Learn Something New...

 
The appropriate Dove candy wrappers that appear in coordination with my fun times has increased to three, so it is now elevated to a collection and gets its own tag. Pam gave me this one over the weekend.



Today has become nasty nasty outside. It's been raining and the wind has been blowing. No outside walking or driveway clearing. The snow is soggy and melting. Bummer. I choose to coast on the good experiences of the weekend. Besides, the weekend was filled with new experiences, a key component of My Quality Day.



Someone at work asked me how many new musical instruments I tried at Pam's house. The answer is five. You saw the Celtic harp and pentatonic harp yesterday. I don't have pictures of all of them, but do have poor pictures of two.

I also tried the pentatonic guitar (made by the same man who made the harps). It has four sets of strings which each play a chord. This one has D, G, C, and F.



The celesta, or celeste makes the "twinkling," ethereal music in the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, from the Nutcracker Suite. Tchaikovsy was one of the first to use the instrument in an orchestral piece. The keyboard activates metal hammers that strike metal bars.



The other instrument I tried was the concertina. Most instruments, sometimes collectively nicknamed squeezeboxes, work quite differently from the piano accordion, which is the one I play. The concertina was something of a mystery, but it was fun to get acquainted. I learned that you get a different note depending on whether you open or close the bellows. In this respect, it's like a harmonica, where you get a different note if you blow or suck a particular hole.

Finally, in response to requests, I've edited the harp video and bring you a piece of it with a still photo. The visual part of the original wasn't too appealing, so I've pulled one frame to use. Pam covers up my mistakes nicely!

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