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I have a thurough self-led lesson about playing by ear in the works. For now, I thought I’d leave you with this.
My advice on how to learn to play by ear.
How to Play by Ear
First, seek out financial institutions who provide one minute of music on repeat when you’re on hold.
Next . . .
OK. While that video is just kind of a kidding around, playing by ear is a goal of many of the people I work with. Here is a video I made awhile back demonstrating one of the processes I use to learn a song by ear.
Blog Post: How I Learn Old Time Tunes – Learning to Play the Tune, Nancy, from a Recording by Jonas Friddle
“Softer the whisper, I will speak, softer the words, they repeat, they repeat, they repeat.”
from the song Softer
The song began with a gentle and cyclical guitar part. A jangly loop. I recorded the guitar in stereo and then the vocals in the same room. There was also a moment that was a touch stronger and more physical but fit well with the gentle verses. One of the days when I wasn’t feeling well, but felt compelled to work, I found the bass approachable. I remember that day because I found a really nice bass riff to compliment that more physical section of the song.
A few weeks later I recorded friend and collaborator Nic Jenkins on the drum set. It was a casual session with a few takes of each song at Off Center Arts that made me appreciate the ease of the session. Soon after I also recorded Liz Gaylor on the violin, but this time in a different space, at a private library at Los Poblanos. Liz’s violin quietly drones on two strings during the duration of the song.
Softer was mixed alongside the other tracks at my home in Albuquerque with a few helpful ears and breaks here and there. The song’s overall message, an appreciation for the softer approach, was a guide during the process of making the album.
The whole album, Rose Signet, can be found on streaming services.
I think probably everybody has some sort of healing dream. And so as you journey through the different songs, maybe little, little parts of the dream are falling into place or coming true.
Tisa Batchelder
I’m honored to share this audio essay by my good friend, and one of my very favorite musical artists, Tisa Batchelder.
Setting clear goals, in terms of both skillset and finished work, continues to take an increasingly important place in my creative world. It’s funny, now, to think that setting of goals was not something I thought about very much.
Just as I, as a musician, practice scales, etudes and other small bits of music, I’ve developed a sketchbook practice which supports me in building the visual art skills that I lack at the moment.
At the end of 2021 I began working on a large pen and ink piece. I stepped up to the paper and realized, almost immediately, that I did not have control of the necessary skills to complete the piece as I wanted. I could understand the process intellectually, but it wasn’t going to come out of my pen without more practice.
I used some scrap paper and put this sketchbook together to explore the greyscale. I used three of my favorite mark making tools; pencils, roller ball pens, and fine line pens. In addition, I shifted between hatching and blending techniques with the idea that I would be able to explore not only my abilities, but also the qualities of each instrument.
Thank you for taking a look.
And, please reach out if my experiences could be of service to your art and/or music making practice. I’m happy to answer any questions that you leave in the comments or send me an email.
The sweet moments in this video took place on June 5, 2021. Toro was one of my dearest companions and rest teachers. Can I sing you to Sleep? was inspired by and written in a workshop guided by Octavia Raheem.
Amongst all the layers in the world that might have you feel and do otherwise…
May you feel loved.
May you find rest.
May you experience moments of ease.
May you sing.
Maria McCullough (she/they) loves to share and explore with others through music, movement, laughter, love and rest. Maria is grateful to be living on Tiwa Land/Tewa land in so-called Albuquerque, NM and is at the beginning of a relationship-building journey with the land and beings here.You can contact Maria and learn more about her offerings here.
Maria was one of the teachers at this year’s Celebrating Tradition Retreat in Spring Green, WI and I was lucky enough to be invited to tag along. What a rare gift to visit without the responsibilities of being a organizer, a teacher or a student! I thought I would take that opportunity to document the retreat.
The slideshow follows, more or less, the unfolding of events. I did make the amature mistake of leaving my battery charger in New Mexico, so I missed much of the last day, and the goodbyes.
It takes a moment to load, so if you see a black screen at the beginning wait 5 seconds and the first photo will come up.
Today, I am honored and humbled to offer for sale pieces from my Listening Wide-Eyed: Limited-Sight Contour Drawings of Musical Instruments series. Between now and early July 10, 2022 you can purchase a piece ofone-of-a-kind artwork made specifically for you or a loved one.
