Category: Music

“Maybe this can be my entry point, building upon prior experiences.”

Basically, if I am in a constant
State of life-instability stress,

This will keep triggering lockdown
Preventing me from cracking code

“I still have not found the key to my learning music.

There’s a gap that nothing yet bridges.

I think, partially, because I avoid being boxed in.”

“Receiving another notification for far off music training caused me to scoff , ‘Right! I can’t even show up for my own training!'”

Now I can learn some Pro Tools basics!

“I am stoked that now there are colored stickers to place on the neck to help identify chord component placements, but this still seems visually overstimming.”

“I finally picked it up last night, anf affirmed that it had, indeed, gone out of tune.

And for as much as my finges enjoyed the feel of it’s potential welcoming me, I realized that I better start by identifying chords through a 6-string because my magic harp’s 12-strings weave complexities.”

“Something is impinged in my sensory translator that blocks the conceptual application of ‘playing by ear’ for me.

As in translating notes from what I hear into music theory transcription.

And so far in practicing the major scales on the piano, I do not as yet know how doing so will ever become automatic for me.”

I dreamed that I connected with Keanu Reeves as us just being two people, younger, who knew of each other in passing, as if we had gone to the same schools but had been on different class tracks.

He was totally approachable, and we got to talking about bass and rhythm guitar. I asked him how to approach learning them more easily – should I just first learn scales and harmonies?

Then, we dove into discussing the bass, and he introduced me to this amazing university instructor who would have us read chapters and passages of a historical text that briefly examined the chords that would have been played per period of past timeline cultures and events.

We (students) were to emulate the feel and atmosphere of how the music would have been played and presented to one’s peers at relaxed social gatherings.

Nothing complex, just the basics – and I found this fascinating!

Chords, scales, melodies, harmonies, and progressions according to regions and thematic-inspired inventions!

Of course, the class was expensive, so I was trying to figure out how to afford it.

Drum beats I put together years ago and played for tribal belly dancers.

No reproduction or use allowed except by my express and verified permissions.

Under ten and I carried it long distances.

Everyone else had chosen the violins.

I had requested the viola, but no.

Because no one could teach it.

I wasn’t taught cello, either.

Yet, made responsible.

I loved its tonality.

Impracticality.

Awkward.

Heavy.

I.

American                      British
Whole Note                   Semibreve
Dotted Half Note          Dotted Minim
Half Note                       Minim
Quarter Note.                Crotchet

By Athena Stairs, January 14, 2024

Ah, the joys of being able to record and bring to fruition a concept by editing!

This is how I wanted to compose and capture as I experimented at a very young age upon my grandfather’s piano.

But they did not have easy access to recorders nor ways for me to edit back then.

No reproduction or use allowed except by my express and verified permissions.

When and where I was born seems irrelevant for as much as it seemed to have afforded me.

I could not express myself freely, nor exhibit the positive influences upon my talent’s absorbing.

I felt as if I were an anomally; I was made to feel as if I were born a Deficiency.

But with the advance of technology and gusts of inspired wind under tremulous wings, I can now capture fleeting flights of my own fancy.

I can feel the stirrings of other things that I used to be trying to reawaken, but it is as if they are buried underground and held down by coming winter.

Freeing them seems to require too much effort and my body is not currently up to shoveling.

Maybe they need to mulch-out a bit longer.

For now, I just want to focus on music.

Music is what I am pursuing at the moment, to get initially fully regrounded into it.

It has been the natural source of light and love in the air that keeps me alive and responsive.

I feel so much better, here.

Like we are honed into the accurate data.

Straight shot to the heart of the matter.

Where absorptive learning is inevitable.

There is no wayward diversion – only embellishment.

A state of worry, or a tool to create music.

(Title play with words from “perceived threat”)