line in the right hand instantly sang to me what it wanted to be.  What surprised me even more, though, was that I could actually feel a difference in my thought process when I closed my eyes versus when I had my eyes open in the dark.  When I closed my eyes I was accessing a different part of the brain and my muscle memory ruled (which wasn't a good thing because my muscle memory was playing the phrasing the old way)... but when I opened my eyes, I was relying on my memory of the note names and listening very intently to the sound of the output.  I can see that this will be an amazing thing for me to do more often.  I'm glad I have the black curtains on the door to my piano studio to block out daytime distractions... but now I know to also turn the lights off and maybe lie a blanket along the strip of light that leaks through at the bottom of the curtains.

On some other notes, a friend bought an amazing piano footstool for me at a silent auction... it's adjustable to 7 different heights and is super easy to change for each student that comes in the door.  I'm so excited!  www.pianofootrest.com

I've been keeping up with the daily yoga and still feeling amazing.

yoga

I'm seven days in now to a daily yoga practice. Boy, do I feel fabulous! I finally got all the great props I need to aid the poses -bolsters, blocks, strap, blankets- I'm working through "yoga a gem for women" by Geeta Iyengar. I've been a student of Iyengar yoga for over 12 years, but hadn't practiced in a couple of years, and I've never done a daily practice, and I never had the props at home to encourage me. So, now I start this amazing journey... great thing is that already I'm feeling stronger in my lower back, which is really helping me at the piano. I'm working on a technically difficult piece that historically I've been tensing up while playing, and lately have been more at ease while playing, but last night I made it through the entire piece with almost no tension, and it felt really easy! I could really feel my back holding me up.

On Monday night I returned to my original yoga teacher... I had studied with him for 7 years I think, but hadn't seen him in 5 or so. Since I moved I'm now about 25 minutes from his studio... and I can tell you that as soon as I saw him and heard his voice, I felt like I was home. Every time he talked us through the poses and the affirmation he gave during the holding of them felt so comfortable and familiar, and wonderful! It's great to be back.

25 Things about me

All my friends on Facebook were making lists about themselves... I enjoyed reading them so much I finally agreed to make a list of my own. So, here it is.

1. I once got stuck in a moat at a castle in England by jumping off a wall that I couldn't re-scale. It was early in the morning when it would be hours before anyone would find me.

2. I never dreamed of being a professional pianist. When I was very little I wanted to be a meter maid so I could ride around in the cute little truck. In high school I thought I might study Latin and Greek. I studied engineering in college. Took a while, but I'm very very happy to have found something I am truly passionate about--performing and teaching music.

3. At pre-school I used to read stories aloud to all the other kids.

4. As my high school friends would tell you, I used to wear huge plastic flowers and knitting needles in my hair.

5. My hips are super flexible. As a kid I would always put my feet behind my head and in yoga and dance classes those hip opening stretches never feel like they're doing anything for me.

6. I am typing this as I walk on my treadmill. I figured out how to set up my laptop on the control panel and multi-task that way.

7. I come from a long line of gardeners; our cousins have pics of our grandma and great-grandma sitting amongst their flowers. My grandma and sisters all had specific flowers they specialized in growing. I've come to really love gardening the past couple of years and built an herb spiral in my back yard out of 2.5 tons of local quarry stone.

8. One of my favorite performances ever was dancing tango in Evita on the stage at Longwood Gardens. I wish I had had dance lessons as a kid, because I often think I love dance as much or more than playing piano--but not starting until the 20's made it more difficult to go the pro route.

9. I'm a direct descendant of Henry Hudson (or so I've been told).

10. I took my application to Cornell University to the post office at 10 pm on the day the postmark was due. I got my application to Glamour Magazine's Top Ten College Women to the post office 10 minutes before closing on the day the postmark was due, and hyperventilated for about 20 minutes afterward because I ran through the bitter cold across campus to get it to the last post office that was still open before it closed. Both were successful applications.

