Time to relax

Hubby has found two sets of wonderful music and put them on a key.
Two hours plus of gentle music, mainly piano, but the occasional cello, guitar or flute accompaniment.
It’s beautiful and he says he’s been listening to it at night as it helps him sleep.
Not the kind of thing to have playing in the car then, but I can see his point.

One set is all piano, a simple melody on the treble with running chords in the bass.
As I was sitting here listening to it while working on one of my future posts, I imagined being in leafy woods, the sun shining through the canopy and suddenly bird song filtered into my mind. It was part of the music and it made me stop and really listen.
It’s the kind of thing I could play, just sit at the keyboard and strum a few chords with the left hand and ‘tinker’ with the right. Hubby says he’s only heard me play like that once.
Music has always been my safety valve, something I could lose myself in and express myself totally.
It was nice to play the old favourites from the musicals I grew up with as well as some of the more modern pieces that were in the charts. There were times though when I would just sit, and let my fingers do their own thing.
A phrase would register and I’d keep coming back to it, adding to it, going a little off tangent, then back to the original melody in my head. I never knew if it was something I’d heard or was making up as I went along. Not being able to write it down, or take the time to record my playing, once played, it was gone by morning.
Mum had a tape I made for her years ago when I had my first electric piano. It had a microphone socket in it so I could tape directly to a cassette. I remember Both Sides Now was on it and there were no doubt other songs that she could sing along to, though Wind Beneath my Wings wasn’t part of my repertoire then. Mum said at one time that she listened to it sometimes when she was on her own as she had a small cassette player in her bedroom. I expect it’s been thrown away with a lot of other things Mum kept in her room.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Mum. A year ago we were making plans for the trip down to MOH who was kindly going to look after Maggie for us for the funeral on Feb 2nd.
We left early so that we could say our final goodbyes in the Chapel of Rest at the funeral directors before the service, which was lovely. Just how Mum wanted it.
Photo: September 2016