mipiano 3Speak Podcast


They are coming to Hive indeed today. :))

The cat, Luna, with her beautiful blue eyes, is also a part of the story; however, when this little "accident" happened a few days ago, I immediately remembered one initiative we had here at the *Q Inspired by music* community. It was called ***"From the neighbour's point of view!"***.

The purpose of that prompt was to share our experiences with the music or noise in general coming from our neighbours, how we react, and whether we like it, what kind of music you hear from the other side of the wall, etc. You could write about it from your point of view - as a neighbour.

However, it was also an invitation for musicians! If you are the one who makes the music while practising your musical instrument or playing just for pleasure, how do your neighbours react to that? Do they complain, or are they happy with having a free concert and free rehearsals with many errors, repetitions and all?

In that [post](https://peakd.com/hive-192806/@mipiano/from-the-neighbuors-point-of-view) I wrote several questions that could serve as a guideline, as an inspiration, as an idea of what to highlight in your post... Maybe you were not at Hive at that time, and you haven't seen that initiative. In that case, feel free to check out the end of the post, ie the questions and if you find them interesting, or have a story to share about this topic, I will gladly read about your "musical troubles". 😋

|https://images.hive.blog/0x0/https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/mipiano/23tSoDwRhFmZ6kZi9gun7FP5N169uysMSgEQqxmPjoJ5UFXEWoP4a7LmAxUcu84AreHAw.jpg|https://images.hive.blog/0x0/https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/mipiano/23tHQZZrBVaHHZiHyT3srfxsnR48MLzBVxdPT28rTyhhCjcmot5vP37vtgtCo815gzJR7.jpg|These are two drawings from that post, about my neighbours and me. In that moment, it was more just a joke that they would be happy if the pianist moved out... In the end, this became true. For the relief of my neighbours!! 😂|

|-|-|-|

***

Back to the cat 🐈 and my little story from two days ago. I went to the apartment of a musician friend to practice as we are preparing a concert together. She plays the mandolin, which is not a very loud musical instrument, so she has never had problems with her neighbours while practising. Luna, her cat, is also used to her music and usually sleeps while there is music. But when we were taking a cup of coffee, she was asking for attention and jumped onto my lap, then asked to be petted, then walked between my friend and me a few times.


She was full of energy - you see from the photos it was not easy to take a photo of her! All blurred. 😂


Then we started with the work: studying the pieces by parts, in slow tempo, then polishing several passages, adjusting the coordination between the two, learning not just our own parts but also the pieces as a whole, in duet. There is a lot of work to get used to the other musician is you want it to be perfect. For all that time, Luna was fine with our music! She calmed down and went to sleep. 😁


We need to record two videos in a few days... I calculate it would take us the whole afternoon to record the two pieces successfully (La Paloma variations by Tsygankov and one Tarantella). Just to have an idea if we made any progress in the previous almost two hours of studying together, we wanted to record an audio of Taranetella, to check the tempo, the balance between the piano and mandolin and see what we have to improve. I pressed the "record audio" button and we started...

***Ding-dong*** - we heard the doorbell and stopped. ***Los vecinos vienen 😱*** ***(the neighbours are coming)*** said my friend hahahaha. It was the next-door neighbour, an elderly lady (ok, not so old but not so young either) claiming silence for her siesta!

Oops...

...

My friend apologised and let the neighbour know we need to practice for another 15 minutes (at least 😅). And that is what we did, we played much, much softer in those next 15 minutes, to respect the neighbour, but still work a bit more on Tarantella. At least we made some compromise so everyone was "happy". (The neighbour lady will get a bar of chocolate as well 😉 )

What would you do if you were this neighbour?



Would I do it again?

I am sure that we have all done many things in our lives and then later wondered whether we would do the same thing again. Or would we do it in a slightly *different* way? I can't say *better* because every situation, every decision is just a link in a chain of events that directs us in one direction or another. Neither better nor worse, just maybe different. But there are also some trivial things you did in the past, and you still ask yourself, *where did I get the idea from or the courage to do it?* *Was I so crazy that I didn't think about the consequences?*

Now that I watched a video recorded a few months ago when I was zip lining for the first time in my life, I thought - what if this ride didn't finish well?! I mean, whizzing over a deep valley at the speed of 70 km/h, hanging just by a set of straps that someone attached to me... 😳 maybe it is not so safe?

***Dios mío, ¿en qué estaba pensando?*** 😂

But this was a wish coming true! I just didn't know it would happen during a little trip to Cuenca in September last year. It was a very interesting place to visit; I loved the stay, the old town from the Middle Ages, the valleys, the two rivers, the architecture, the food... 🤤 Everything! I loved everything.


The second evening, when we took a nighttime guided tour through the historic centre of Cuenca, the guide mentioned there is a zip line that goes over the valley. I couldn't get it out of my mind, so when we were back at our accommodation, I checked the website of [this Zip line company](https://www.tirolinacuenca.com/) to see what time they open in the morning.


