Heather S. Ingemar's Blog, page 20

Songbird

I wanna be a songbird

Up in a tree

Where it’s always sunny

And happiness is free

I wanna be a songbird

Away up high

I’ll spread my little wings

And fly, fly, fly…

Forget the hardships I’ve known,

Forget the time spent alone,

I’ll take that leap into the clouds,

Never looking down…

I am a songbird

Life is sublime

With a song in my heart

I’ll belt it to the sky…

And Goldilocks said, “This one’s Too Big…”

It has finally happened.

My pregnant tummy has gotten too big for my guitar.

I picked up Blackbird last night because I haven’t gotten to play her in a long while, and after about ten minutes of song-making, my screwed up shoulder began to hurt. Just like it used to when I had that jumbo-sized Abilene. Just like it does every time I pick up a standard dreadnought. Ache, ache, ache, burn, burn, burn. Le sign. I tried everything: cramming the body in as close as possible (it continued to slide away during playing), shifting her so the lower bout sat more against my side (couldn’t reach the fretboard comfortably)…. In the end, I just had to concede my defeat and put her back in her case. Bummer.

Good thing I have an ukulele to play between now and the end of my pregnancy…

Blissful

Warm breeze, sunshine, ukulele…

Flowers in bloom…

It’s the simple moments that make this bliss.

Inside a Song

Sometimes I wonder what people hear in my music.

I know what I hear when I sing the words I’ve penned. But other people… They bring their own life experiences to the table, and every bit of that colors a personal interpretation whether you want it to or not.

I’ll never forget the time when I had an older gentleman refer to my music as my ‘ministry.’ Really confused me, since I did not perform any church music or spiritual music then. Certainly music IS part and parcel of my personal faith and spirituality, but ministry? Doesn’t that imply I am actively preaching to the masses (something I would never dare to do)?

Or the times when people cry while hearing a song I did not write to be sad. What were they thinking about? Was it my words that brought up a painful memory? Or did the collection of notes strung together tug at certain heart strings?

I am just a humble musician. The only thing I truly desire is to play: well, honestly, and often. The rest — speaking to the heart of the soul — is just gravy.

What do you hear inside music you like? What types of music move you?

“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to...

“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” — Ella Fitzgerald

Loss of Innocence

I am not so naive as to think this would be easy. Despite my “creative personality” (a nice way of saying I’m a gal who tends to stroll among the clouds instead of on the ground), I have always been pragmatic enough to understand and see the great responsibility, potential sacrifices, and inherent challenges that comes from accepting another’s life into your own. A child is nothing to take lightly, and it is this understanding that has me feeling sick to my stomach.

Have I been too lackadaisical these last few months? Have I been too flippant about everything that will come after? I am an only child, and was never allowed to babysit. The only newborn I’ve ever seen in person was when my sister-in-law presented hers to me at Thanksgiving several years ago. “I’ll break him,” I exclaimed in dismay as she confidently held that tiny, wriggling body out at me.

“No you won’t,” she replied. “Just relax.”

Just relax. Everyone these days insists that I just need to relax, that doubts and fears are a normal part of this whole burgeoning parenthood thing and that I’ll be and do “just fine.” But all the reassurances don’t make it easier, nor are they a comfort. In fact, they end up sounding rather false, because truth be told, there are so many things that can go so very, very wrong…

And I hate myself for even acknowledging such things. Because I already love this child and have chosen to carry him, to accept the responsibilities. Therefore, I feel like I should be happy (insanely so, like it was in the beginning). I should not feel so massively guilty for these moments of trepidation and hesitancy and yes, even outright God-what-have-I-done terror every time yet another person says “oh, you must be so excited!“

But I do.

And somehow, I’ll have to find a way to manage. Like that bumbling, awkward heifer-cow with her first calf, I know I’m going to screw something up… At least the cow has instinct and has seen other calves (!), which is what it all boils down to: I have no experience. I know nothing, and all the reading/researching in the world will only take you so far. All the helpful advice in the world accomplishes nothing, because this is my hurdle to scale and no one else can — or should — do it for me. There is no way, short of actually doing, to prepare for this.

My innocence of this aspect of womanhood is vanishing a little more each day and I am walking completely blind…

Which is the scariest thing of all.

Online Lessons?

I have a question to put to you all:

If I were to offer music lessons via a service like Skype, would that be something you would go for?

Discuss!

Two New Singles: Summer Rain and Old Farm Truck

And, the fruits of my labor last night:

I am very pleased.

Music Notes Gear Review: Tascam’s iXZ recording interface for iPad

For my birthday, I received the Tascam iXZ recording interface for iPad, and after having it to play with for a couple months, I would like to share my thoughts.

This is a nifty little device!

I am using it with the GarageBand app on my iPad2, and am very pleased with the results. Since I began recording my music and seriously pursuing my musical career, I have been less than satisfied with my recording equipment. However, being on a limited budget, I was relegated to merely drooling and fantasizing about the innovative equipment I wanted, i.e. I “made do” with what I had available to me.

This little piece of equipment changed all that.

It is simple and easy to use, with a switch for changing between a 1/4″ instrument cable connection and a 3-pin mic connection, which includes an option (another switch) for phantom power if you like using a condenser mic (I believe that runs off the two AA batteries it takes). You can also adjust the input volume on the device, which is nice if your instrument electronics don’t have volume controls or are just a weak preamp. The iXZ is also a simple plug-n-play type device: it merely connects to your headphone jack on your iPad, without having to purchase any other types of connection methods. And no worries for those of you who like to use headphones for monitoring: the iXZ has a standard 3.5mm audio jack on the back so you don’t have to unplug anything to listen in.

I am pleasantly surprised at the quality of sound it (working with the GarageBand app) can pump out. Very clear, very clean with minimal “ambient noise” (an irritating peeve I had with my previous system). Another bonus I’ve found is the portability. I can take the iXZ (and the associated necessities) and record anywhere — no small thing since acoustically appropriate spaces within the cord range of my old system were minimal at best.

My only peeve is that the input connection for the 1/4″ cable jack is really snug. It was quite worrisome the first time I went to use it; I had to exert considerable force to get it to snap in, and again when I wanted to unplug it. It is slowly loosening up a little, but it is still quite a grippy little connection. (There is no such issue with the 3-pin mic connection. It slides in smoothly and firmly.)

So far I’ve used the little iXZ to record some audition pieces as well as my “singles” for my webstore. I am much happier with the results of these than I ever was with my previous recordings. Now that I am not fighting so much in terms of recording environment, I can focus better on getting a better sound. Setup time is a snap since there’s just a few things to connect. Recording has almost become easy!

At a fifty dollar retail, I will definitely recommend this piece of equipment to anyone (with an iPad) looking for an affordable recording solution that will deliver a clean sound right out of the box.

Feeling Miserable as an Artist

From Keri Smith’s blog, Wish Jar Journal

 

I have had this up on my wall since college. Such good, blatantly honest advice. If you are an artist, be it wordsmith, songwriter, painter, etc., YOU have to create what YOU want/need to create. No excuses.

If there is one thing I have learned, it’s that everyone has an opinion. Everyone will have made up their mind about what is best for you to do or not do, and they are rarely shy about informing you of such. But you have to follow your muse. Listen to your heart. Whatever. You can’t let others dictate where your creative juices will be spent. That’s something only you can decide for yourself.