Warming up my fingers and co-ordinating my hands. No thought. No reason, just playing up and down the keyboard. Still very agile. No arthritis. At this point in my life I couldn't ask for more.

Tinkering On The Keys #1

When I sat at my piano today - or rather leaned on a stool because my piano is at standing level - to warm up my fingers because at 69 every part of you has to be warmed up if you want it to work, I hit the record button.  This music is what I played.  This entire piece of music including the other tracks was recorded in less than 20 minutes.  I laid the piano track, then the flute and strings.  Nothing was mixed or changed.  I uploaded it exactly as it was played.  

My husband, after all these years, rarely has anything to say about my music although he plays on the couch to take a nap and listens for hours. It
It is not unusual for me to play or work on a piece of music for 3-5 hours. Today he walked into the room and said he really liked what I just played and that it sounded like music at the end of a melancholic movie. 

Being able to improvisations music and tell a story about what you are feeling is such a wonderful thing.  I usually have a purpose for why I'm creating a piece, but today I had no reason.  No story to tell.  What came out has a reason of its own.  All I could was just listen.  There are a few mistakes, as usually, but that shows you it was spontaneous.  So I decided to upload it. 

This past month I've been working on piece of music that has taken longer - because I'm writing it and also hand drawing the score.  It is one thing to be able to play the piano, but that doesn't mean you know enough theory to draw the score and not use a computer to do it for you. 

So I hope you like my warm up today.  I can't plan when to be creative.  It doesn't work like that.  I can only take advantage of it when it happens. 

For No Reason At All

This music was first uploaded 2 months ago. Sophie has been working on it since then have better fluidity and expression. Yesterday, 11-19-23, we recorded it again. I decided to exchange the files. If you heard it before there is  remarkable difference. I am proud of her.

Song for Johanna was written by Franz Gordan. Sophie is a student of mine, age 14, who I have been teaching for 4.5 years. There is a playlist with her name that has various pieces she has played or worked on with me since she was 9.

Learning to play the piano is more than learning to play the right note at the right time. A beginner doesn't have enough control over their hands to be able to affect how the note is played - how the keys are touched, and the sound blended. Can the emotion be felt? The player has to know the language of music so well that they don't have to think about the notes being played, and can separate themselves to  listen to the music they are playing. 

Unfortunately, most piano teachers can't teach this because they can't get beyond teaching songs in piano method books - They can only teach what they were taught. I have heard many parents tell me they took lessons when they were young, and when I ask if they are still playing, the answer is almost always, "No". They forgot whatever they had memorized so long ago and they never learned how to create music, so it is all moot. It is like learning another language. You can memorize a phrase but you don't understand how the words in the phrase work together. You can't have a conversation in that language let alone show emotion. Music is a conversation.

I have been teaching for more than 50 years and have had hundreds of students. Most don't last long enough to get to the point I am with Sophie - and hopefully I will have a few more years with her before she goes out in the world. But what she is learning she won't forget. Memorizing music is a small portion of what we do. There is so much more to learning how to play music on any instrument than learning how to play what someone else wrote. 

Listen to her playlist and hear her growth. Song for Johanna is the beginning of her next phase of learning. Her lessons are 2-3 hours. She couldn't learn enough in one hour to play with this much maturity. She is such a joy to teach.

Song forJohanna Played by Sophie (revision)

I created a video for this. To watch it go to: https://youtu.be/WRMXCoEO_LA?si=fzZ-Q0xR2UcAF6Th

I am in increasing pain every day because my spine is a mess. Playing the piano is one of the most painful things I do. It sucks the oxygen out of the room. I don't let it beat me. The day before I recorded this I had steroid shots in my mid back, hoping it would give me a little relief. That day I had no pain. I sat at the piano for 5 hours working on music because it was such a joy. It lasted for a day and a half.  It was supposed to be weeks. anyone with chronic pain for years knows what this is like. I can only lay back on pillows for so many hours each day. I am not complaining. It is what it is. Arthritis in my hands would be worse and I have none of that. But this day - this one day was wonderful. I had asked the doctor for one day. That is what I got. W.e have to fight for the things we love.Music gives me the energy to keep going,  Who knows what these hands will produce. I don't have to be the best. I need only be the best I can be.

No Pain

One more piano piece that was played as a  warm up. Any creative craft that uses muscles and requires co-ordination to do well you need to warn up. I have many finger exercises that warm up my hands.I need to situate my hands so they know where the keys are without needing to watch them. I like to play in different keys and go up and down the keyboard. I record when I play because I never know what is going to come out. This is another of those warm up sessions. Played once and can never be played again.

