[musictlk] NEW TO LIST

Anita Ogletree yorstruli at att.net
Tue Feb 17 22:57:51 UTC 2009


Hi, my name is Anita and I am a new member as of today.

 

I have been fund of music most of my life and have had some formal piano
lessons as a youth.  Once I graduated from high school I gave up the lessons
so that I could concentrate on my studies in college and eventually I
stopped playing the piano all together.

 

I began singing in church choirs and truly felt that singing was much easier
for me than playing.  I have had a good ear for music since I was very young
which I discovered one day after I had actually owned a piano and was
sitting down to practice.  Out of the blue I started playing the notes to
There Is A Fountain with both hands.  I slowly learned to play other songs
and the piano teacher I had was blind also and she helped me to learn a lot.


 

After I met the man who is now the love of my life, he encouraged me to
start playing again.  Since my piano of some thirty years was in need of
being tuned up (which can really be a nuisance as I am sure those of you who
are in music are aware of), he purchased me a used keyboard and between that
bad sounding piano and my first keyboard, I started playing again.  

 

One day while talking to one of my cousins on the phone, I happened to be
playing the keyboard before she called and she asked me if I would play for
a program that she was going to be speaking on and from that I was hired to
be the musician for the church that her husband pastured.  From there, I
went over to another church and tried out there, but I am not a
professionally traied musician—at least not for what they were looking for.

 

Then I went to my the church that my Uncle pastors at and I went from
playing the piano to the organ.  This was actually a dream come true for me
because I had never played a Hammond for a church.  It was only in my
dreams.  The organ at my cousin’s husband’s church was a small organ and not
in good condition.  But I told my Aunt and uncle that I wanted to play the
organ and they gave me the chance to do just that.

 

Of course, it was a little rocky for a while.  The organ seemed like a
monster for me at first, but I thank god I never gave up even though I had a
7-month span between playing for them last year.  However, they were
gracious enough to allow me to go back to the organ and I played for them
for free as opposed to getting paid as I had been prior to that break.  All
this has led me to believe, in spite of how much more training I feel I
need, that my fiancé is right when he says that music is going to be my
financial breakthrough.

 

I have played for my Uncle’s church for the past 6 months.  February 8 was
my last day and now I am in search of another church to play for.  The
reasons for leaving that church happens to be ones that I feel are necessary
because the lack of spiritual growth in that church would have eventually
been more harmful to me than staying there out of sympathy for people.  I
will always be grateful to them for allowing me to play.

 

Music lessons and instructors are both expensive and hard to come by.  When
I took lessons back then as a youth, my parents were only paying $`10 a
week.  So I have been trying to find alternate methods of getting what I
need.  I have searched the internet and there are some pretty good
sites—some that cost a bit of money and others that are free.  The only
problem with that is the software that is needed for some of the downloads
from one of the sites did not want to mesh with the screen reader I have.
On this same site, the owner offers free tutorials on the YouTube site and
althought it is going to take me some time and patience, I will utilize
those as much as possible.  If anyone is interested, I can email those sites
to you.

 

Well, I have held those who dared to read my long introduction long enough.
I hope that we can all  learn something from each other.  Please feel free
to give me any advice you think may help me.  There are, I’m certain, some
very professional musicians on this list and I would be very grateful for
any tips you may wish to impart.

 

One of the things I hope to accomplish from being on this list is a way to
make having access to Braille music a little easier.  If there is anyone
interested in seeing if this can work, let me know and if it is possible, I
am going to write to the owner of the site I talked about previously and
find out if there is a way for us to make it happen.

 

God bless~!

 

Anita

 




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