"when you're happy, play piano. when you're sad, play more piano." - gene taylor

my fingertips hurt, i've been playing so much. a spot of sunshine: the more i play, the easier it becomes, the more fluidly my fingers move, the more they cooperate, the more the ideas bubble, - no, - seep, sometimes weep, sometimes shimmer - on up. i have hope someday i'll be a little brown-skinned white-haired old lady looking a lot like my mama & grandma, wearing too much makeup & some strange outfit, cheery & useful & a pretty darn good pianny player. it seems lately like i don't have to be average or garden-variety forever when it comes to playing piano if i just keep at it. i'll never be the best, & that's never my expectation. but someday, if i keep playing & playing, i'll be able to play what i hear & be fulfilled by it.
for now, i bang & grin & go for the muscle & thrill because i just can't help it, but someday i'll have more to offer musically...
for you piano players, here are some tips i've gotten from some great piano players:
1. gene taylor: look at your hands; look for the "islands;" play left hand patterns while reading, talking to someone, writing, so it becomes natural as breathing; think about what each chord "means" depending on what change you're at.
2. carl sonny leyland: watch the right, not the left hand; don't be afraid to hit some wrong notes - just play them through so you can find the "right" ones; the "blues scale" is bulls**t - the guys in the old days were listening for the sounds of the music.
3. earl pool ball - a lot of times w/his band heybale, he completely lays off the left hand, but still sort of paws or claws at it to keep time, but then brings the left hand in when the music calls for that moment of extra boom! & excitement; in western swing, he plays straight time while the rest of the band swings; playing melody w/octaves really allows the piano to sing out from amidst all the other instruments.
i hope to get some tips from pat "banny" bannister, soon, but i need to call the man... he can run 3rds up & down the keyboard lightning-fast! ... i found out pat played on al hendrix's record, which was so cool. there are some real nice solos on that record! (www.cdbaby.com/alhendrix)
->well, since i started writing this, my folks came over w/cannoli & we had a really nice visit & i went & picked some grapes from the vines & they were just perfect, sweet, tangy, w/a slight crunch... so maybe things aren't as bad as i think. and maybe i better go play some more piano.

my sleep-deprived texas train trip: snippets

not pictured: burnin' mike vernon, luann williams, kinky friedman :)

bass ackwards in the lone star state: the queen of know-nuthin speaks

if you are ever in my presence & i suggest we take a short cut or say anything that suggests a "clever" or easier, softer (& especially cheaper) way, please slap me!!!! i have had many adventures on this trip & now am (literally) cooling my heels in the hi-austin after a day out in 100 degree texas heat wearing the wrongest & stupidest shoes any female could've conceived to wear for such a trek!!! of course the shoe broke, so i being so goddang resourceful found a pin in the road & a hair tie & "fixed" the shoe & proceeded to walk another 10 miles w/my blistering dogs taped w/stickers i peeled off the wall out front of the record store & basically all it accomplished is i was slowed like a turtle & nearly crippled myself!! i love this place a lot (tho not as much as i love my loved ones), but that combined w/my FIVE HOUR wait yesterday at the amtrak station in rural cleburne (the station was closed, of course, & it was 100 degrees, & i was all alone, but then i found a penny, & found one today, so i stick w/foolishness, thinking it's all part of the great plan, most certainly) mean i am more than ready go home... i have had a swell time, but more than anything, more than music, more than mama, i await my sleeping car on tomorrow's train (which of course cost a zillion dollars to grab because i only realized i had to get one or croak after the "going to war together"-like grubby camaraderie of riding over w/NO SHOWER). i'll get on this time, shower up, & get rocked to sleep by the train's gentle gait.
...dang, i hope that didn't constitute an expectation on my part. my serenity is directly related to my expectation level... so that wasn't an expectation at all, i say: just a hope. :) i know it's ok & in fact is good to hope. :)
will report more later on the great music i've heard & will hear, my beautiful family, their beautiful little italian donkey, the beautiful rural texas dusks alive w/night-singing bugs & peaceful, endlessly flat & lovely canopies of lime-green fields & dark, stately post oaks... below i'll list some music, so "all yall" can know what's been up here... & more details later. :) peace happiness & good times to all who read this...