Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi
I'm a woman with Aspergers Syndrome. Of course, I'm sure I've made a post similar to this before, but I haven't been on hear for quite a while so I just feel like I need to recap. I was diagnosed at about 6/7 years old, and have known for a long that there was something remarkably different about me. But to be honest, I'm quite glad I am. It makes feel like I don't have try to please or impress everyone. All in all, I think I'm quite proud of who I am. I mean, yes of course I know certain quirks, flaws and maybe one or two habits I need to break, but all in all, I'm pretty ok.
My situation isn't perfect though. Far from it in fact. I graduated from university back in July, and I'm still not any closer to finding a job on a permanent or long-term basis. All I'm doing right now is volunteering at my local theatre, and that's only once a week. I know it's good experience for me; it's something to put on my CV and I can gain another reference, but it would be really useful if I got some work that will help me progress both professionally and personally. You see, I graduated with a music degree, and I definitely want to put it to use. Ideally, I would to go into music education, either as a music teacher or a music therapist. I would also like to fit in performing somewhere along the line as well. But, if I'm perfectly honest, I'm not sure where to start with in terms of my musical abilities. Let me tell you, I'm no virtuoso, that's for sure. I definitely like I've let them slip for quite a while, even when I was at university. I play the piano, clarinet and voice. I definitely improve my abilities on all three of these and maybe also take up another instrument sometime in the future, preferably the saxophone. I had to play it for a module during a BTEC Music course 5 years ago. I've got no clue though how to set up a practice routine for all these instruments. If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to comment below. I'm still a pretty decent musician though; I'm good at musical improvisation and have the gift of perfect pitch. It's come in very handy with other skills such as aural listening and transposing.
Are there any other musicians on here? Please comment below about any musical experiences you've had and what special abilities you have, I'd love to hear them.
There are different levels of practice. Because an instrument's essentially a body extension, the core learning's building muscle memory, so your mind wants to do "this" and your body delivers: support for that's essential, much as a dancer remains at the barre however fine a soloist they may be. But just staying there keeps you frozen to Czernay and a limited choice of classics.
I was a very early adopter of the Irish low whistle, the instrument you hear in Lord of the Rings and Titanic. It came about after Finbar Furey had a Brazilian whistle crushed, so he had a tenor whistle designed, which he only played South American music on. Dixons heard about it and made some, a couple of which fell into my hands. They were sticking out of my pack at the Edinburgh Harp Festival one lunchtime when a Leprechaun by the name of Paddy Maloney stopped by, asking if he could sit in. Only the Chieftains' piper! So a couple of minutes pass and I discover he's spotted my whistles. "Do you play?" Well,seconds to Jimmy Galway recordings, so he starts easy, basic melody, which I decorate, on to follow-the-leader, where I drop into seconds (the harmony line) and start complementing his playing, he realises this isn't per a written arrangement, which is exactly what he was looking for, because I'd mastered slides he'd normally do on his uileann bagpipes, and off we went. Pure research, questions from him in his music, can you go here, I'd show him.
This is where session music comes in. You work out your bugs, and learn musical empathy. You can explore, musical off-piste skiing. And that is what music should be. If you want Beethoven V, buy the CD. Me, I'm part of a thousand years of development, one of the team which got Mike Oldfield started, and then Kraftwerk, which got picked up by William Onyeabor who did the same to Highlife (a somewhat westernised take on West African folk, courtesy of the Hotel movement picking up on Lounge Jazz in the 1930s). That was then picked up by Fela Kuti and a growing movement in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and came to David Byrne's ears. It then returned to me in the choir he had to use, we sorted his dots in rehearsal, but never rehearsed with the band. On the night, I realised we needed choreography, so I told the singers to shuffle-dance, and it worked. We added to the vibe, and were rolling so fast we couldn't stop. The Choir Director had her back to David, I was vocal lead at her side, She missed his go-around, I was left guessing and had to take a flyer as she panicked, because it hadn't been rehearsed, and guessed right: 180 signers came in a screaming curve behind me! It's now a staple of funk.
This is what BGT, The Voice and the rest miss. It's not about one performer. It's about a dozen or more, coming at it from different angles. The gig's here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFr5Zw4JPnA I sing Renaissance polyphony too, because we use a broad palette. I can expound at length on Dufay's L'Homme Armé Cantus Firmus mass of c1435, which is the greatest hit of all time, it's been resampled roughly 80 times down the centuries, the last being Sir Karl Jenkins The Armed Man, A Mass for Peace, written for the MIllenium: I'm covertly one of the dedicatees, as I was at the cutting edge of the Peacemaking Movement, it fell to me to complete Gandhi's unfinished work. From there, it went into Beatbox, Shlomo's March Peace, at the request of a beginners choir he was commissioned to work with: I'd been called in to mentor embedded in the choir. Shlo got lost halfway, after the dirge, and I gave him the idea for the second half, the peace pean, using a CounterTenor I'd found in the ranks.
Right now, the population's screaming for attunement, musical lead to reform around.
this discussion is 2 years old ....... just saying .......but maybe u want to bring it back