The Listening Wide-Eyed series is an outgrowth of my visual art, musical and mindfulness practices. Each one-of-a-kind piece from Listening Wide-Eyed is created through a limited-sight process, where I make a drawing on a sheet of bristol board without taking my eyes off the subject. I don’t look at the board until I am done drawing. Within the messiness, the structural knowledge and spiritual essence of each instruments expands.
Piano
Each drawing is a made-to-order, one-of-a-kind piece of visual art. They are created with wax pencil and bristol board. Each purchaser is invited to customize their piece, in regards to which instrument, the use of color and matting. There are also options specific to gifting one of these drawings to a loved one.
This process started as a way to strengthen my visual record abilities. As my practice bloomed, this limited goal fell away and the drawing practice engendered more connections between the parts and the whole of both the instruments and myself. How do we move? Where are we sturdy? Where are we delicate? How do those and other qualities affect our presentation to and relationships with others? Considering these questions allowed me to hold and play each instrument in a more open, inviting way.
BanjoVioling
We see and hear ourselves, and others, every day. I hope having these drawings in our living space, practice room, or at a family dining table prompt us to notice moments when we are making assumptions about what we know about both ourselves and others. I hope that they can act as a guide to remain open, curious and to foster connections in musical spaces and all other relationships.
This spring, I’ve been developing my skills with cyanotypes, printmaking with a sunlight-sensitive wash, which I had previously only dabbled with. The idea of working on a specific cyanotype piece emerged from my natural curiosity and delight in process experimentation and my desire to share a wide range of a pieces at a art exhibition I am a part of in June, 2022. Cyanotypes originally caught my eye because of my love of photography, the satisfaction I find in working within a process and the contentment that build inside of me when I work in greyscale.
In early 2022, I took this photo of the sky while I was visiting the Rio Grande arroyo where I live in Las Cruces, NM. I was delighted how the photograph so clearly expressed the sky gradation and a project emerged. I wanted to recreate this gradation using an underexplored cyanotype kit in my supply shelf.
With further reflection I decided to work with a more traditional landscape. I returned to the arroyo and took this photo with the Robledo Mountains and the dry riverbed under the blue sky.
Over the past two weeks I’ve made over two dozen cyanotype prints from a negative of this photo. In the process, not only have I become more confident with my skills, but I also developed some of my own tools to support this production and created a process that I can easily replicate, day after day, in the bathroom of my apartment.
The clear blue sky, the Robledo Mountains and I have gotten to know each other quite well in this time. As I continued to work on the process and examine the photo, the mountain, which I generally consider so big and ever-present, becomes humble against the vastness of the sky. And I started to see the mountain as myself.
My Presence. My stillness. My humbleness under such a big blue sky.
As I continued to explore these prints I found myself thinking about the yoga posture Tadasana, also known as mountain pose, which I’ve worked with many times.
Once I connected the sensations of printing with the sensations of my mindfulness practices, my process of developing these cyanotypes changed considerably. What had been fairly chaotic, with spilled chemicals, broken glass and a bathroom covered with blue splatters, began to coalesce into a more elegant and manageable set of instructions that I was presenting to myself. A voice in my inner ear lead my movements, which reminded me of my yoga teachers and their gentle reminders to “move with your breath” and “root yourself into the ground.”
Like finding comfort in a rooted and stable mountain pose, or any dedicated mindfulness posture, my cyanotype process has required a lot of experimentation. I’ve used exposure times from 1 minute all the way to 20 min and have kept notes on various paper textures, application brushes and time until sunset. As my thoughts about this mountain and about mountain pose broadened, my life waiting during the exposure time became more still. Rather than trying to multitask and “efficiently use” the 10 or 20 minutes it takes for exposure, I’ve found myself just breathing; sitting next to the papers baking in the sun, taking in the bird songs and the shifting shadows created by our revolving planet.
With practice, my desire for the “perfect print” which was the goal when I started this process, faded away. Today, I see these prints in relation to my work with mindfulness practices. When I began these practices I would get frustrated when I was unable to remain still and focused. The cyanotype process presented similar feels when I rushed and didn’t give the sensitizer time to dry, or I got distracted with my multitasking and forgot to set the timer.
