Musique

Ever since we got involved with the church band, Ken and I have returned to some old loves that we thought were long past.

He unpacked his two guitars (one electric, one acoustic); had them repaired at a rather extravagant cost; and has been practicing again. I got myself a new violin, and have been practicing as much as I can without turning it into a hated obligation.

But we didn't stop there. No no. One thing I don't write much about on my blog is that Ken and I are pretty serious shoppers. We both like shiny new things: clothes, shoes, gadgets, and now, musical instruments. I could turn this into Spark and Ken's shopping blog without any fear of running out of stuff to write about or photos to post. That's not the kind of blog I want this to be, but sometimes... sometimes the shopping trips are worth sharing.

Like today. We went to Cosmo, the Musical Instrument Superstore. It's waaaaaay at the north end of the city, up where new housing developments are still breaking ground, and there are fields of corn growing between the strip malls.

We were like kids in a candy store; every section filled with delights. Our stated purpose for being there was to check out microphone booms for the church stage. (We don't have enough fully functional booms to properly mike the piano. The piano has a hand-held mike sitting inside the body of the piano on a piece of foam. It's pretty ghetto.) So we started out in the production section. Ken took in the new, compact sound boards, ten times better than the old one he runs at the church, with a covetous gaze.

Then we checked out the guitar section. Ken is scoping cool straps, but hasn't made his mind up yet. The ones he likes best have skulls and lightening bolts on them, but he's a little concerned that they might not be appropriate for church use. Hmm... For myself I can take or leave the guitars, but I yearn to own a banjo. I have promised myself that if I ever get back up to speed with the violin, I will get myself a banjo and learn to play. Don't hold your breath.

Next stop was percussion, where we banged gongs, crashed cymbals, plunked glockenspiels, clicked castenets, and said "Bubinga!" to each other with great enthusiasm. (Bubinga is a brand of drum that happened to catch my eye. You try saying it. Bubinga! See?)

We also breezed through the electronic keyboard section, where we tortured the sales guys by picking out one-finger tunes, trying out all the cool sounds on the Korgs. I was tempted to go for a hesitant, off-tempo rendition of Axel F, but I took pity on them. Luckily the keyboards were so cool they made all of our crappy noodlings sound like the makings of super-awesome Kraftwerk remixes. If I had a few grand sitting in the bank and a spare room at home, they would have had an instant sale.

We ended our exploration in the book section, where we really went to town. In the end our final list of purchases included a pitch pipe, two kazoos, an A tuning fork (I have an electronic tuner but I miss the old-fashioned way I used to tune in high school), a book of 100 songs of the 1980's for voice and guitar (yes, I will be singing 99 Red Balloons; be glad you don't live next door), a Teach Yourself Traditional Fiddle Techniques book (be doubly glad you don't live next door), and a couple of books on the ukelele.

That's right. I forgot to mention that when Ken went to get his guitars repaired, he brought home a ukelele. It was like this little baby guitar, waiting to be adopted into a loving home. Ken couldn't just leave it there in the store. Since then, in addition to practicing his two guitars, he's been learning the uke. I've got to hand it to him; he's a natural.

We need a third for an ensemble I'd like to create: ukelele, slide whistle, and kazoo. I'll play the slide whistle. Anyone who can hum can play the kazoo. Auditions will be next week. Anyone interested?