11. Speaking of procrastinating, I was the only person in my high school AP English class that had to take the final exam because of missing the grade cut-off (I had a D every other marking period for turning papers in late, and Aís every other marking period). I really hate writing, but I got a 99 out of 100 on my final exam essay.

12. I still procrastinate but I've gotten it mostly under control.

13. My husband and I are mostly vegetarian (I say mostly, because we are known to eat fish at restaurants). I absolutely love to cook, and one of my favorite activities is browsing cookbooks looking for (vegan) recipes that use ingredients I have that need to be used up. I really love the energy I've had since cutting back on my dairy tremendously, and my inherited high cholesterol is no more.

14. My students' piano recital in May is my favorite day of the year.

15. My husband and I got married aboard the "Catherine Marie" dinner yacht. The band played the theme from the "Love Boat" while the guests were boarding.

16. I've always struggled with a out-of-whack menstrual cycle. If I'm not actively managing my diet, exercise, etc, my mood swings take control and I'm usually only productive for 2 weeks out of the month. I'm so sincerely sorry to everyone in my life who has been on the receiving end of this. I love you all. Good news is now I know how to manage through diet, exercise, and discipline.

17. I was mis-diagnosed with epilepsy in college because I was having continual seizures and arm thrashing throughout lectures. My first year out of college I used to kick the underside of conference room tables and had to use a walker because my legs would collapse underneath of me at unexpected times. After tons of doctors and a couple years of mind-numbing meds, I was finally diagnosed with a psychosomatic "conversion disorder" and was cured through hypnotherapy and a career move from banking to music. I've been healthy for well over 10 years now, but my legs still occasionally give out when I am stressed. I don't mind talking about it.

18. I come from a family of scientists. I'm pretty sure I was the only kid on the block with a lens grinding machine, a chemical separator, tons of oscilloscopes and 50 years of Scientific American in the basement. Before I met my husband I dated a long string of scientists. Although I think scientifically about most everything, I'm glad to have "broken free".

19. I used to give names for 6 sides of my personality: Catherine Cassandra Kooten Kalesa Creusa and Tarin. I actually don't remember what they were now.

20. I am embarrassed to admit that I like watching The People's Court. Marilyn Milian rocks.

21. I used to have such a messy room that I had to refer to the "strategically placed footholes" when my mom said I had to have a path from the door to the bed. Now I'm on a super-organizing bent and my house is most of the time very neat. (helps to have a husband who hates messes!)

22. I just started making a t-shirt quilt. I'm still in the color/design planning stages, but I have confidence I will complete this project.

23. I've studied Iyengar Yoga for over 12 years now, more intently in some years than others. I'm returning to it now after a a couple of years of not practicing much, and I'm very excited. I've been studying with an Alexander Technique teacher for a little over a year now. Both disciplines help tremendously with mood swings.

24. I haven't released a recording since 2004. However, in the meantime I've moved 3 times in 2 years, got married, had a death in the close family, had a part-time job as a reference librarian, been establishing a home and garden, and started studying classical piano again. My creativity has been blossoming the past few months, and I can feel the music flowing again.

25. To be written...

random new year's thoughts

so here I am walking on the treadmill with laptop in front of me and listening to the Esbjorn Svensson Trio on my iPod. what? on the treadmill you say? yeah, I discovered last month that our treadmill's operation platform actually supports a laptop quite well and I've been walking and twittering/facebooking/cleanng out my e-mail quite a bit while walking. I guess I was looking for a way to not be bored on the treadmill and not feel guilty about time spent on social networking. also over the holidays we set up a second tivo in the workout room that can stream videos from netflix. my new rule for myself is that all frivolous tv watching (e.g. hgtv, people's court (yeah, yeah, I'm actually admitting I watch it... am I really typing that out loud?) must be while I'm walking on the treadmill. over the summer I found all my pants getting tight and I didn't want to have to go buy new clothes, so I invested in a pair of great walking shoes and starting walking every day... got harder when the time changed and the weather got cold, but after a few weeks I migrated indoors to the treadmill. I also read "the China Study" by Colin Campbell, and was inspired to migrate to a predominantly vegan diet, after being prominently vegetarian for a few years (predominantly meaning I'm not militant about milk and cheese when visiting friends or in a restaurant where there are no other choices)... in any case the combo of fresher diet and walking every day led me to lose the 13 pounds I had gained over the course of a few years.. and now I weigh again what I was when I was dancing tango as much as possible a few years ago. ironically, I had to go buy new clothes because my others were all too big.

