Yesterday it started snowing here in Denver. It’s not that unusual to have heavy snow here at the end of October, but it still feels strange every time it happens. This morning my commute that normally takes thirty minutes turned into a treacherous hour-long trek across snow-covered freeways. My kid’s school and the colleges where I teach closed early. I came home and, rather than getting to right away on this blog, I immediately crashed on my couch for a good part of the early afternoon.
Call it “seasonal affective disorder” if you want, but my “Pastorale” ‘Ukulele project has felt as frozen as the Colorado highways. Yesterday I put a border around the tablature I’m sending out this week for page three of the “Pastorale” second movement:
Buoyed by my success, I then spent nearly an hour and a half unsuccessfully trying to put a pretty border around all the .pdf pages of the complete first movement tablature. In conjunction with the “compilation” video of the complete first movement, I was planning to send it out to email subscribers and make a pretty version of the first movement available as an “epic freebie” to new folks who sign up.
Why the border? Well, I wanted to give it a more “professional” look. At least that’s what I told myself. I told myself that without that border, without the “professional” look, it wouldn’t be appealing. (By the way, in case you’re wondering, the single-page handout I send out every week is created in Microsoft Word, where it’s quite easy to create a page border, and then later converted into a .pdf. The complete first movement tablature was printed directly to a .pdf from Sibelius notation software. It’s much harder to add a border directly to a .pdf, at least as far as I can tell.)
I’ve finally come to the decision that the border doesn’t matter. Surely ‘Ukulele tablature of a transcription of the complete first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 is just as valuable to the right people with or without a border, yes?
I think what was really happening was I was looking for an excuse to not move forward. This is a BIG project, and I temporarily got overwhelmed. What keeps me going this week is the COMMITMENT I’ve made to myself and to everyone reading this that I’m going to keep going no matter what. One page at a time.
Speaking of which, here’s page 3 of “Scene by the Brook”, the second movement of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, transcribed for solo ‘Ukulele:
You can get the tablature for this page, with a pretty border included, by signing up for my email list. Signing up for the list will also ensure that you know when the complete first movement, without borders, is ready to send out!
I love to hear from you, so drop me a line with any questions or just to say hi!
And…when you’re ready, you can find out more about lessons with me online via Zoom or Skype (or in person, if you happen to be in Denver!) by visiting my lessons page.
all the best to you!
-James