Tinkering On The Keys #8 - Piano only of No Reason at All

I created a music video for this. If you would like to see it . . . https://youtu.be/2AIT4-99U-M?si=bcJ4Sxt_-GQ_c1S_

It was 3 hours before midnight and it would become a new year. It was an ominous feeling. All year it had been building. 2024 was going to be a defining year, and maybe not in a good way. There will be changes in who we are. A year that will affect the world. I felt I needed to put my feelings into music, not where I control what I play, but to relax into it and let my fingers tell the story. When I "try" to write music it is work and it takes planning and many hours to perfect, especially if I write the piano score. When I improvise it is played in one take, never to be played again. It took my whole life to be able to play this way. It is who I am, not trying to do or sound like anyone. I hope you enjoy. Thank you for listening.

I was tired.I had spent many hours working on a go fund me for a families in the Congo - the DRC. I've known them for 8 years, and have helped them with money for medicine and food quite a few times, but this needed more help than I can do. I made a video for it as well as a written story. My music is the soundtrack for that with 20 photos. If you would like to see it and help me share it I would be indebted to you.

https://gofund.me/f2c2d76f

Artwork by Armando Macias
Death row, San Quentin
I've known him 20 years

Everything Changes At Midnight

each piece of music I record has a purpose, a reason for existing. When I try to record a new piece and there is no story behind it, it comes out flat. When there is a reason behind it the emotion is released. One area of my life is painful and hard to overcome is caused by my family. Family is supposed to love you and care if you are dead or alive. I don't thInk mine does. But whatever their reason is, that reason is based on a period of time we can't undo - and it is just a shot of time. Each of us goes through many phases and we change with every one. who we were as children - our education and relationships _ and our roles as parent, grandparents, and much more. we change constantly. If you don't try to know and understand the people you are connected to, you miss a lot. 

I am making a video to go with this. The title - Lest we Forget - will be filled with photographs of the childhood I shared with my sisters. I think it is important that we don't throw away parts of our lives because of whatever grudge they hold against me. That I do not understand. I have to learn to let this go, so this is my last attempt to communicate with them using part me that matters. It has taken my entire life too become who I am now. Who are they? They can throw this in the trash if they want, but at least I tried.

Lest We Forget

I created a music video for this. You can watch it at  
https://youtu.be/koyrqkYnAC4?si=tj3jBuujwj__zMPj

This is an Improv. Each track is layered at the piano. I have been a bit down lately because I am not well. Life is hard right now. It has made me very conscious of how precious time is, and how fast it is going by. We always think we have more time and therefore we waste it on things that don't matter.

I am computerizing all of the music, piano arrangements, lead sheets, lyrics along with photo shoots over the past 50 years in an attempt to document who I am and where I was at each stage of my life and music. I was never even close to being well known but that has little to do with the enjoyment of creating music or the quality and the personal growth we go through during life. My children were with me from birth as I played music around the country but I doubt if they know or even remember the music I wrote throughout their life, so how will their children and grandchildren understand who I am? When you create music it is like a diary. As I enter it into the computer note by note I am reliving the time when it was written. I didn't "decide" to be a musician. It wasn't a choice. It is who I am since I was born. It was always there. I need more time . . .

Searching For Hope


YouTubevideo
 http://youtu.be/ywPhGI_rpIE?si=8AoVHP-qO2gIM_SG

I wrote this for a friend, a neighbor, who is very sick and there is no escaping from her reality. She deals with her life on a day to day basis.  She can hearymmmm
 me when I'm at the piano (when I don't use headphones. ) Listening to me do warm up exercises or playing something over and over can be pretty boring. I'm finding now, being a senior babyboomer, it is beginning to take longer to loosen and co-ordinate my hands than it used to. That's life, I guess.

Whenever I create music there has to be a reason or emotionally it just doesn't come together. Creating  longer than improvising, because I memorize it so I can be played again. It took a while to finish this piece because playing it without making a mistake anywhere is difficult. I still hear mistakes. I will later DL just the piano score.  For me, there is nothing more satisfying than creating music.

The cover was done by: https://pixabay.com/users/khphotography

There Is No Escape From Myself

YouTube video: https://youtu.be/oVBVW2MgRrs?si=05cpLtGiltoWTH13

Everyone has people they have loved who are no longer here.  We think of them and we miss them.  Have you ever dreamed about them? Had talks with them and could feel the warm from them? I have.  Most of them were with my father, who died when I was 35. Half my life ago.  When he hugged me, I could feel the warmth. When he walked away I felt such sadness. But that was not the only time we met in a dream.