i've been thinking a lot about music and discipline lately, but I think I'll hold off and try to commit to writing a blog on the treadmill again soon.

The Piano Cave: Help Me Pick a Color!

Welcome to my piano studio! I've really been working hard on decorating it in such a way that helps me force focus... I used to go in for a few minutes, but then think of an e-mail I wanted to write, or a cup of tea I wanted to make, or some weeds I wanted to pull in the garden, or to go check the mail when I heard the mail truck go by, or go pet my kitties when they look in at me all pitiful-like:

(note kitty Rosemary staring at me from the other side of the door, begging for attention).

In any case, you get the idea... I'm a big time "P" on the Myer's Brigg personality test... thoughts always racing from one to the next. So, how can I shut out the world and get real work done? I had my Aha! moment at the beginning of September when I was practicing for my Volvo concert... and I wasn't getting any good practice done in the day, but having amazingly creative sessions at midnight, way past my bedtime, but then was exhausted the next day. I wondered how I could create "midnight" during the middle of the day when I actually have time to practice. And I figured it out:


Black curtains over the doors, shutting out all the daylight and kitties (who are still sitting right on the other side of this curtain in the picture). I make sure I have no appointments or phone calls coming that really need my attention, set my timer for an hour or so (sometimes two hours), eat a snack, go to the bathroom, make a cup of tea, and then enter the piano cave. I do not let myself leave until the timer rings. If I don't want to practice, I do my Alexander Technique lie-downs, or I sometimes allow myself to read piano teaching related articles. However, I'm finding that I'm actually getting real work done, and not wanting to leave when the timer goes off. It hasn't been easy, there have been many times when I start to leave, or my mind wanders... but then I just bring myself back to the next task. I guess it's a kind of meditation/mindfulness practice--but I'm just so incredibly excited that this "P" girl (I think that that P on Myer's Brigg stands for Procrastination) actually is getting Forced Focus.

Being in the curtained room also inspired me to hang more art on the walls... so I have something to look at when I'm playing:


And that makes me feel good when I enter the room:



But, here's where you can help! We've been in our house for over a year now, and this color-loving-girl is desperate for color on the walls. In new construction, it's recommended that you leave the walls without color for a year so when there are cracks and peeling from the inevitable settling, it's easier to do all the touch-ups throughout the house with the same 'builder's white'. But... now I can put color on my piano studio walls!!!

What color should I use? I want something warm and cozy, but yet helps me FOCUS and fosters CREATIVITY. It has to look good with the art on the walls... that huge orange blow-up of my "The Undershore" cover, and the red accents throughout the room, including the chair. I've been thinking a pumpkin-ey gold since all the art has gold somewhere in it, but I'm open to any and all ideas.

In the meantime, I just heard the mail truck go by... gotta go get the mail!!

Happy Autumn (or, "What I Did on My Summer Vacation")

Happy Fall, everyone! I hung my autumn acorn wreath on the front door yesterday, so I know it's that time of year. Not to mention these cooler days and it getting dark earlier and earlier (makes it harder to get an evening walk in!).

