Now this is my kind of instrument

For years I have been intrigued with Bowed Psalteries. I keep telling myself "someday you are going to get one." But until then, I shall enjoy listening to them. This recording was so beautiful to listen to that I just had to share it with y'all. :) Enjoy!





This next clip shows the Baritone Psaltery that I've been looking at (er, dreaming about I guess). I loved the deep notes.... :)



Sorry the whole screen isn't showing. Not sure why it's doing that...

~Caitlyn

I am so blessed....

The past two weeks have been so overwhelming for me; it's been blessing after blessing, with the timing so perfect that I can barely fathom it.

The biggest blessing was the Mountain Dulcimer.....

I've been wanting a dulcimer of my own for years, but I could never find one that was in my price range. Then, a friend of my mom's said I could borrow her's for as long as I wanted!! These instruments are so fun. Delightfully loud (I like loud instruments ;D) and delightfully easy. You don't have to know how to read music either, which is a huge plus for me as I don't know how.

Here's a video of me playing 'Power in the Blood'. (sorry it's sideways!)

Delightfully loud.

Delightfully easy. ;D

~Caitlyn

A practical joke...

Dads are so funny.... I looked at my playlist today and found that my dad had secretly added three songs of his own to it!! I deleted two but left one on because it's pretty funny. It's down at the very bottom titled "Convoy". Apparently he used to listen to it when he was a kid. :D

I'm not sure how long I will leave it up though....

And I will post tomorrow about the masquerade ball!

~Caitlyn

Do you hear something?

Because I think I do. It sounds sorta' like music.... yeah, you hear it now too don't you?

Yep, I finally bit the bullet and tried adding a play list to my blog!! At first it was all just music from Pride and Prejudice, but then Megan asked me to do a song from Pirates of the Carribean and Chronicles of Narnia; and then we found the Celtic Woman music.... It was fun. :D

I hope this doesn't bog anyone's computer down; I guess if it does then you might either contact me or leave a comment. I'll either take off some songs or just take the music off period. I wouldn't want any of my readers to stop coming because I put music on.


~Caitlyn

Strummin' the ole banjo

I think that if I could purr like a cat, I would right now. But unfortunately I can't purr so I'll just blog instead. :) I finally got the whole chord-thing figured out on my banjo and I can now play two songs! I have no idea as to what the songs are called but, I can play them. At first I had thought that my fingers were to short (I have very small hands) but dad said it wasn't my hands that was the problem, it was my finger nails, or "claws" as he called them. Personally I didn't think they were that long but for the banjo you have to use the very tippy tip of your fingers in order to do the chords. So, off went the finger nails! :sniff: That's another good thing about the mountain dulcimer, you use the flat of your fingers so you can keep those nails on. :) But, as you know, I don't have a dulcimer yet. Still, the banjo has proved to be very fun and I am really enjoying it.
Emily got a picture of me playing on it with her new camera and then changed it to a neat sepia color.




See?

What does a country girl do all day?

Are you tired of reading about scary horse posts that give you nightmares yet? Good, so am I. :)





I was once asked what I do all day way out in the country without having those time sappers like Video games, cell phones, mp3 players and whatever else most teenage kids have these days. I smiled and with a laugh I told the person (I can't remember who it was) the truth: When you live in the country its hard to stay bored. First off, I have animals that need care, and a horse that needs to be exercised for an hour and a half a day. Then, there's chores. Breakfast chores, lunch chores, dinner chores and whatever else needs to be done. After that comes school. School time fluctuates from day to day. Once that is finished I have the rest of the day to myself.


So what do I do? Well...I read a lot, and knit. :) I knitted for 3 1/2 hours straight the other day. I also write, I am working on a juvenile fiction book right now. And then I spend a good amount of time on my instrument. It was driving me crazy watching everybody practice on their instruments and not having one of my own. So I got one. :) And it was just collecting dust in mom and dad's closet. Before I go further I just want to tell you that this really isn't my type of instrument but.. desperate times call for desperate measures. :D



I'm probably driving you nuts with suspense, right? You're probably dying to know what on earth the instrument could be, right? Good, that was what I wanted. :D :D



Ta, da! The Banjo.



Okay, have you had your fill of laughing yet? Can't you see me in one of my nice skirts, sitting on my hope chest playing a banjo? Hee, hee, heee. Now I'm laughing too! Sorry about the crummy picture though. The lighting was pretty bad at the time.

It is definitely challenging. I'm still getting the hang of doing the rolls on it; it's fun when you get going really fast. :) But I think my fingers are two short to do the chords! No matter how hard I try I just can't get my fingers to reach all the strings that they need to reach. :Grrr:



I'm saving for a mountain dulcimer, but the one that I want is really expensive so I'll have to stick with the banjo until then. :Sigh: :)