Multi-tasking: Making music and ?

Subject: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Margo
Date: 26 Jul 99 - 01:11 AM

As I was cooking dinner, I was humming and singing as I oft do. I found myself wishing I had the words to the song so I could learn them instead of singing the same partial phrases over and over again. Then I got an idea. I have a cookbook holder with a plexiglass cover so the book doesn't get messed up by food. I put my music book in there, and started learning the right lyrics as I made the meatballs. It was great!

I was wondering if there were some ways that you have found you can "multi-task", making music while doing something else?

Margarita

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Les B
Date: 26 Jul 99 - 02:05 AM

Well, as has been mentioned in a previous thread, lots of people learn songs while driving to work & back - of course there's Alice, who learns songs in the shower, and I just saw an amazing film "The Red Violin" in which a virtuoso violinist composed passionate tunes while making passionate love !

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Ferrara
Date: 26 Jul 99 - 02:35 AM

Absolutely! -- I too have a cookbook holder with a plexiglas cover! And it gets pressed into service as a music stand, not just in the kitchen, but in my studio area where I do woodburning and chip carving. I learn lots of songs while I wash dishes, cook, or engrave designs in wood.

I used to have an hour's commute over fairly clear roads, and I used the time for mental rehearsing of whatever songs I was learning on the zither. I actually went over the notes and chords in my mind. It really helped.

Nowadays I have to be careful about not singing in the car, unless I'm sitting in rush hour, etc. The singing ends up taking more of my attention that the driving. So, much as I regret it, I'm trying not to learn or practice songs while I drive. Listening to oldies on the radio seems to be okay because I don't get so deeply involved.

Still, I often keep at least one set of lyrics with me that I'm trying to learn. You never know when you'll get stuck in a grocery or bank line and have time to review a whole verse!

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Margo
Date: 26 Jul 99 - 11:27 AM

Ferrara, that's excellent! Spare lyrics for practising in those waiting moments! Why didn't I think of that before? Thanks,

Margarita

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Fadac
Date: 26 Jul 99 - 11:45 AM

When on a nice motorcycle ride yesterday, (sunday) I was thinking of a motorcycle song based on "Jack was every inch a sailor". To something like this... (very rough)

choris: Jack, was every inch a biker, four and twenty years a rider. something something something Rids on the big highway.

When Jack was just a lad, His dad put him on the bike. BSA, Triumphs, and Harleys too, When you big and strong, they will be there for you.

Chor:

Well, that is about as far as I got. First time writing is down. I've been thinking of doing a traveling set. Just moving music, some pop, some rock, some country, some folk, etc. Just a common theme of travel.

Any suggestions?

There, now we have multi-threading.

-Fadac

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Penny S.
Date: 26 Jul 99 - 03:54 PM

Fadac, a bit of thread creep here, but I thought you might like what a local Baptist pastor said to me the other day. He quoted the Bible "And the roar of Moses' triumph was heard throughout the land" as justification for his biking.

Penny

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Fadac
Date: 26 Jul 99 - 04:33 PM

Penny,

On this thread, it is not creap, it's just more multi-tasking.

Well I alwise thought riding a motorcycle was a religous experiance. But I don't think it requires a Triumph! I think my BMW will do. Nice quote though. :o)

-Fadac

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From:
Date: 27 Jul 99 - 05:30 AM

I recently had acupuncture treatment for sciatica (or however you spell it). The guy would put the needles in and say, "now relax--try to meditate". Fat chance with those things sticking out of me in all directions. So I started to visualize chord changes on a guitar. That turned out to be an adequate distraction and it improved my playing a little. I actually invented smoother changes!! Now I do it while I am travelling on a bus or a train.

By the way, the treatment worked.

I am not sure that was multitasking though.

Murray

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 27 Jul 99 - 07:52 AM

Cor - I worked at Norton-Villiers-Triumph (NVT) in (a small part of) my mis-spent youth. I could tell you some tales ... And I live two miles down the road from the Norton factory in Shenstone (UK). I read in the local paper last week they're down to five men on the shopfloor, so buy more Norton bikes! (Not an advert - just trying to improve my local economy!)