I hope everyone had a great summer. I'm glad to be back in the swing of a more structured schedule, but boy was my summer fun... the first time in I don't remember when that I had no commitments and nowhere to be. So, I traveled! I visited my mother for a week in Virginia, visited in-laws in Michigan for a week and got a behind-the-scenes tour of a 2000 acre cherry farm. Did you know that on a production farm like that, the cherries are shaken out of the tree for only 3 seconds, and then never again until the next year? The entire harvest for an individual tree is 3 seconds a year! Wow, that amazed me. On the Michigan trip we also spent a day at Mackinac Island, on a tandem bike pedaling around the island. Later in the summer I spent a week in Maine with a friend of ours whose family owns a 6 acre island in the middle of Moosehead Lake, no electricity, no bridge:


Looks relaxing, right? Well, it was amazingly relaxing most of the time. However, for almost all of our trip, it was raining and cold and the wind was whipping. The island is 5 miles from the nearest marina, so getting back and forth on the family sailboat was over an hour's trip... and the motor boat over 20 minutes. And boy, let me tell you... an hour on a sailboat in the rain, even with the cover is pretty WET! and COLD! (when you're in the northern areas of Maine). Here are my hosts shuttling to the main boat so that we can load our bags to return home:


I wish I could re-create the wind and rain on this blog. Just suffice it to say that while I was struggling to hold the tarp over our bags on the dock, I felt like I was in the middle of the movie "The Shipping News".

Later in August I treated my husband to his dream trip... one to visit the last 4 states of his endeavor to visit all 50 states! His last four were adjoining... and so we flew into Denver and drove 1400 miles in 4 days, visiting Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. I normally wouldn't schedule every minute of every day on a trip, but I had to for this in order to get all the states in--and we were so busy we both completely lost all sense of time and forgot all about any at-home stresses. In Kansas we visited the oh-so-enthralling (facetious) Wizard of Oz museum, in Oklahoma we were in the tippy point of the panhandle staying in a cabin in a town of 13 residents, and saw some of the most amazing star views I have ever seen in my life. We also visited the tri-state marker on the borders of Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado:



In New Mexico we hiked around the crater of an extinct volcano at Capulin National Monument, and saw fossilized dinosaur footprints! We also saw fossilized wagon wheel ruts from the Santa Fe trail (after my GPS at one point told us to turn the car into a field to drive on the Santa Fe trail to get to our destination, LOL). But, maybe the GPS wasn't so far off after all... here is our rental car when we went to see the wagon wheel ruts:


To round up our trip, we went to the Colorado State Fair and saw a rodeo. All, in all, great fun!

My garden is looking spectucular at the moment, despite my having traveled so much. The only thing I regret (sort-of... the trips were worth it!) was that I let my amazing basil harvest go to seed. I had great hopes of making tons of pesto batches... and I had the basil to do it, too... but alas, I guess I can't do everything!

Now the fall schedule has started. I'm back in the swing of piano teaching and planning lots of music stuff. I decorated my music studio with great art and hung black curtains over the french doors to encourage me to sequester myself in there to work on piano projects. Jody and I gave a very fun private concert for Volvo Powertrain last week at the incredibly beautiful Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown. I also spent a bunch of time in my at-home stretches this summer working on a new version of The Lonely Cobbler, including sheet music that will be forthcoming. I put together a kids' show on creativity that I auditioned before a group of librarians last week, looking to get hired for summer reading club performances next year. Now I'm working on a collaboration with guitarist Tim Farrell, and gearing up for my trip to Nashville this weekend for a Whisperings solo piano concert with Joseph Akins, Philip Wesley, and Greg Maroney, and also practicing some Jewish music to perform for at a High Holy Days service at the Nashville Unitarian church. Lots more stuff is coming up this fall... and I'm very excited!

My next garden project is cleaning out my "meadow beds" in order to sow wildflower seeds and plant meadow perennials.

happy fall!

Great View!

Here's a picture I took on a recent hike to "The Pinnacle" on the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania. Just posting it as a reminder to relax and enjoy the view!