Out of (brain) practice

So … it’s wonderful to be able to play the piano again but I have to confess something. I did not have a grand “oh-wow-this-sounds-amazing-again” moment the first time I played it, after my piano tuner left. Rather, I had a “woah-has-this-piano-been-tuned-at-all” moment. Before I could question the work of my very talented tuner much further though, I remembered that my brain is out of practice.

Clearly it’s what happens after a five-month break from playing. The piano sounded somewhat … er … terrible. Not as bad as after my CIs were switched on, thank goodness, but definitely muddled. Pachelbel’s Canon made me shudder, as did Mozart’s Turkish March. Debussy’s Clair de Lune, my favourite, sounded a little sweeter to the ears. Perhaps more familiar to the brain.

After 30 minutes or so, the piano sounded much better. But I am going to have to find the time to sit at it regularly to stop that from happening again!

Tuning time

I’m very excited about my piano being tuned next week. It started going out of tune last December and got progressively worse with all the humidity over summer. Having finished my concert and lessons in time, I never bothered getting it tuned. Figured it could wait until its regular annual tune in May.

I’ve been deliberately avoiding it while it sounds so bad, for fear I will accidentally retrain my brain the incorrect tones and pitches for everything. Is that even possible? Not sure. But I dare not risk it after all my hard work.

People ask me if I can perceive that it’s out of tune. Yes! Notes that don’t belong in certain scales. An annoying twang that not only resonates after pressing a key, but changes the tone. Bars of music that sound like they’re being played in entirely different keys. Reminds me what it was like playing the piano with my distorted natural hearing in the months leading toward total deafness.

Can’t wait to get back into playing – I really miss it!

Spicks and Specks ... with CIs

It’s Wednesday! Spicks and Specks night! I still love this musical quiz show, even though playing along is so much harder than when I had natural hearing. But rather than feel frustrated about that, I try to make this show my ‘musical training’ instead. This is especially useful because the piano has been out of tune for months, and I barely have time to get on Sound and Way Beyond these days. So this show is about all I can muster in terms of training at the moment.

Why do I consider it training? Because parts of this show involve manipulating well-known music in order to make it recognisable.

Michael Buble’: Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne 2011

The first time I heard this man live in concert was back in September 2005. Hamer Hall, my favourite Melbourne venue for music. The acoustics were incredible. Of course, I had full hearing back then too. But the warmth of the jazz band filled not only every niche in the room but crawled its way inside my body too. The sounds bounced off the walls with nowhere else to go but within. I felt the music from head to toes and had to shed several silent tears for the sheer power of the sounds being expelled from the room. Michael Buble' won me over that night – not just for his charm and his humour, but for the respect he showed for his band … and the respect he showed for the original singers of his cover tracks. I confess my Frank Sinatra CDs became a little dusty after that night.

BEI concert review (coming soon!)

Of course I’ve got lots to report on the BEI concert! Has been a crazy couple of weeks juggling CICADA deadlines with medical appointments, but don’t think I’ve forgotten! 

Media publicity: Bionic Ear Institute's Interior Design Concert (UPDATED)

Some amazing sounds coming from the Fairfax Theatre at the moment - just listening to the performers getting ready for the show!

We just wrapped up our interview with ABC TV. Be sure to tune in to the 7pm national news on ABC 1 tonight, if you're interested!

UPDATED ON 14/02/2011:
Here's the link to the online news story!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/02/14/3137688.htm

Music for bionic listeners - concert day!

It’s ‘Concert Day’ – sort of! It’s after midnight anyway. And I should be in bed resting up, but am feeling a little flat after watching my football team lose twice in the one night. Should be used to it, I suppose, but with football only just starting up again for the year, I need to slowly wean myself into the disappointing losses once more. For my Aussie readers: I’m a mad (in all senses of the word) Tigers supporter, if you didn’t realise already.


But, tonight’s game is in the past now – I’m done with devoting my Saturday to sports, and ready to devote my Sunday to the arts. (Do I epitomise the typical Melburnian, or what??!)

Interior design: music for the bionic ear!

Very exciting weekend ahead with the Bionic Ear Institute’s concert taking place in Melbourne on Sunday!

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Sunday 13^th February, 2011

Where: Fairfax Studio @ the Arts Centre, Melbourne

Times: Choose from: 5:30 pm or 8:00 pm

Prices: $25 adults / $15 concession

Also an optional 7 pm lecture for all ticketholders, limited space available (first come, first served). Lecture will cover how the music was made along with some of the issues encountered.

Buy tickets here: http://www.theartscentre.com.au/whats-on/event.aspx?id=2403

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Happy New Year!

Yes, I’ve emerged from a happy, dreamlike state of Christmas splendour, New Year’s festivities and family birthday parties!

So many happy moments to lose myself in, but I confess there were moments when I stepped back from it all and quietly marvelled at how far I’d come.

Adam Hills – better (three years) late than never

A pretty cool thing happened to me a few weeks ago. Have been meaning to blog about it.

You see, I’ve always been a big fan of comedy. (Surprised? Seriously. It’s true!) Every year in April, we celebrate the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. From the age of 17, I was a regular patron. And not just a regular patron. An obsessed one. I used to pore over the guide in The Age on the day it was released. Circle everything I wanted to go to. A few years later, public liability insurance brought the prices of the tickets higher so I had to be more selective. But I always made sure I at least saw my two regulars – Wil Anderson and Adam Hills. Why? They went to the effort of writing new material every year. And they are funny.

Inspired by David Helfgott!

When it comes to playing the piano, no living person inspires me more than David Helfgott. So what a treat to see and hear him perform live in a solo piano recital at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Friday night.