Only In Our Dreams

https://youtu.be/AvFLQevu5nY?si=Y_S1gqJ3eeiY8QIN

There is an order in all life. Birth, aging, sickness and death. Spring, Summer, Autumn and winter. You see it in everything that grows. The order never changes. Winter can not come after Spring. Why would the life of a human being follow a different law of life?

Full Circle of Life

https://youtu.be/3JRM4oiJ8jY?si=BeGZIHUk0QetXkuc
or go to my channel @sonniquickpianoimprov2231

Where Does Time Fly?

Where does time fly?
I didn't wonder where
When I was living out my day to day
Too young to really know
How fast the time would pass me by
When my life began to grow

I thought I knew the answers
For my future far ahead
It took so long to get old enough
Time laughed at me instead
Knowing someday I'd look back
At a life I learned to love

I didn't know mistakes I'd make
Or where that choice would take me
I thought I'd have a long, long time
Before me, not behind me
My older years were far away
M,y dreams were there, I'd find

But causes and effects betray
They scatter dreams somewhere
Struggling now to breathe and live
My dreams were tucked away
Wisdom comes from what we give
While waiting for better day

I had come too close to death
To understand my reasons
Now I know with every breath
The order of all seasons
If I had lived my dream too young
I would have stopped believing

Time moves faster than we think
I have one life as it slowly fades
Decades pass like hazy days
It's up to me to make dreams live
I always knew when I was born
It's music I'm alive to give

My younger self who couldn't see
The journey life would take me on
Finally, when I turn around
I hear the sound and understand
I do not live for someone else
and forget the reasons why I stand

My life comes first, I die alone
What matters most is my true self
No one else's truth or lies
Did I forget to wonder why
This life we live is never known
This is where time flies

Where Does Time Fly?

https://youtu.be/LaxzBLemJRk?si=XGcV_cyD0f53o8XU

Moving The Needle

YouTube link - https://youtu.be/HHQVC5mkOQk

Sophie is a student I've been teaching since she was 9. She has often added a track to an improv I recorded, but this is the first one where she has recorded all the tracks. 

I've started teaching her what I know about recording to get her started, so if she wants to be able to record music as she continues through life will know how to begin. I am making a video to go with this music that will have photos taken during her years of lessons so you can see her grow. This will be a nice memory for her as she goes through life and looks back - especially if she continues playing music.

Through The Years - By Sophie

What would I do different if I could  turn back time. 
Would I take a different path, not knowing what I'd find?
I didn't know to think about the consequence of actions? 
I lived a life based upon causes and reactions 

I think, who would I miss if I I chose a different road
I'd be a different person, someone I don't know. 
One tiny thing could change all things, a different way of life
Maybe something careless happened, maybe I would have died.

If I had done things differently, who would be my children?
You cannot miss what you never had, but still . . . then,
We learn from everything we do. Wisdom comes from learning    
We experience life as we age, growing fast and yearning

Would I want the joy of youth and erase the me I know? 
One tiny change, one subtle choice, doesn't mean no sorrow
It doesn't mean a better life, though different it would be
Don't wish away the life you have, be happy you are me.

There is No Looking Back

This music has be been edited and mastered from an upload several years ago that needed new light shined upon it.  I hope you enjoy.

Someone Time Forgot (remastered)

I was looking out my front window the other day, getting ready to warm up my fingers to play my piano. I sat there watching the weather. It was cold and windy. It wasn't a day that invited you to go outside and enjoy the day. It was January, and springtime with green leaves and flowers were a long way off. I am not a cold weather person. I hibernate in the winter, and don't leave my house unless I have to. As I sat there I started to play a melody with my right hand, and this is the music I recorded that day. If you listen, you will hear the weather - wind, rain, thunder and birds that give you hope and beauty that Spring always follows Winter - every single year. Year after year after year. It doesn't ever get out of order. So I tell myself, "Be patient. Don't wish your life away. It goes by fast enough without wishing Spring were here already." I sigh, and go back to creating music.

