Unitarian Hymnal Sing-along

In which Kathryn attempts to sing a different song everyday from the Unitarian Universalist hymnal, 'Singing the Living Tradition'. Earlier posts are based on songs from the Reader's Digest songbooks she found at yard sales as a child, including: 'Reader's Digest Treasury of Best Loved Songs', 'Reader's Digest Family Songbook', and 'Reader's Digest Family Songbook of Faith and Joy'. Bonus Folk song material from: 'Folk Song USA', by John and Alan Lomax.

20 February 2006

"Why Do I Love You?"

I like this song, and not only because it's very nice to be singing a 'Song of the Day' after a couple days' break. It's very nice, feels good in my mouth, tasty without being filling, satisfying on the tongue. The text could be absolutely anything, but it does have lots of nice 'oooo's and 'oh's, and beyond this, it's an oddly compelling love song that demonstrates how hard it can be to write about love at all.

My nephew (the talented one mentioned the other day, and my only nephew, as it happens) made me learn more about bar chords this past weekend. As a gesture of good faith, he ate the stew that I made for dinner Sunday night. Everyone else raved about the stew, but he's almost fourteen and not quite so forgiving of the many-vegetables-and-no-meat format, so this is something to consider. Desperate to remain even slightly cool in his eyes, and very conscious of having played guitar amazingly-not-well considering I've been playing for more than twenty years (more off than on): I gave those zany bar chords another go. I do understand more of how they work, now, at least the basics. Considering how out of practice I am, I think they even sounded ok. In theory, this will make me approach new songs that have scary chords (including B minor, and anything with an accidental) with more confidence in my sight reading ability.

I had been thinking lately that my guitar playing skills would benefit greatly from the kind of attention and discipline that my vocal and pianistic skills have gotten in the past six months or so. The thought of fitting in any more musical lesson or practice time is daunting, though, and I can't yet imagine taking away any energy from my current pursuits. That seems in pretty short supply anyway, considering my multitudinous obligations. I've again come home to hit the ground running. Zoom, zoom. Et zut, alors.

1 Comments:

At 9:51 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have tried bar chords repeatedly, and just can't make my hand do it. I think it has something to do with that missing bit in my wrist. I just don't bend correctly.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

Site Meter