Beethoven’s “Pastorale” and the ‘Ukulele: Bravely Tip-toeing into the Brook!

On October 8, my video series of the first movement of Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony for solo ‘Ukulele concluded and I took the entire movement out for its first official performance on October 9.

Due to my traveling to a conference last week, I skipped creating a blog post, but faithfully pressed on with the project and started creating video performances for the next part of the symphony. Here’s page 1 of the second movement, from October 15…

…and here’s this week’s installment:

Water Features and a Green Screen on my Wishlist

Beethoven gave the second movement of the Pastorale symphony the descriptive subtitle “Scene by the Brook”. Earlier this month my girlfriend and I hiked to Hanging Lake. This is an absolutely spectacular spot just outside of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. I took some video footage of the water running out of the lake into a stream that eventually feeds into the Colorado River, as well as the spectacular waterfalls that feed into Hanging Lake itself. My thought was that I could have the running water as a background to my performance of this movement. Pretty clever, eh?

Unfortunately, the first try didn’t turn out as well as I expected. Here’s a screenshot from my failed first attempt:

Clearly, I need a “green screen” so I can more effectively remove my background without looking like my arm, neck and ear are disintegrating!

Fact-checking my first speech about this project: “Tiptoe Through the Tulips”

On October 17, I presented a speech to my Toastmasters group, telling the story of how this project came into being. I uploaded the video footage to YouTube. Here is the short presentation (approx. 7 minutes) if you’d like to watch. If you do watch, I would love some comments so I can refine and improve the speech for the next time I present it:

Several minutes in, when talking about the history of the ‘Ukulele, I mis-spoke, which led a viewer to comment:

The person who left the comment is absolutely right: Tiny Tim didn’t “create” his most famous song, released in 1968. It is actually a cover of a song originally published in 1929! So there you have it!

A Big “Thank You”

So far, October has been a “banner month” for all things related to this project. Thank you so much for joining me on this adventure! Stay tuned for what’s next!

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

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