Tinwhistle, Fiddle and a Little Scripture...

I'm having a great time just loafing today on my weekend off. Oh, I'm being sort of productive. I've gotten some laundry done and I have plans to do some cooking eventually. But while the house is quiet and everybody else is gone it seemed like a good time to do my noisy music practice.

First of all I got my fiddle out of the case, popped in my DVD lesson and once again practiced some scales (not much progress in getting that right, but I'm not giving up!) and then limped my way through "Shortnin' Bread". My left hand seems to have a life of its own and keeps moving out of position so that my fingers never come down on the same spot twice, but I know that will improve over a lot of time. It's fun just to feel like I'm on the way to learning!

Then I listened to some really great tinwhistle videos on You Tube and thought, "Hmmm...maybe I'll dust off my tinwhistles and give them another try!" I have two Clarke tinwhistles which have been basically collecting dust in the magazine rack next to my favorite reading chair. I also have music from a great little website called Whistle This! which is dedicated to helping folks learn to play the tinwhistle. So I went to the website and refreshed my memory by listening to some MP3 files of two tunes I had tried a long time ago. Lo and behold, I actually got through them (in a fashion) and now I have TWO instruments to play with in my spare time...when nobody is home. =0) The tunes I'm working on are "The Road to Linsdoonvarna" and "Star of the County Down". I lean more toward Irish music than American, so my fiddling may take more of that direction as well.

As for the Scripture part, I'm reading from Isaiah 58 today and was reminded once again of the meaning of "true fasting". This chapter gives examples of the wrong idea of fasting and also the good way. God always uses his Word to open my eyes!

Now I'm going to eat a chocolate donut and watch "Northanger Abbey" via You Tube. (You can find the link in my left hand column! Not recommended for the younger set. There are some instances of "steaminess"...) =0/