Steve

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 27 Jul 99 - 08:13 AM

... and there was a Joe Norton at my school,late 1950s, (Handsworth Grammar) who was a scion of the dynasty in the days when they were winning all the races. My paternal grandfather drove a motor cycle and sidecar (I think a BSA, not a Norton) in his hayday (ie when he was in work - he was a toolmaker in the bicycle industry ?Norman company?) but it went when he was out of work in the '30s, so I never saw it. He, my grandmother & my Dad survived a collision with a double-decker bus in it once (too much drink after a fishing trip!), with hardly a scratch. [too much thread creep , Roger].

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 27 Jul 99 - 10:43 AM

My dad had a Sunbeam with a shaft drive instead of a chain, with a Swallow sidecar - happy days! My maternal grandfather was a dispatch rider with the ARP (Air Raid Precautions) in the war, and rode quie a few bikes. One a Harley-Davidson that formerly belonged to a minor Indian prince, which was completely chrome-plated (took five coats of khaki paint to cover it up!) and wouldn't go round corners. If you didn't start leaning soon enough and far enough, you'd have to fall off. If you fell off, it would keep going through fields and gardens until it ran into something! Apparently he could ride it and play his mouth organ at the same time.

Steve (un-creeping)

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Margo
Date: 27 Jul 99 - 10:54 AM

Steve, that's great! Fadac, you did multi-task this thread, didn't you? Your song sounds great.

I'm sure everyone sings while showering...... I'm trying to learn the bones. It was suggested to me to keep them in the car, and "bone up" on those moments I need only one hand. Haven't done that yet.

Margarita

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 27 Jul 99 - 11:57 PM

Years ago I could play guitar while riding my unicycle, but now I can't even ride a unicycle. Nor do I have one.

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Fadac
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 01:31 PM

Mark, I hear you. Sometimes I can't walk and chew gum.

-Fadac

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Vixen
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 03:35 PM

I'm not sure if this counts, but: While playing instruments, I: let the washer, clothesline, and dryer do the work

While singing, I: drive the car, do the dishes, scrub the floor, cut the grass, weed the garden, shovel snow, ride horseback, water-ski, etc. Though not simultaneously.

Whenever I'm waiting, I mentally: rehearse chord changes, practice scales, finger pick on my thigh (though that sometimes gets stares), review lyrics, etc, etc.

I never realized how much of this sort of thing I do, until I thought about it. Now I'm really frustrated that I'm not a better musician than I am! (just kidding!)

My biking days are over though...too many close calls.

V

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Margo
Date: 11 Nov 99 - 07:13 PM

Hah! I'm folding laundry and mudcatting at the same time! Well, not while typing, but certainly while reading!

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: sophocleese
Date: 11 Nov 99 - 08:02 PM

I play the recorder while waiting for pages to load on this thing. Got a whole new tune two days ago.

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: bbelle
Date: 11 Nov 99 - 09:31 PM

I've been learning lyrics while driving for a hundred years and always have a spare copy of whatever I'm working on in my car. A good excuse for a long car trip is so you can learn lyrics (and I practice the chord changes in my visual brain). The song I sang for the Mudcat workshop at the getaway was one that I had learned many years ago and had to relearn. I played the tape over and over, singing along all the while. Then I stopped the tape and began singing it acapello (sp) until I could sing it perfectly. It must've worked. I do the same thing while I'm cleaning house ... sure makes the time go by. Oh, and I take frequent breaks to pick up the guitar and practice. I'm sure I didn't invent this, but it interesting how many of us do similar things ... moonchild

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Brendy
Date: 11 Nov 99 - 09:44 PM

Living on the west of Ireland, and not having a car, I used to think nothing of walking 20 -30 miles to visit friends. Normally on quieter country roads.
I used to, and still do sometimes, listen to the rhythm of my footsteps. They generally go in a crude 4/4 time.
That was always a good starting point, and 20 miles or so later, not only would the time pass quicker, not only would I get a lungful of good mountain air in beautiful surroundings, but I would have had a lot of fun messing around with words, patterns, moods, melody lines, and you can build up quite complex structures.
All from listening to the old clogs

B.

Subject: RE: Multi-tasking: Making music and ?
From: Vixen
Date: 12 Nov 99 - 09:50 AM

Brendy--

May I steal that line? "listening to the old clogs" is great!

V