Friday 7 April 2006

Back from a short holiday to explore more fortepianos with Alison today, in Glasgow this time. And we seem to have found one! Now we just need to negotiate the owner's permission to borrow it to make a record ...

Meanwhile, I've been getting to know a load of Janis Joplin songs in preparation for a Wigmore Hall concert with Lisa Milne on the 30th. I've got a lot of preparation to do, to get what are sometimes quite sophisticated band arrangements to translate for piano. But it's great not to have any musical notation - I have my iPod plugged into the back of the digital piano, and I'm learning the songs by playing along. This is how I first learned to play music properly, accompanying my record collection, except that our turntable played a bit fast, so I learnt everything a semitone up.

In the mail this morning came the 1975/1989 recording of Philip Glass's Music in 12 Parts. Part 12 is one of the funniest pieces of music I know.

Incidentally, on holiday in York I spent stupid amounts of money at Sarah Coggles on clothes, some of which might make an appearance on stage soon. Always be suspicious when a sales assistant offers you a beer (I didn't have one). But an Urbanstone fleece and a Paul Smith scarf I bought there 7½ years ago are still in constant use, if starting to look just a bit tired now ...