Death of the piano?

I read a disturbing story on Facebook this past week that piano sales have plummeted and stores across the country are closing at an alarming rate.

This disturbs me.  It disturbs me greatly.

First, I've noticed that our society now is "GIMME, GIMME, GIMME...I want it NOW!" Learning to play the piano takes TIME.  And it also takes PATIENCE.  It takes HOURS and HOURS of practice. That simply won't cut it in today's society.  Kids today want EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW.  I had a student tell me one day, "I WANT my iPad NOW!"  So, I replied, "I want YOU to sit down and be quiet!"  He didn't get his iPad that day.

It took me nearly 12 years to master playing the piano.  I began lessons at age 6.  I went off to college as a piano performance major.  Unfortunately, so did 3 other girls in my dorm and frankly, there wasn't room for ALL of us.  My mother wanted me to be a concert pianist, like one of my great-grandmothers.  I never achieved that goal.  Instead of focusing on my music studies, I took my liberal arts courses and fell in love with (1) political science and (2) my husband.   :-)  I did give piano lessons for several years to give myself an income, but those quickly faded away.  I never gave enough lessons to pay the rent on the piano we had in our first apartment!   :-(

But, I've nearly always had a piano in our home.  I have one here today.  And, even so often I sit down and go through my piano music.  I notice that the fingers aren't as quick as they once were and I do stumble around a bit, but muscle memory is an incredible thing!

Second, learning to play the piano is a great way to branch off toward other instruments.  When you play piano, you have to read both clefs.  I also had to learn to do many things with my left hand.  I brushed my teeth with my left hand.  I combed my hair with my left hand.  I TRIED to iron with my left hand.  But, I notice now, that I can do a lot of things with both hands (not just my right.)  I cannot write legibly with my left, but, if I'm in a hurry, I CAN scribble something on the white board at school.

Third, I did branch off toward two other instruments:  the violin and clarinet.  My mother played the violin in college and was first chair.  She NEVER let me forget that.  So, I learned to play the violin.  I didn't play well...in fact, she would cover her ears and run from the room!  But, I did learn.  And, in high school, I played the guitar.  I also taught myself to play the clarinet, using my cousin's old clarinet.  I so wanted to be in marching band with my boyfriend, at that time!  One cannot be in marching band while playing a piano!  NO WAY!  I never qualified enough to make it into band, much to the smirk on my orchestra director's face.  HE wanted me to play piano and I was the solo pianist at my high school for two years.  What's really ironic is that when our daughter was performing and being judged in high school, she played before Mr. Reinecke!  He evaluated her (of course SHE got outstanding marks) and I introduced her to him and reminded him of our previous connection AFTER the judging was over!  I actually ran into him several times after that.  I hope he was proud of me and my daughter.  He was an outstanding musician (a violinist) and had absolutely perfect pitch.  Boy, if I played a wrong note, one glance from him was enough for me!

Fourth, being a pianist also made me an incredibly fast typist!  I'm also extremely kinesthetic.  You can tell me how to do something, but until I do it with my hands, FORGET IT!  Gardner wrote about kinesthetic intelligence and you can read about it here:  http://psychology.about.com/od/educationalpsychology/ss/multiple-intell_5.htm

And, here it says:  "gardener" and "farmer".  Yup.  That's ME!   :-)  http://www.mypersonality.info/multiple-intelligences/bodily-kinesthetic/

So, it saddens me to hear this about my beloved instrument.  I can at least say that in my family, our daughter has my aunt's old upright and GUESS WHO (21 months) loves to explore that piano!  I'll try to find some photos to post.  I might have some of her playing with it on my iPad and I'll have to figure out how to get them over here.

Living Desert Part 3 ~~I meet a kestrel

As a member, I can enter the park after 8:00 a.m. and I'm an early riser, so I was there pretty early.  We'd had a frost here in town that morning, so I layered and off I went with only my camera and wallet.  It was pretty cold in the shady areas, but, like a roadrunner, I stayed in the sun to warm up!  I even spread out my arms a couple of times to let the sun's rays warm me!  I didn't see any roadrunners, but I scared off a couple of rabbits!

