after a hiatus

Been busy. had a training event last week, which took a lot of energy to prepare for and set up. I did a presentation on Linux & education, did a tabletop presentation on Cisco Show & Share, and did lots of video work. I'm back on a regular work schedule, so I have to work Fridays again.

So many things are out there, waiting to be learned! McLuhan's philosophy of media, Edubuntu, my new iPad, yoga, psychology, Cisco studies - and I have so little time & energy. I come home and I'm a chef & dishwasher. Rewarding, but exhausting.

My sightreading project is moving ahead, a little each day. I'm on p. 205 out of 310, of the Bach Keyboard Music by Dover. I'm on the last Partita, and the Goldberg Variations are ahead - the rocks in the rapids. Whoever said Bach had easy rhythms? Lots of 32nd notes, with some occasional flurries of 64ths. Hard to count, hard to read. But good for me. Good for my brain and my fingers. And beautiful harmonies. Diminished chords with suspensions, diminished chords over pedal bass, double suspensions (which my music school teachers assured me did not exist back then), and beautiful modulations to neighboring keys. Really creative use of the harmonic & melodic minor scales, and, if you count notes that resolve before the  chord resolves, harmonies as advanced as any composer before, say, 1905. Double trills, dramatic changes in texture and voicing, along with, it must be admitted, some pretty dull movements, which Bach seems to use to "clear the palette", like when Irene Ryan's photo graced the walls of Wayne's World on SNL. Swifter modulations in later movements, when the listener's ear is likely to be tired and could use some extra stimulation. And on and on. I'll never exhaust Bach.

What's next? My twenty-some-odd volumes of the International Piano Library. That'll be harder, because it's more pianistic, and the styles will be all over the place. Oh well, I've got years...