our trip: the wedding

[our little family all dressed up and ready for the wedding]

The whole reason for our trip to Colorado last weekend was to share in the wedding celebration of two long-time friends. The bride has been my friend for longer than I can remember, and the groom is in some ways like a younger brother to me (he actually played music for our wedding reception, so it's extra-special that we got to do music for his wedding).

We were honored to help by playing music for the prelude and ceremony. Some of the music we played was flute and guitar, and some of it was flute and piano. We were pleased that it was about 98% perfect which is especially good for wedding music where finishing and starting all the pieces at all the right times is difficult. We becoming a better and better team the longer we do music together.
It was an exquisitely joyful, lovely wedding. Not so much because it progressed flawlessly in lovely surroundings, but because the couple was radiantly happy. They are perfect for each other!

As I listened to them exchange vows, and watched the love shining in their eyes, I couldn't help but be reminded of my own wedding day. The good though normal and everyday life we have forged in nearly four years of marriage was pulled aside. As I remembered, I tasted again of the new joy of being just married. Perhaps that's the best part of going to weddings after all. : )

The wedding was a perfect mixture of seriousness and fun. I enjoyed seeing how their personalities complement each other and are already melding into one unified expression.

At the end of the day they rode off in a horse-drawn carriage. I'm so glad we were able to go to Colorado do help in their celebration and to witness their joy.

[Thanks to my dad to taking care of my camera and getting lots of good photos for me while I was busy doing music!]

Coming Soon! Our Trip: At the in-laws'

i teach

i teach

passing on my craft

of weaving the written notes

into floating melodies

embouchure, diaphragm

fingers, and tongue

moving in harmony

to mold fluid melodies

notes, round and full

notes, sharp and clear

notes, loud and soft

fuse seamless melodies

melodies

that linger in the air

then slowly dissipate

until they are gone

thought they aren't really

new instrument

When we were in the "big city" visiting my in-laws last weekend, Benjamin took the opportunity to visit Guitar Center while I went to the Wal-Mart sized Joann's across the parking lot. We had been considering a couple of music purchases, and he enjoyed the opportunity to try equipment and do research that's just not possible when shopping on-line.

After much debating and discussing, we decided to purchase an acoustic-electric bass. Benjamin has been wanting a bass for using in recordings, and I have been wanting to learn to play the bass too. I am enjoying learning a new instrument and hope to keep steadily improving.

recording

Last time we recorded I learned

that as I play it's all about feel

and not about sound.

Of course it's not going to sound the same

when I have on giant earphones

that play the other tracks.

This knowledge came in handy one evening last week

when Benjamin carried me off to the basement

to record a flute riff for his piece.

[composer at work]

Our Christmas "Cards"

Last night we finished recording the music for our Christmas CD "card"! We worked primarily on "Mary, Did You Know?", and it is our best yet. We are getting to know our equipment and editing programs as well as just feeling a lot more relaxed about the whole recording process. The combination makes for some happy music. ; )

Here are links to our music if you would like to listen:
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Silent Night
Ubi Caritas

Unfortunately I can't post the link for "Mary, Did You Know" since we are still working out licensing. We want to be careful to be as honest as possible to the original artist. But if you really want to hear it, you can buy a copy of the CD for $5. ; ) E-mail me at benjamin.and.christina at gmail.com if you are interested.

We are planning on signing the CDs with red and green sharpies and sending them out with our family picture (shown above). We were hoping to get them mailed before our trip, but I don't think that will happen. I'm going to aim for right after it, though, so they will still arrive in plenty of time.

Recording

We are making a short Christmas CD to send out this year instead of a card. We are planning for it to have 5-6 tracks and hope to get it out the first week of December (okay, update: my husband just read this over my shoulder and said, "5-6 tracks!?!? I was thinking three!" Hmmm. I think a communication short has occurred.) We have two tracks done, which is good, but we still have so many more to go (update: maybe only one more to go)! ; )

Today we recorded me playing a flute duet with myself. ; ) Yep, that's right. I recorded and re-recorded, and re-recorded some more. One part on top of the other. It was tough to get the timing right, but it's done now! My ears are so not processing anything anymore.

We moved our recording operation upstairs temporarily since the acoustics are much better in the living room than they are in the basement. I will have a bit of a challenge keeping Little Man out of it, but that's all right. The better sound quality will be worth it.

I am really thankful for my producer-husband who is really patient with my timing glitches and who copies and pastes bits of music into their proper places. ; )

We had so much fun. I can see why some musicians like to record so much. In some ways it is more demanding than live performance (every little mistake is recorded "forever" instead of being a passing glitch). Yet in some ways it is easier because you have so many times to try to get it right, and sometimes you can take the good sections from two different takes and paste them together, omitting the bad.

More tomorrow...I'm going to go get a snack and go to bed!