Random music thoughts

I have decided that I need more music in my life, not just by listening to music but to actually play an instrument myself again. I have a rather big keyboard and a violin, the violin is terribly out of tune though, and the keyboard is quite bulky, it really needs to be on its stand when playing but then it takes too much space so I tend to keep it on my lap which is pretty painful, plus some of its keys are weird, don't know why.
Anyways, I can probably tune my violin if I want to, but I'm not too sure about my neck agreeing with playing violin these days. So I've decided that I'm going to try guitar instead! I'm going to buy an acoustic guitar and try to learn some on my own with the help of YouTube tutorials and by listening to my favorite music. If Freddie and the others in Queen could learn their instruments on their own and on top of it write the most epic music ever written, then I should be able to at almost 30, learn to play some! My overly hypermobile hands may even be a benefit for playing since I can reach pretty far between one finger and the other, something that was an advantage already in my violin days well over 10 years ago. I took lessons between August 1996 and April 2002 so yeah, it's quite a long time ago now!

To start with, I'll just buy a really cheap guitar, no use spending a lot of money on something I don't know if I'll like or can manage. But should I end up having any talent I may consider buying something better then.

I've pretty much settled with going with a steel string acoustic guitar after asking around and trying to research some about the different options.

To me, music is so much more than just music, it's a way for me to manage my pain as I can hopefully numb the pain some by focusing on the music I listen to at the time. I'm hoping that playing guitar will keep my brain busy as well.

Thoughts about Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor

After my trip to Poland and the Queen+Adam Lambert concert, I began to dive into the solo work that Brian and Roger have made both before and after Freddie's passing. I have to say, I'm growing really fond of their solo albums as well, especially Roger's album Happiness? from 1994, it has several songs that I really like, such as the song Happiness, Foreign Sand, Old Friends and of course, Nazis 1994! The song Nazis 1994 may raise many eyebrows when just reading the title, I sure as heck wondered when I first heard about it, but it's actually an anti-nazi song and Roger greatly dislikes nationalism, bigotry, discrimination and fascism. Dare say that made me like him even more! Best drummer ever, great musician in general and with an amazing voice, PLUS having such great opinions when it comes to human rights!

I haven't heard as much from Brian yet, but I like what I've heard this far! Back to the light is really beautiful! It's really no wonder he's been voted the best guitarist more than once now, just this weekend he was voted the best guitarist again in a rock magazine! He sure knows how to play his guitar in ways that you wouldn't think was possible. But even being the best guitarist in the world, he always seem so modest and gentle and keep both feet on the ground, his voice is also very soft and soothing. Then he has his Save Me Trust to give wild animals a voice, along with being a very brilliant astrophysicist/astronomer (not sure if it's one or both, but he's indeed Dr Brian May these days) and like Roger, a very good songwriter and musician in general!

I quite wish it was possible to just invite them over one day, not because they're heroes to me and are part of my favorite band ever, but because I think they seem to be really nice people to be around and just sit and talk with about things in general like awareness for HIV and The Mercury Phoenix Trust that they started after Freddie's death, animal rights, human rights, music, outer space and whatnot, just general chitchat with no journalists involved or interviews and such.
I know it's not at all likely to happen though, they're both very busy with their various projects with and without Queen, along with being husbands and family fathers. But yeah, should I ever get to meet them, I'd probably not be completely starstruck unless I accidentally bumped into one or both on the street without being prepared for it. Even the greatest stars walking on this planet are just regular people when they're off stage!


It's actually Roger's song Old Friends that made me write this post in a haste before I'm off to sleep. I played that song for mum on YouTube the other day, and then it hit her, and me, that no other band or band members have done so many songs and tributes to a lost band member! You won't hear The Beatles play tribute songs for John Lennon, and I haven't heard a Nirvana song for Kurt Cobain, nor have I heard any tribute for Michael Jackson from his own brothers! But Queen has made songs for Freddie, and Freddie is still always with them in spirit! Brian and Roger also finished the album with the last songs that Freddie sang before his death, Made In Heaven is a beautiful album, though some of the songs are just heart wrenching, like Mother Love which is the last recording of Freddie's voice, he didn't even finish the song, he never came back to sing the last verse so Brian sang it to finish the song.
Just shows what amazing people Brian and Roger are, and how much Freddie meant to them. Freddie wasn't just the lead singer, he was one of their best friends!



