It's Finally Paying Off!

Back around Christmas time, my husband bought me a How To Play Keyboard book because I sort of inherited one and always wanted to learn to play it. I started going through the lessons and was feeling pretty happy about my progress, until I realized I sort of hit a brick wall. I wasn't practicing enough, didn't really know what to practice so I kind of forgot about it for a bit.

Then recently I thought, what I really need is to practice moving my fingers over the keys and learning what notes go together and so on. I started practicing scales. First C, then G...then D and A, E and B. All major scales. I started learning where the black keys went and a lot of the theory was beginning to make sense. Then today in the shower I started playing around with a song idea. I really liked it and realized it sounded bluesy, so I looked up in the book how to play a blues scale. The first, fourth and fifth notes of the scale. I realized I wanted it to sound a bit dissonant so I opted for a minor scale, and A minor seemed to be a good range for me so I went with it. Now I've got a bit of a song....at least 2 verses! And it's decent! And played on keyboard! I can play a  blues song! My own blues song!

So...for future reference, starting on scales and learning the patterns really is the best way to go about learning music.

Shocking

I don't own a scale. Nor have I for a number of years. I've been running on the assumption that my body weight hasn't changed in a long time and likely won't for a while longer. I had been 125lbs from grade.....7(?) until about grade 10/11. Somewhere around there I moved up to 130lbs and then I moved out to university and never bought a scale. I haven't grown vertically since I was about 12.

Yesterday, my husband and I went to Value Village and he wanted to know how much he weighed, so we went to the scales. He had gained a few pounds in muscle mass. I had also gained some weight. According to three separate scales, I'm just a hair under 150lbs now. That's 20lbs more than I was! What the hell?! I didn't think I'd really gained any weight...in fact, I thought I might be losing weight.

I'm telling myself that it's because I'm turning flab into muscle since my husband and I have been so active lately. But....20lbs?! That's like a baby. And not a little newborn either. Yet, most people I talk to seem to think I'm borderline underweight based on the look of me....my BMI is bordering on overweight. What gives?! I could probably handle being 140lbs...but, 150? This is going to take some adjusting.