Neither here nor there...

I still suck at ear training. Best I can get is 64% right. Usually, I'm in the 40% area. In fact, I think I'm getting worse. I noticed I can't even detect octaves half the time now. That's really bad.

I watched the Arturo Sandoval story, "For Love or Country", starring Andy Garcia. It was pretty good.

Spent two and a half hours today on my jazz theory class homework. It was all about harmonic minor scales and 13th chords, two more weak areas for me, and man, it was a lot of work. So when I can't play anything in the band tomorrow, I'll tell the director (who also teaches the jazz theory class) that I had too much homework. We'll see how that goes.

I've been listening to a lot of Dizzy Gillespie lately. Sometimes, you just forget how good some of these musicians are when you haven't listened to them for a while, and then when you do, you just can't put them away because they sound so fresh all of a sudden. I can honestly say, only jazz music does that to me. Or so it seems.

And it finally stopped raining in Alabama. I got some sunlight vitamin D today and it felt great!

I put out an ad online looking for a free piano. No surprise that one hasn't shown up yet. I may have to break down and spend some money on one. I should do it soon, too.

When your ears abandon you

Here are ten things to do when you are practicing your ear training and you become completely unable to identify anything that isn't an octave or a tri-tone. (Believe me, it happens to me, ... a lot!)

1) Have a glass of wine
2) Listen to some music
3) Play a couple of hands of poker online
4) Have another glass of wine
5) Log into Facebook and check up on your Mafia Wars character and see if you have enough energy to do a job in Cuba or not
6) Play with your cat (here's one of the two I'm apt to play with)



7) Have another glass of wine
8) F....o....c....u....s.....
9) Cry, throw a tantrum and bash your keyboard against your computer tower
10) Switch to whiskey

Here are the expected results of each action, based on what happened when I tried each of them during a recent ear training session

1) Feel a little better, still can't hear crap
2) Feel a little better, wish hearing intervals was as easy as listening to Bill Evans
3) Feel better if I win, skip to #9 in above list if I lose
4) Feel even a little better, begin thinking interval training is a waste of time
5) No, it's only been fifteen minutes and you still can't do anything in Mafia Wars yet
6) Causes me to think about ears, but nothing really constructive
7) Alcohol doesn't improve anything, including my hearing, but at least I don't give a damn
8) Continue to be wrong only now with much more intensity
9) Causes some minor excitement in the house, but could be a potentially expensive and seriously regretful activity (I was lucky nothing broke this time)
10) No longer able to see the computer screen, I only hear ocean sound in my ears, and anyway, I can't click a mouse accurately enough to continue (it was bedtime anyway)

For those who missed the comments in my previous entry, I am training my ears using the fine free application available at Good-ear. And for the record, none of the above was good-ear's fault. I just suck at identifying notes with my ears, and that's that. Maybe someday I'll be able to report progress, but I've been down this frustrating road before and I recommend my readers not hold their breath for that (undoubtedly) joyous day.