Stress and music dont mix

     ...So, you're gone again. And even though I'm surrounded by our 4 loud little children, I'm alone. I used to write in my journal all the time, and I haven't since we've been married because I have you to tell everything to. But when you're gone as you've been so often lately, I begin to need to write and sort out my thoughts... 
    Yesterday I sang the worst I've sung in a long time. The stress got to me. It was a song that I was confident in. "We've only just begun" for a wedding reception. I was flat for most of the song. Really flat. I'm never that flat. Anyway, I guess it was the stress of just having had to run up to the airport which is 1 1/2 hours away to take you your passport so you could get on your flight to Germany, and then barely making it back to the church after dropping off my kids at yet another babysitter.... I'm not mad at you, just frustrated at myself for not being able to pull it all off.
    So, I sang  as the bride and groom were entering the reception. They were going to have a ring exchange ceremony, and they got to the little "alter" so to speak (really it was an arch that the Bishop stood under) pretty quickly. We hadn't practiced with them at all, and I could tell by the looks the bride was giving me that she wanted me to be done singing long before the 2nd verse was even started. Unfortunately the pianist couldn't see the unspoken signals the bride was giving us.  So when I ended the 1st verse I reached over and pulled the last page of the music over for the pianist and whispered, "End it. She want's us to be done" she was confused and fumbled out some wrong chords and the song ended awkwardly and abruptly. Smooth right? Ugh. Luckily all the focus was on the bride and groom and not us. At least that's what I'm telling myself.....

Back to work!

I finally found the plug to the laptop I use with my piano. It was burried under toys in my daughters bedroom. I have no idea how it got there, but I'm glad I found it. So now, I have 2 songs to get done by the end of the month. Another post about these songs soon.

Thinking

I have one piano student. I've had many piano students in the past, but now I have 4 young children, a husband in the army that leaves alot, and I don't have time for piano students. Last year I thought that I needed to make some more money to pay for my new fancy piano, but I just couldn't get myself to really recruit students. My plate is pretty full already. Anyway, this one student I have because he came to me last year telling me he wanted to learn to play the piano for his mission. How could I refuse? He was almost 18, and in my experience, if you're motivated, you can learn plenty in a year as an adult, certainly enough to play the hymns in the LDS hymn book. Well, we began the lessons, and he has struggled. Struggled much more than any of my students have. He has a very hard time hearing the music,-if that makes sense, and he has no sense of rythm, but he's trying. He needs to play something for his senior project that is pretty, but not too difficult. So, yesterday afternoon, right before I picked up my children from school, and during my 2-yr-old's nap, I wrote a little piano solo for him. I called it "Thinking".

Sheet music for "He Is the Same"

Two years ago I wrote a song for Activity Day Girls Camp. The girls loved it, but I wrote is sooo fast that I was never happy with the accompaniment. I posted the audio of it right after the camp, but put off editing the music. Well, I have a friend who wants to use my music for a church production, so she's been asking me to put up the music for my songs. Thankyou Jodi for giving me the push I need. I finally edited the "He Is the Same" song, and it only took me about 5 minutes. Ugh. 2 years I've put that off. Anyway, now it's done and up on my website.
Yay!

Courage

Just a little update since I haven't posted here since June. I've recently started on a song for the 2010 mutual theme, Joshua 1:9.
I'm trying to make a melody that doesn't change the scripture at all and yet still sounds good. I think I've done it. I've also been trying to make a counter melody that goes with it. I don't have any particular assignment from any one to do this, and usually when I don't, the song never gets finished. ( I have at least a dozen songs that aren't finished) Anyway, I've been spending 30 minutes in the morning before the kids get up to work on it. Hopefully I can keep this up.

Figured it out

Ok, so I finally figured out how to make a downloadable form of my sheet music so that others can print it out. Before I was having to print it out, rescan it and change it into a PDF document through my print creation program. Well, I should've realized that I could just save it as a Tiff file and then convert it. Oh well, I'm a little slow. So, it's now printable!! Yay!!

To hear the song, go to www.jenniferjoyrose.com

Notation complete!!

I can almost say the Girls Camp song is officially done. I completed all the notation, and am now in the process of recording the vocals. William broke the microphone/headset I had that I record with, and so I need a new microphone. I was using a cheap one that came with our webcam, but the quality is way too poor. So, I'll have to go to radio shack or someplace like that to find another headset. Just one more step in this long process. But I love it.