I’d never been to this venue before – it opened while I was deaf. I used to walk past it a bit sadly, wishing it had opened during the years I had normal hearing. I never thought I’d be lucky enough to be able to attend and hear a performance there. (Insert spontaneous applause for the miracle of cochlear implants!)

Bionic Ear Institute – the television interview! As promised!

A few blogs ago, I mentioned our meeting at the Bionic Ear Institute had been partially filmed by the ABC, for a program called ‘Art Nation’.

I’ve mentioned the concert project plenty of times, but in case I have new readers ... the Bionic Ear Institute have teamed up with a group of composers, lead by Robin Fox. The composers are learning all about cochlear implants and are trying to create pieces of music that people with cochlear implants can enjoy. The pieces of music will be performed at a concert in Melbourne, in February next year. It will hopefully be recorded so we can share the experience with cochlear implant recipients around the globe.

The first meeting between composers and CI recipients took place in early October. The film crew from the ABC were present for part of it. Aside from filming part of the meeting, they also spoke to a few cochlear implant recipients afterwards, myself included.

Music updates … and other activities

Can you believe it’s October already? My cochlear implants have been activated for six months now, and life is so amazing. Better than it was before because I’ve had the chance to meet so many wonderful people, and explore things I’d never be able to otherwise.

The Nutcracker ballet

Do I have self control?

Sure!

I wait until we get to double digits before I start counting down to Christmas. That’s September 17, everyone. 99 sleeps.

OK … so I’ve kind of been banned from counting down any earlier than that, so maybe ‘self control’ is the wrong terms.

You may as well know now (if you don’t already) that I’m one of Those People who adores Christmas.  Jase has had to enforce a rule in our house. No counting down until we get to double digits, or it’s Just Ridiculous.

Sometimes I get around this rule by counting down to the day that I can start counting down. ;-)

But no need for that any longer! We’re in double digits!

And how did I choose to celebrate?

By going to The Nutcracker ballet, of course.

My first musical: West Side Story

So I went and saw West Side Story on Saturday night, my ‘mildly ambitious’ event of the year!

Couldn’t seem to get any sound from the telecoil though – turns out our seats weren’t in the hearing loop after all. Either that, or they hadn’t switched it on.

Given that was the case, I fared better than I could have hoped.

West Side story – my 'Mildly Ambitious' event

In my second-ever blog on this site, I pointed out that I'd booked tickets to West Side Story. The full blog is here (http://back-in-the-loop.blogspot.com/2010/03/theres-mildly-ambitious-far-too.html) but the part I'm talking about is this:



Shh … I’m booking tickets for musical events taking place later this year. If my audiologist finds out, I fear she’ll send me for a pre-implant psychological assessment, quick smart, to quash those Unrealistic Expectations.


Let’s start with Mildly Ambitious, scheduled for around 4.5 months after switch-on. (August 2010)

I am really, really excited about this one! Last night, I took advantage of an internet pre-sale and booked tickets to a theatrical production of West Side Story for August this year. I have always wanted to see this performed – am such a huge fan of the movie! And the best thing is, I had the good fortune of discovering this one in my ‘hearing years’, so I know the soundtrack very well. I plan to watch the movie (captions on!) many times before the show, to refresh my knowledge of the story. The music is a strong feature of this one, but there’ll be plenty of dialogue to break it up, and I also know the lyrics to the songs already. I’ll be sitting in the loop so I can make full use of the telecoil. So I think it’s safe to call this ambitious, but mildly so.

"Cochlear music" – the ABC Radio National interview

Very happy to take part in a national radio interview to spread further awareness about the work the Bionic Ear Institute are doing here in Melbourne.

Can I just point out the not-so-obvious but overwhelmingly amazing fact that this interview was conducted over the phone? Imagine that! Only five months ago, I'd pick up the phone and not even hear a dial tone. For about 14 months prior to that, I couldn't understand speech well enough to use a phone.

Inspired!

I’ve been haunted by Rachmaninoff’s third concerto over the past few days, since discovering it for the first time while watching Shine on Saturday night. This piece has me completely captivated, from start to finish. I’ve never heard anything like it. How I didn’t know about it in my days of natural hearing is beyond me, but, never mind, I know it now. And I can’t let it rest.

I’ve been listening to it over and over again on the iPod. The more I hear it, the more I want to play it.

Triple J radio publicity

And the media publicity for the Bionic Ear Institute's 'concert project' continues ...!  

I'm so honoured to be able to help them out with this. What an incredible way of overlapping the arts with the sciences! And anybody who knows the importance of making music FUN is going to get my firm seal of approval. ;-) 

Here's a link to the Triple J interview played earlier this week: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/stories/s2953719.htm  

Interview: BEI concert project for cochlear implantees

Jase chuckled at the first line.

I waved the newspaper at him and said, 'you see! It's official! I don't like to complain! The newspaper says so! That means it's true!'

He shook his head and gave me the 'oh-if-only-they-knew' kind of grin.

OK, so I might be the Complaining Type when it comes to stuff around the house. Mostly temperature-related stuff. (‘It’s too hot in here’ … ‘it’s too cold in here’ … ‘how long has the heating made that whistling sound?’ … ‘how long has the air-conditioning made that groaning sound?’) Seriously. Room temperature is supposed to be 22 degrees, right, not 18? Back me up here. (You see, I’m complaining right now.)

But it is true that you will not hear me complain about my cochlear implants. Though I might (Ever-So-Meekly) admit that music could be better … if there’s a chance I think admitting it might help others.