I also had a near-close encounter with a hawk.  I was walking through the butterfly garden, when suddenly....WHOOSH! It made a dive bomb and swooshed so close to my head that the hairs on my head actually raised up!  He didn't hit me, but it was a CLOSE CALL!  I only saw a dark-colored hawk (no white).  It looked gray underneath, so it wasn't a Cooper's hawk.  I have no idea what it was and it flew into a nearby palm tree.  Maybe a Harris hawk, although they are brown, not gray.  It was a fairly large hawk, too...definitely NOT something as small as a Kestrel.

Speaking of Kestrels, this little guy was out with his handler as I walked back toward the cafe and gift shop.  We USED to have Kestrels in our neighborhood, but, with the arrival of the Cooper's hawks, they have disappeared.  That's sad because I used to love to hear their little cries in the mornings.

I talked to the little hawk's handler for a while and found out his name is "Cujo".  He is an injured bird and will NOT ever be released back into the wild.  He is a beautiful little thing, don't you think? She told me one morning she had him out when a Cooper's hawk swooshed down toward Cujo!  Only her quick actions saved the little guy!  Talk about scary!!!  Isn't he adorable?

I

Living Desert Reserve visit Part 2

I always enjoy seeing the birds in the two aviaries there, so I walked down to one of them before the kids and granddaughter arrived.  It was pretty dark in there, but I found these guys:

There are two turkey vultures in the aviary.  I often see them soaring above Deep Canyon.

Living Desert visit yesterday Part 1

So, yesterday morning our daughter wanted to meet me at the Living Desert Reserve here in Palm Desert.  She said 8:15 - 8:30 a.m., so I was there about 8:20.  Turns out that the parents had a rough night with the 21 month old!  She didn't go to bed until... 9:30 and then was awake for an hour during the night!  THEY were exhausted, but she was roarin' to go that morning.  I had about 45 minutes to myself, so I just kinda wandered around the park.  It is so beautiful in the early morning sunlight!

Fence to Nowhere and Snow~Good Fences~010215

I've taken so many photos of this fence, but this time it had snow!  Our local mountains got a lot of fresh snow in the cold snap and we headed up to them on Wednesday.  I couldn't WAIT to see all the snow!

Good Fences for Friday, January 2, 2015.  I have to get used to writing 2015!!!  To visit Good Fences, please go to:   http://run-a-roundranch.blogspot.com/

I wonder how much snow is left...hmmmm.....

I wonder how much snow is left on our local Santa Rosa mountains.  I'm heading over to the Living Desert this morning to meet our daughter and granddaughter and I may take a run up the road after that (depending on how worn out I am!)  I would LOVE to drive up there by myself and Grandpa isn't feeling well enough to come!  He tweeked his back and he's in pain and NOT going anywhere!  Poor thing.  I know how that feels.  Our daughter gave him some patches for his back and they are helping with the pain, but, as you know, it just takes TIME to heal.  And, neither one of us is getting any younger!

 First snow!

 This car was heading to its house.

 These kids were playing in the snow and having a blast!

Not too sure about this white stuff!

Desert plants in snow

I'm always eager to rush out and see desert plants in snow.  I wish we had driven up to Joshua Tree, but hubby isn't feeling well and he also has a sore back, so we are staying home today (New Year's Day).  I just couldn't ask him to travel that far with a sore back.  He wouldn't be able to get out of the car anyway, without pain.

I especially love to see cacti with snow on them, so I edited a few photos from yesterday instead.  I'm sitting at my window watching the birds enjoy some leftover cabbage!  My grandmother used to raise canaries and I remember her feeding cabbage to her birds.  Oh, how I miss her!

Anyway, here are some more photos of our new snow!