Eileen is skipping church this morning. I am jealous, but it’s my gig so I’m going. I used up most of my morning blogging time doing some Greek, reading in my Buxtehude bio by Snyder and writing an email to my friend Craig Cramer.

Craig was my teacher in grad school. He is also helping us with our organ project at church. He’s a funny dude. One of the best things about working with him was the great conversations we used to have. I miss that a lot. Now, when I see Craig, he usually makes a point to ask me what I’m reading and talk to me about ideas. I always remember that my undergrad teacher, Ray Ferguson, (whom I equally admired and learned a ton from) told Craig that I wasn’t that great a player but I was a good conversationalist and thought about ideas. I hope Ray would think my playing has improved (it has), but he does have a point and I think it colors the way Craig sees me to this day.

I found that the technique I began using to master the quick section of Prelude in C minor by Dengler worked excellently yesterday. You can read about it in previous entries if for some perverted reason you are interested. The good thing is that it freed up some of my rehearsal time to practice other things.

I also have been weirdly thinking a lot about Scriabin. I do find myself reluctantly drawn into his musical world. This is largely due to my piano student’s predilection for him. That’s one of the nice things about teaching Rudy, he is enamored with music I wouldn’t normally think a lot about. And then I get drawn in because the music is pretty wonderful.

Well no pics today. Or links. Gotta skate.