Whispers On The Wind

When The Light Fades

dedicated to my sister Cindy (more to com)

During Sophie's last piano lesson I asked her to improvise a track on this piece. ( the mid range strings)  Then she started to improvise more.  I picked a key and told her to keep playing.  She did. She played beautiful music and she realized that she no longer needed music to play.  The light bulb turned on and she smiled.  People who only memorize music will forget it if they don't keep playing it.  When you can improvise in any key, you never forget that. You will always be able to play any time you sit at a piano and have no fear that you won't remember what you knew. it's important to know how to read music and the theory that goes with it,  but if that is all you can do, find a teacher who can teach you improv.  I'm very proud of her.  She has talent. 

Learning Forgiveness - Collab with Sophie

I'm not too sure how to say this, but I need to. I am not well. I don't know how long I will be able to continue playing the piano. It is getting hard. I have a degenerative neuromuscular disease. It is probably ALS - Lou Gehrigs disease, but they are still doing tests. I can't walk any more ( I can't move my feet) or sit up without a brace and it is getting harder to breath and speak. I often need oxygen. I'm losing my left arm arm - it won't always go to the right piano keys. But I keep pushing. Creating music keeps the brain active and makes me feel like I still have a purpose. Playing the piano has kept my hands and fingers strong, but there are days I can't make it to the piano because I am very weak. I will keep going as long as I can.

All of the music I have written in the last 50 years I have recordings of, along with hand drawn lead sheets and piano scores that I have keyed into musescore for all of the future musicians in my generations to come who might want to play my music. Music is my diary, especially all the songs with lyrics that were written before my time here on SoundCloud. I have been here for 10 years and have made friends with many other musicians. I want to thank everyone who has supported me. It has been a wonderful time for growth when I could no longer play gigs but wanted to keep writing. It is great for senior musicians and for those where music is a creative hobby, not a profession. There is room for everyone. 

I realized after I posted this that I had just used the piano track.  I put different instruments to it and did a new mix. I can't believe I did that.  



Diagnosis Unknown

A gentle  improvisation. It is the most honest way for me to express myself and the way I feel. My music is like my diary. Everything is played for a reason. I have realized that every day is a good day, I have learned. Don't let even one day slip through your fingers unnoticed. Make each day count toward your growth as a human being - who you have become over time while ever-changing. I have been writing music for more than 50 years while as a piano teacher and musician. I have created a lot of history. But time isn't infinite. No one knows how many days they will have, so make each day count.

Every Day is Beautiful

The train to nowhere has no end
As far as you can see around the bend
There always is another curve
Another chapter to the story
So we can continue to pretend
Not to see how our story ends

We try so hard to never see
The end of tracks go on endlessly
We hear them rumble beneath our feet
We feel the sway in perfect time
An effect for every cause we find
Creates our end in harmony

A life of storms with wind and rain
Teaches us to weather pain
There is no sense to lie and blame
Hardships on bad timing
The train that I am riding
Is my story just the same

The Train To Nowhere

This is music for the chapter titled "The Value of a Letter" in the book being written "Inside the Forbidden Outside' due out by the end of the year.  The book is about the life of Jamie Cummings, who has been incarcerated for for 14 years - a gentle man with epilepsy who has never been allowed to touch his son even one time.  The book is about the injustice and racism of our prison system in the US.

Silence Is So Loud

This piece is part of the soundtrack being written for the upcoming book "Inside The Forbidden Outside", a man's experience going the school to prison pipeline. Now 35 and less than 5 years until he is released. The book is written based on shared letters.

Inside The Forbidden Outside

Is it Rain or Tears

The music was written for a chapter in my upcoming book "Inside The Forbidden Outside".  There is music written for every chapter. Music videos are also being made and can be seen at my:
YouTube channel - Sonni Quick Piano Improv
Website - http://sonniquick.net

The story is about the life of a prison inmate - Jamie Cummings - as he has lived his life in the school to prison pipeline. Losing almost all connection with his family, the woman he loved and the son he has never touched. Currently in year 12 of a 17 year sentence.

Unintended Consequences

In the book I am writing - Inside The Forbidden Outside - Jamie cannot leave his solitary cell to visit with anyone so part of what happens takes place inside lucid dreams. Dreaming allows conversations to happen that originally took place in letters that were written during the month and year of the chapters. 

You can read some of chapters at http;//mynameisjamie.net. 

The years of confinement take a toll. The letters are the only way to not let the lack of human contact destroy his psyche. The chapters go into the psychological state he was in as well as the inhumane treatment he received that no one on the outside can really understand unless you experienced it. It is why most of the music that is written for the book is emotional and melancholic.

