Hit Parade

[Diane Amberg]

 Aren't all football games a "hit parade?" When they sack the quarterback I'm sure he thinks so. So, Bonnie perhaps this IS the right thread.

[Bonnie M.]

You're right!

[flo]

Bonnie, why is playing by ear not a good thing?  I play by ear and by music, and if I don't have the music, as they say, just hum a few bars and I can play it.  More than once I have put a CD or record on the music rack of the piano, look at song titles, say to myself, haven't heard that in a long time and I start playing it.  I play Under the Double Eagle by ear as well as Waltz Across Texas (played it listening to ET on the radio and so play it in his key) and a gazillion other things that I play.  Also, if you play by ear and don't like the key just transpose.  My second daughter sang a lot when she was a teenager and if a song was too high or too low for her, I just played it in a key she wanted.  Can't do that if you only play by music alone.  If memory serves me right, Myrna played a lot by ear also when we were in highschool.  Music has always been a big part of my life.  I heard my grandmother play "Blue Skirt Waltz" and thought it was so beautiful.  I went home and picked it out on the piano.  Now I have her sheet music which inclued Blue Skirt Waltz and Under the Double Eagle, but they are filed away.  I still just play it by ear.  enough rambling . . . . . 

[flo]

  Bonnie, I just reread your post.  You said you play by hear, not good, and I took it you thought playing by ear was not a good thing.  I just mis-read the comma's.  What I get for reading too fast and not "between the lines"     

[Bonnie M.]

Flo, what I was intending to say was that "I play by ear, but I don't play that well!"  Surely the best piano players anywhere play by ear and can also read music.  I don't read music, and I wish I did.  I always liked to "chord," and played with different fun groups of people by just doing "chords."  So, I wish I played "by ear" better than I do!  I think playing the piano well is "a gift," just like having a beautiful singing voice is "a gift!"

[Jody]

ELDON  I HAD THE PLEASURE OF GOING TO THE BOB WILLS REUNION IN TULSA, OKLAHOMA IN 1987.  There

THERE WERE 80 FORMER MEMBERS THERE.  WHEN THWERE ALLON STAGE IT WAS QUITE A WONDERFUL SOUND!

[Rudy Taylor]

I can just hear the sound, Jody.  I can only imagine what all those fiddles, guitars and singers must have sounded like.

Ahh-haw!

[Teresa]

I used to be able to play the clarinet by ear.
( until I learned though, my family's ears were hurting) 

But I did learn and became a very good clarinet player.. and loved it!

[Rudy Taylor]

And why doesn't it surprise me that you're a clarinet player? 

Screechy. Cold. Honky.

Now a baritone, French horn or tuba --- there are some nice instruments.

But clarinets are just sit-ins until the violinists finally arrive.

Plus, trying to blow a clarinet makes your teeth vibrate. I remember kissing a girl from Cedar Vale one time who had that
effect on me. My mouth was numb for a week.

[Diane Amberg]

Rudy, you better run! She may shove a reed up your nose!