Musical Interlude

I sent Chas out for a break away from Angie (he is a SAHD) and to put gas in the car (because our breaks are largely functional).

Angie wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do tonight. We played piano, but she didn't want me to play the piano. Only she could drink tea, and so on. So I brought out my flute.

We pulled the flute up from a dark corner in the basement in the winter so that I could start playing again. We're hoping that it will once again help my pathetic lungs and cut down on my asthma attacks. And so the flute has sat in the office, untouched until tonight.

My initial panic was that I seem to have forgotten how to read music. Maybe it was that my rusty brain could no longer coordinate finger positions and follow the music at the same time. Maybe it will return with practice and the finger charts I have. I couldn't tell if the sound was off because it's out of tune, or because I don't have the wind power to sustain some of the notes. I haven't played the flute since my sophomore year of college so I don't know what I was expecting.

I could not remember how Fanfare sounds so I tossed it. My high school Alma Mater returned to my memory fairly quickly. The only music I have in the house are the old hand transcribed pieces from high school marching band. I even have Mr. Wilson's rules for band camp tucked in with everything else.

There was the horrid "Go For It" which has those ridiculously high notes I could never reach. Classics for Marching Band such as "Hang on Sloopy" and "Evil Ways." "Long Train Running" seems to have disappeared. I recall it really only had three or four notes rearranged throughout it--it was one of the first songs I memorized every year.

The wooziness that always accompanies my initial attempts returned but I made a noble effort at playing for roughly a half hour. Angie wanted to play. She kept insisting that I share. Hmph. She liked the trills the best I think. So did I .

I'll try to play at least once a week. I think given my life right now, even that is ambitious.