As for John, Freddie meant a lot for John as well, and I'm not going to speculate on why he choose to retire. I do know however, from reading, that John lost his father at a very young age, and Freddie was like an older brother to him, I've heard Freddie's passing hit him very hard. The reason I don't mention John much is purely because I respect his wish to be retired. He's never forgotten and I hope he's happy with his family and living the quiet life that he wishes, without being chased by paparazzi all the time!
This video is the last time John performed as part of Queen, many fans hope that he'll return one day, but we also know it's not likely, and again, I just hope he is happy with his family and having the quiet life that he wishes to have.

The most amazing weekend ever!

My last post was written while sitting in an airplane 10000 meters above the ground somewhere over Germany.
Mum and I went to Kraków, Poland this past weekend. It was our first time visiting Poland, but definitely not the last! We had an amazing time in Kraków, even though we didn't have the possibility to go into the city anything, see, we went there to attend the Queen+Adam Lambert concert at Tauron Arena Kraków, and since I need my wheelchair to be out and about, and couldn't bring my wheelchair to the concert, we stayed in and around our hotel until it was time to go to the arena. We were staying at Hilton Garden Inn at Kraków Airport, and it is by far the best hotel I've ever stayed at! The staff were just amazing! So friendly and helpful, and it was very nice to just chitchat too when they had time. It being weekend meant the hotel wasn't very busy. I guess most people who went to Kraków for the concert stayed in the city closer to the arena. Mum and I choose the airport hotel simply because of our late arrival time and very early departure. We landed at 11:20pm (was supposed to land at 11:35pm so we were early) the evening before the concert, and then the morning after the concert, our flight home took off at 6:35am which meant needing to check in at the airport around 5am or so to get through security and such without stressing. By staying across the street from the terminal, we at least managed to get some rest in our hotel room after the concert, and we didn't need to find a taxi at like 4am.

So, the whole reason of traveling to Kraków: The concert!
OMG! Where do I start? It was pure epic, and so much emotions! I finally got to hear and see Queen live! Something I never thought I would get to experience! Brian and Roger were so amazing! Even at 60+ and over 40 years on stage, they were just glowing and were so full of energy, and you could see the joy in their faces, they truly love what they're doing!
And Adam Lambert! What an amazing live singer he is! That voice!

Some people think it's wrong of Brian and Roger to still call themselves Queen, and no one should sing Freddie's songs and so on. But as I say: Haters gonna hate... Unlike the haters, Brian and Roger owns the music they play, and if they still want to play live they should play live! Freddie is no longer with us, John made a choice to drop out after Freddie's passing, some claim he got severely depressed, others claim he just wanted to leave. I'm not going to speculate why he choose to leave Queen, but he did and it was his choice. I just hope he's doing well and is happy with his family!
Adam was asked to sing with Queen already by the time he won Idol, but hesitated for a long time before finally accepting. He never claims to be Freddie or trying to substitute for Freddie, he simply sings the songs and he does so in an epic manner with a voice even Freddie would be proud of, and Adam is a really good front man! Adam and Freddie are pretty similar in many ways, and if Freddie's spirit can see and hear the concerts now, he'd probably have some witty remark about Adam's voice range and totally approve of Adam singing with Queen. Queen can't really have a better singer than Adam, seeing Freddie is no longer with us!
Freddie may be gone, but he's definitely not forgotten! Adam is very grateful and humbled to sing the songs Freddie once sang, and the entire concert in a way felt like a celebration of Freddie's life and achievements, and the achievements of Queen as a band. Freddie is honored and remembered throughout the entire concert and even makes some guest appearances on the screen a few times.

I cried a lot during the concert. It was just so emotional to hear my favorite music ever, being played live by my biggest musical heroes walking this earth today!

The music of Queen has gotten me through rough times, inspired me and given me strength, and it still does all that. Brian and Roger are both amazing virtuoso, and I find that very inspiring, makes me want to dive into the music again, listen more, pick up my instruments again and try to improve my own skill some. Last night I took out my large keyboard again for the first time in over 3 years, and just played some randomly, just some melodies as I don't do chords or two hand playing (yet) and before I knew it, I was playing some parts from Bohemian Rhapsody, very very simplified, but still... Last time I played on my keyboard I couldn't play anything from that song!

And the thoughts of wanting to more for HIV/AIDS awareness and The Mercury Phoenix Trust grows on me more and more. I just need to find out what I can do, other than just blogging...

I really hope Queen+Adam will tour together more, and I sure hope there will be DVD's and CD's from this tour! If they tour nearby again mum and I will definitely go see them again, both of us are huge fans of Queen, Freddie and Adam!