There will be 2 books.  2006 - 2016 and 2016 until he is released, and the process of reentry and dealing with the outside world how it stands today with the ill treatment of ex-felons and the racist attitudes that seem to be increasing and more violent every year.

On another note - I need to raise money for a good story editor to work with and line editor, as well as the cost of publishing. I don't have that kind of money. I have a disability check.

I opened up two online stores. Right now i am increasing the inventory as i find good suppliers. It has been quite a learning process. RIght now I have;

Musical instruments -  mostly guitars and a few electric violins, 
Household items  - rugs, Tiffany style lamps and windows and other items
Fragrances 

What I am asking is for people who like my music and who understand what my music is for - to go take a look. I need feedback.  I prefer you go to the store on Facebook. search: Watch and Whirl  
 
If you "like" the page and share it with your own social media it affects how many timelines Facebook will share my posts with for free. I'm just getting started so any help is appreciated. The store will grow faster because there will be more sales.  Of course if you purchased something I'd put you on my Christmas card list!

But honestly, I know sales will increase as I list more and more items. so many people do a bulk of their shopping online, myself included.

The other store location is http;//watchandwhirl.ecwid.com.  

It has the exact same items. I am also developing eBay, then Shopify and Amazon. I have to make money. Otherwise,I won't be able to publish my book so it looks professional. I also need to clean up my music tracks because it is the soundtrack for the book and I don't want anyone to wrinkle up their nose anywhere. There are mistakes that need to come out and I don't have the equipment or the knowledge to do that.

I share a lot of music from others on my music facebook page. 
http;//facebook.com/sonniquicksmusic.  If there is anything I can share for you don't hesitate to ask. For all of us here, networking is how our fan base grows. You can go to http;//sonniquick.net which is my website and subscribe to my mailing list. If you have one, or a newsletter send me a msg.

On that note I will say good nite, go to sleep  .  .  . and dream a little.

Inside the Fobidden Outside

Dreams of Dreaming (impt info below)

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/NIAKaDrMztA?si=3HuLOfAtErWsY7Tj

Sometimes we take lonely walks in our minds as we try to understand what we did that made our life go down different paths. Most of my music is in minor keys that being out  the melancholy feelings we have bottled up. For me, my music helps me make sense of those feelings. 



**Cover Image by Stephan Keller at pixabay.com

Walking The Halls of My Mind

This is the piano track only of a piece I uploaded about a month or so ago. I was feeling rather melancholy that day knowing i was headed into another medical crisis to overcome, feeling very tired because it has been 20 years off overcoming one thing after another all from the same cause. But have my music and my writing to occupy the space in my brain and I can usually push the tiredness away and keep going. I  have too much that is yet incomplete. It is amazing what the brain can produce - the will to live and determination at the top that sees everything through. But the desire to help others is the main thing that gives my life value - to affect lives in a positive way. Thank you all for the encouragement you have given.  This is a wonderful bunch of people here at SoundCloud. Thank you all.

I have a gofundme page that is helping me finish what I started. My income has been greatly affected. If you can help me do this I am indebted to you. If you can share it that would be a big help, too.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/surviving-after-quotinside-the-forbidden-outsidequot&rcid=r01-156488790266-f43c29070dfb45a9&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w

I Have Nothing Left To Give - Piano only

It has been a long hard year for everyone and emotions have been high. From despair over loss, to fear of not being able to repair our lives and anger because not enough was done to lessen the possibility of paying this price because too many haven't wanted to believe it was happening.  This will be a year that will never be forgotten and the repercussions have only begun to be felt. We will never be the same again no matter how much we pretend we won't have to create a new normal. The year 2019 was the last year of 'Good old Days' which is my next piece of music.

A Year of Sadness

A Heavy Price to Pay

My music pieces are all piano improvisations expressing emotions. It is music telling stories without the words. In my earIy years I sang and played piano in piano bars or fronted bands of different styles, from country to heavy metal and to 40. I've been composing, teaching and performing most of my life.  I'm getting old(er) now 😔 but the great thing about creating music is it gets better the longer you play, and you have more to write about! 

This is what I leave of me to my generations to come who wonder where their desire to make music comes from. My mother, grandmother and great grandmother were both accomplished pianists when they were young. My son is also exceptional.  My great grandmother and gr grandfather sang and danced in minstrel shows (vaudeville) in the early 1900's. Kids today have no idea what life was like before moving pictures.  I now have great-grandchildren. They will know who I am through my music. When I am gone my music will still be here. What a wonderful thought! 

Sonni Quick

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