Happy Tone

Good for you, Ms. Piano. When Mei-Shun plays “Merry-go-round of Life” by J. Hisaishi these days, you sound like having a little sore throat. That is why she contacted Mr. O to give you a tuning. In spite of cold rain, he visited them in the morning, asked what is going on for you. He touched you a moment, immediately caught the problem and started his job — oh? You cough as well?

Sincerely Yours

Japanese dance joined cat and piano in Mei-Shun’s life approx. 10 years ago. Now, has she been capable of mentioning equally these three biggest joys here so far? Health, diet and exercise tend to eat away music these days, don’t they? With 朔 accompanied by lunar September tonight, she should straighten herself up again to stay loyal to Ms. Piano whose tuning has been delayed for 2 months.

Brush Her Up

Ms. Piano would see Mr. O soon, looks happy after Mei-Shun arranged an appointment with the skilled tuner for her. She recently sounds better in “A Maiden’s Prayer” by T. Badarzewska, gives Mei-Shun a good finger practice. Then she moves into Debussy, Chopin and J. Hisaishi. In the last album, “Fantasia for Nausicaä” has almost been completed, next one would be “Merry-go-round of Your Life”.

My Friend

Ms. Piano takes good care of my mom who currently in practice of “Fantasia” from Nausicaä, Princess of Windy Valley. It looks she has to avoid any interference in mind while learning the score. I feel a bit jealous when she is in such a concentration, sometimes jump over her feet on pedals. She just smiles and softly asks me to stop, since she knows I never climb up to keys to play by myself.

Happy to Play

Mei-Shun made it: she finally found piano scores which she had been looking for at a musical instruments shop! “A Maiden’s Prayer” by T. Badarzewska reminds her of long-forgotten tune by her mother who sometimes played this and Beethoven’s “For Elise”. Others include “Le Cygne” by C. C. Saint-Saëns and a best album featuring Studio Ghibli‘s animation films by J. Hisaishi.

Always Doubled

Here is twin Kasane-chan, layered babies. They’ve come onto Ms. Piano recently, met with Mei-Shun at one of her favorite pâtisseries Arles. Nobody know if they are either bear or rabbit, even pug or piggy, yet anyway cute creatures have no problem to join her family. Sweet elephants, please get along with these pink friends. Would their ears stand straight when one stop mounting on another?

Lunar March

Yes, it starts from today. That might be why our garden princess gave her first bloom. It is so interesting that the more distant a bud is from the trunk, the sooner it blooms. That makes her look like putting on a melon kimono from the bottom. Now it gets dark, your mother would play piano in moonlight scores to help you — we do not have it in the sky tonight.

Correct Movement

On piano practice, Mei-Shun found an interesting matter. Her wrists move like going on gently-sloped hills when she plays a score for finger exercise. A long tone with pedaling makes a small circle by the right wrist, in clockwise or counterclockwise directions depending on melody. When quick touch is required, wrists are fixed at a height to relieve each finger. They all occur in precise performance only.

New Scores

Mei-Shun continues piano practice, yet only 10-15 minutes a day. That means no progress in technique, even deterioration maybe. Refreshing breeze is necessary for Ms. Piano. Some of her favorite scores have many sharps and flats, while played in “Largo”. “Allegro” or “Presto agitato”, represented by the third movement of “Sonata quasi una Fantasia” by Beethoven, are never for her. Soothing music, not so complicated — oh, how about the one in animation films?

Step by Step

So happy to see the first full moon of this year. She looks so beautiful in clear, cold air that Mei-Shun chose moonlight scores for Ms. Piano tonight. There was a little discovery: she misread a G key, wrote E for it. Since musical notes full of lines are not friendly to her eyes, she makes it a rule to use pencils for confirmation. Now she is ready to play it precisely, while make further efforts of weight control toward the end of lunar 2016 which comes in 2 weeks.

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meishunkikunoe

… loves Japanese dance, cat and piano.

piano