Piano

Now that the living room is all cleared out and decluttered (hooray!), the piano is accessible again. AJ decided that she wanted to learn how to play, so DH started teaching her. Having two parents who play the piano is helpful. One of us is always there to answer questions, give tips and encouragement, or teach the next step.

AJ is loving it, and has really taken off with it. She diligently practices her C scale and her little beginner songs several times a day with no prompting. At the moment she's playing and singing, "This is up. This is down. Let's go up and down. Let's go up to here. Let's go down again . . . "

M&M is starting to learn a bit too.

In this, as in all things, the difference in their personalities shines out. AJ is intensely focused on learning the mechanics, getting it right, and practicing the correct fingering and notes to get it perfect and learn the foundational truths of piano-playing. So far M&M wants to learn songs that are familiar to her, and wants the music she makes to be beautiful.

It's such a joy to see them both enjoying the piano and wanting to practice. I'm sure that both girls will blossom in their musical ability with their own distinct style.

Double Date

When DH and Malamute Rescue Guy went to a music conference last year, they bought tickets to Phil Keaggy's big anniversary tour. We've been eagerly waiting for this day for months now. The Malamute Rescuers came to pick us up, and we left early this afternoon to drive the distance in time to have dinner and then go to the concert. It was amazing.

If anyone reading doesn't know who Phil Keaggy is, he's one of the world's greatest guitarists.

He does a huge range of styles from classical solo guitar and improvisation to band-style music and also writes some music with vocals. He can do the most complicated things with a guitar that I've ever seen. Half the time I can't figure out how he's getting those sounds out of the instrument with just two hands. And he does it all with only 9 fingers.

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I knew Phil Keaggy could do amazing things with a guitar. But I'd never heard him make an electric guitar sound like a set of bagpipes before. He did that tonight. He also made it sound like a pipe organ and a number of other things I didn't know were possible. [ETA: This video shows the bagpipe thing and the setup for it better . . . that part starts about 5 minutes in.]

You can hear bits and pieces of the music here--except that it's never quite exactly the same. He does so much improvising and creating variations on the spot.

The rest of the band was amazing, too. There was one guy named Tom Shinness who must have played at least 8 or 10 different instruments, including the harp-guitar, mandolin, guitar, zither and viola. Drummer John Sferra and flautist Melissa Lautenbach also stood out as incredible musicians, although they were all good.

At one point toward the end of the concert, someone from the audience yelled out asking Phil to play a song called "Sounds."

He said, "Well, most of the people up here on stage haven't learned that song. But we could jam it." And they did. Boy did they.

My favorite song that they played tonight was "What a Day." I leaned over and told DH that I want that song played at my funeral. The sound quality here is really horrible, but it gives you a general idea of the tune and feel of the song.

This concert was very different from the Phil Keaggy concert we went to a few years ago. That one was more of his solo classical guitar. I don't know if "more mellow" would describe it--it's certainly not bland--but definitely a much more classical style of music. I was slightly disappointed that we didn't get to see a bit more of his looping improvisation this time, but I definitely enjoyed the band, too.

I also enjoyed spending time with our friends Malamute Rescue Couple. We really had a good time. They'd never been to a Keaggy concert before and enjoyed it immensely.