Having seen Queen+Adam live this weekend is something I'll remember for life, and the only thing that could possibly top this would be a time machine to visit the 80's and attend one or more of the huge Queen concerts back in those days!

As an extra bonus when on the way to the runway on Sunday morning, I spotted Queen+Adam's private jet parked at the airport! The aircraft I was on drove right past it!

Ambidextrous people rock the world!

By the word pretty much ;) As I was looking for pictures of Freddie for a tribute video I made yesterday as November 24th is the day he passed away in 1991, I found a photo of him playing guitar left handed, which made me pretty sure he was ambidextrous. Some googling today, and my guess was right!
I'm ambidextrous myself, and it's so handy! In fact, I remember this one time when I was going to hold a guitar for the first time ever, think it was in music class in junior school, I first held it as a left handed would and this was before I even found out I'm ambidextrous. I found out I'm ambidextrous 10 years ago now, when I was 15, until then I was right handed with left handed tendencies like wearing my watch on right wrist- something I've always done ever since having those plastic toy watches that always breaks after 2 minutes ;)
Today I mix between writing with left and right, but for many other things I'm left handed. I can't for e.g brush my teeth with right hand, while I do brush my hair mostly with right hand. As for using the tape at work, I almost always use left hand, same goes for cutting down cardboard boxes.
At work I'm funnily enough not the only ambidextrous. I have a couple of workmates who are ambidextrous too, even though they seem to be a bit more right handed.

And they say being ambidextrous is rare? I know several ambidextrous people around the world, and many musicians are ambidextrous too. It's a good thing when playing an instrument :) Maybe that's why violin wasn't too difficult for me...
And no, I haven't learned to be ambidextrous, nor have someone taught me to in my childhood. I just tried writing with left when I was 15 and it worked! After that I've just tried more and more to compare my ability in both hands. The only thing I can't do with left hand is using scissors but I even know purely left handed people who can't use scissors with left hand, no matter what kind of scissors it is.

Being ambidextrous really gives you the best out of two worlds! I think it will come very handy too now when I'm wanting to learn to play keyboard properly, and not just play one handed melodies. Should I try guitar too, it will be interesting to see which will feel better, left or right.

Oh gosh am I rambling or what. It's midnight, I've slept too little all week and felt craptastic most of the evening so I guess that's why I just type out these kinds of random ramblings about whatever.

Oh well, here's the photo I found which made me google and is the reason behind this long post.

Finding your inspiration and motivation

For the past few days I've felt so inspired to start with music again so yesterday I went to my rental storage room and picked up fairly big keyboard (all in all 61 keys) which I haven't been playing on for years really. Being without car these days, going to my storage room meant having to take the bus there (could have walked, but weather was bad) and then carry above mentioned keyboard to bus stop, and then from bus stop to home. Anyways, I got my keyboard home, with it's support legs and cable, in the rain which may still have been snow mixed. Now I'm looking up piano and keyboard lessons online to really learn how to play keyboard. Until now I've only been playing by ear, which worked fine until now when I've set a goal to myself to learn Bohemian Rhapsody ;) 7 pages of sheet music and said to be very difficult to learn.

I've found musical inspiration from Queen and Freddie Mercury's amazing talent, especially Freddie is an inspiration for me with his incredible talent for writing music and playing the piano and sing. Another reason I look up to him is how he, despite being so desperately ill, never gave up! He kept singing until the very end. So if he could do that, then I should be able to really learn how to play keyboard, right?
I do have a fair music ear after playing by ear on small keyboard since I was very young, I actually had a keyboard when I was really little, and it was broken so it only worked if leaning it against something while up-side down! You could even say I learned how to play up-side down ;) After playing violin for over 5 years while in middle, junior and early high school, I do know how to read music too, I just need to learn it on keyboard as well.
I've also started to try to improve my voice a bit and learn how to control it. It's not because I want to become a star or even go to an IDOL tryout, it's just because I WANT to do this as a hobby. I'm also planning to start playing some guitar just for fun, that's something I've never tried before.
I guess I just feel I need a hobby to do at home, after work which doesn't require much time and effort. I'd love to start dancing, but with my work hours it's difficult to go somewhere to attend something after work. Singing, playing guitar and keyboard is something I can do while I wait for my hair to dry in the evenings.
Internet has been my main hobby for too long now, it's time to let creativity flow!

If you are going through some difficult times, or have something in life that just complicates things a bit (like a chronic disease, just to mention something), find someone to look up to! If he or she can do it, you can too!

Nothing is impossible!