Music 2009

One of my first stops will be to visit my friends, Stan and Marion. Marion is an incredible visual artist whose work sells as soon as the paint dries. She also creates inked cartoons released as cards. Marion painted an amazing painting for me of children dancing and playing happily in the street. The painting is full of energy with blues and reds. Unfortunately it is too big to carry in the RV. The smaller painting of a child with wings taking to the clouds will fit. Marion painted the picture of freedom, happiness, and wonder to mark my then new job as a mid-level university administrator. I think of the paintings as gifts of life. They give me great peace when I gaze upon them. Stan is an incredible musician living in the world of jazz and classical music. He instantly understood music as a child who, instead of simply banging on the piano, at the age of three played the piano. This is in sharp contrast to me who, after years of study, has given up on ever being able to read music or to sight sing. I am or was a lyric soprano with no lower range. For eleven years Stan worked with me to add bottom to my voice. During this time I tried to sing blues and jazz. I had a lot of fun singing at open mics. and at friends’ gigs. My voice glided into the secret world of tenors and quickly, quietly touched the notes of baritones. I lamented the failure to do the impossible, to romanticize bass, letting the cool notes float over the bottom much like a light breeze over still waters. Johnny Johnson sang bass; refusing to sing secular music of love, desire, and heartbreak and live praising the Lord. His voice was like a black silk sheet casually tossed across a bed. How I wish to sail there. Still I missed dancing the high notes, twirling them in the air and watching them float – bubbles in the wind with soapy rainbows. I no longer try to sing the jazz I learned but never belonged to. I returned to the high notes. The tenor in the music group, The Dells, hits high notes letting them flutter as a down feather gently blown, floating quietly to the earth. I am working to express the same lightness on top notes to be used when my mind takes them there. My dogs watch me sing; I am not sure if from enjoyment or the fear that I am hurting. Singing is my peace, my heart; so much a part of me it is me. From Stan I learned to color words, to express the meanings of songs more than the notes. Thought will take the notes where they need to be. With him I wrote my first professional show about dolls through the stages of a woman’s life. After studying with Stan I can direct songs to help audiences feel what I hope they will feel; that they will leave feeling more than when they came in. Most of all I became friends with him and Marion. To pay for lessons I couldn’t afford I cleaned their house. I ate lunch with them. Marion’s meals look like a work of art and taste even better. They will be one of my first stops. I am very excited.