My meditation and yoga teachers showed me that the skill isn’t to not have distracting thoughts while I am doing mindfulness work, but to have the thought, notice it, and let it go. There is no need to follow it. Now I bring a kindred energy to these prints when find the signs of wayward fingerprints on the glass, leave uneven streaks in the sensitizer wash, or when I unwittingly splashed water on the not-yet-exposed paper. I’ve grown to be able to notice these imperfections, think, “Oh.” and then move on. I don’t have to celebrate them, but I also don’t have to condemn them or myself.
Here is a slideshow of some of the prints. Click on the photos to move to the next one.
As you may know, throughout the year I keep a running total of days that I perform activities that are important to me. Over my many years as an artist, musician, and active person in the world, I’ve found that this process of counting has helped me maintain focus on aspects of life that are very important to me.
Jan 19, 2020 – The Foothills of the Organ Mountains, Las Cruces NM
2020 was a year to begin to settle into some outward and inward changes. First, and most obviously, since 1998, this was my first full year outside of Chicago. I now live in Las Cruces, NM in the foothills of the Organ Mountains. This prairie is directly outside my front door and I spend a lot of time there.
Second, after a lot of personal struggles in the spring, my doctors and I determined that I am someone who is affected by ADHD. WOW! What an important recognition. While some of these struggles came to a head in the spring of 2020, I actually think that I’ve been wrestling with these challenges for my entire life. The diagnosis has given me a peace of mind that I have never had. This knowledge and acceptance has fostered many welcome changes in my day-today life.
Final Numbers for 2020
My Stuff I Keep Track Of – Totals for 2020 was a bit incomplete because I lost some of my data during so much moving. I was able to keep track of it all in 2021.
The Demming Fusilers, Last Gig of 2021 with Jerry Grandle, owner of the Spotted Dog
Music-Making (non-teaching) = 275 days = 75% of all possible days (Down 13% from from 2020). It’s interesting that the total is down because I feel MUCH better about the music I made in 2020. A highlight has been playing with a group called the Demming Fusiliers during a recurring afternoon session at the Spotted Dog Brewery.
Foothills, 2021, Charcoal, 20″x28″
Visual Art = 349 days = 96% of all possible days (Up 26% from 2020). So cool! I predicted that, “I think that this will be stronger in 2021”. Wow. It was a lot stronger. This makes so much sense. I’ve let go of a lot of mental blocks, and the tools I now have to work with ADHD have helped immensely in allowing me to focus on, and enjoy A LOT more, the visual art work I have been working on.
Body/Mind Work = 285 days = 78% of possible days (down 2% from 2020). Interesting, but not surprising. I think that some of the changes that I made during the 2nd half of the year allowed me to be more centered in general, which made some of the physical work and meditation sessions less essential. One change in terms of counting the numbers is that I went for and counted a lot more short walks to clear my mind, along with strenuous workout classes and meditation sessions.
Business (non-weekly lesson teaching) = 277 days = 76% of possible days. This was the first year I kept track of this number. I did a lot of work on, and even led my first session of, Harmonica Orchestra. I also worked with consultants to build a stronger website and improve my marketing materials. I’m thrilled with how it all turned out.
Quarterly Focus Words
Quarter 1 = Home
Quarter 2 = Root
Quarter 3 = Sprout
Quarter 4 = Attune
Goals for 2021
Music-Making – I have written a bunch of songs over the past 18 months and I have an undeveloped plan to record them. I want to do that.
Visual Art – I feel so free and confident in my art making. I plan on continuing to strengthen this foundation.
Business – Oh yeah! This is the area that I am a) least experienced in and b) least confident about. I really, really want to sell the Harmonica Orchestra. Sales. Not what I like to do, but I’m going to learn.
Body/Mind – I’m very unclear what will happen with this category in 2022. Because of some of the changes I mentioned above, I’ve been able to bring so much of these practices into my moment-to-moment living. The number may go down. Or, I may develop another way to acknowledge and count this work.
“Campamento que amo yo, donde están mis amigos. Básquetbol en el Barrio. Básquetbol en el Barrio!”
Every year I teach the Music Station at an incredible sports/art/music/community-building camp called Basketball in the Barrio, in Segundo Barrio, El Paso, Texas. We couldn’t hold the camp in 2020, so Coach Denisse Franco and I wrote a theme song which, hopefully, we’ll all be able to sing for camp in 2021.
Give it a listen and we’ll sing it at camp next year!