There I was the very next morning, at 11 am, to be the first customer of the day. 😁

I bought my ticket online and went to the place to check in. I was explained everything, what I can do and what I shouldn't do (like touching the cable or opening the security hoop) and then I was assigned one of these harnesses.


Do you see the cables in this photo? They can be seen in the first photo as well if you observe it well. We can also see the little platform on the other side of the valley, the place where the crazy people who decide to take a ride on this zip line arrive. If they have luck, of course. 😆


My husband took a few photos of me during the last adjustments and while getting attached to the pulley by the set of straps and carabiners. I was joking before getting into this platform that my hands were shaking, though it was just for the sake of fun. I was excited, yes, but not scared.


And then the real fun started... see for yourself if you wish:

I arrived in one piece on the other side, full of adrenaline and super happy to live this experience. I guess you also heard my happy scream. 😂 The views while zip lining were awesome, I just wished it lasted for more time.

So, to answer my own question from the beginning of the post: Would I do it again..?

**Definitely!** 😉


*zip line stainless steel cables*

background music used in the video: [Let Go, LiQWYD](https://www.soundcloud.com/liqwyd)



*Wait, I am fighting with my umbrella!*

*My neighbour reacted with a smile to my quick justification for blocking the entrance door of the building. We actually laughed for a few seconds on this trivial situation, and then I let him pass to the street. Well, it is raining, what else can we do? STAY INSIDE? What if you had to go to the store...?*

*Then we can grab an umbrella, walk a zig-zag path between the puddles and sing nice songs.*


*Sing?*

*Yeah. There are many songs about the rain, even one about an umbrella, but that was not the one I was thinking about. I was talking about that funny one from the middle of the last century, named:*

*SINGING IN THE RAIN*

*I played this same song yesterday when it was raining outside and the hotel guests were inside, seeing the show - that spectacle of the sea-raindrops meeting through the huge windows. You know which one? I can play it now if you want to listen to it.*

*I think that it is better to stay with this song than with my writing or "drawing", so I should probably stop here and let the music invade this rainy day we have here in Spain. 😊*




Do you think this little snowman decoration can help us today in my post?

I hope so, as I need someone to be the main character and present this little puzzle I have prepared for all of you. A musical puzzle, where Frosty the Snowman will be the protagonist.

It actually came to my mind today as I remembered that I should get back to practising again like I used to do until just a week ago. Then my hand was a bit tired, and I decided to let it rest for a few days and play the piano just in a *normal* way, not overdoing the studying. 😂

So, after a few songs I played today, I stumbled upon a very funny one, **Frosty the Snowman**. Not by chance, as I still need to work on my Christmas repertoire and this particular song has some tricky parts. It has an intro, then the main theme, the repetition, then the second theme and then a bridge which combines the intro and a tune that is coming from a completely different musical piece. After that part, we have the second theme again, then the main theme and an outro. Poor Frosty, he must be so confused with all these parts.

His song is so mixed up that, represented in a photo, it could look something like this:


I don't remember the exact moment I took this photo... I think it was by accident while I was light hunting this Sunday in Valencia

I think we should help him by finding out what that strange part in the song is, ie from which musical piece it is taken and woven into the funny song. I took the freedom to mix up the song even more, so I started from the main theme, skipped directly to the part in question, and then went back to the second theme and continued until the end as it is written.

This video is coming to this new community called [Hive Zagonauts](https://peakd.com/c/hive-135853/created). It was created by @bibana with the idea of using it for puzzles or games. We are also welcome to post our games, so why not, a musical puzzle this time! :)

My question is: **What is the music, the short melody taken from another musical piece that appears in the video, who is the composer, and what composition is it?** I wrote the question in the video too, where the tune we have to guess starts.

What are the requirements and rewards in this game?

Just to have fun while helping our little snowman friend to find out the hidden melody woven into his funny song. 😉



A little over a month has passed since this concert. Summer has already shown its vibes, but I can admit to you, today is much warmer than that day in early July. This is due to the heat wave that arrived today, and the temperature outside is 40 degrees Celsius. After a morning spent on the beach, which was really refreshing, we are now inside, in a darkened apartment with the blinds down and the air conditioner on. But, it would be nice if we could take a walk later when the air is fresher and find a concert like this in the city again. In case that does not happen, i.e. the temperatures do not drop or we do not go to the city centre, or we do not come across any cultural and artistic program, then it would be time for me to at least look at these pictures again and listen to the short video I made from this concert.


The concert was scheduled to start at 10 p.m. at one of the squares close to the city hall, La Plaza de Arriba (The Upper Square). There is a little stage and several benches in front of it, to enjoy the concerts and other performances held here. The background is the most attractive! A huge mural, made by the artists from Doble 13 some years ago. It is so nice that maybe I could take more photos of it one day and talk about it then. It holds so many nice details, and for this concert, it was the perfect background, where the lights were projected. In front of it, on the stage, the musicians were already playing the first piece when we arrived. We were a few minutes late... 😅



There were no more seats... obviously, if you arrive late, you will watch the concert on your feet. 😆 We were not the only ones standing - the seats and benches were not enough, which was actually surprising. I thought people don't like concerts to that extent to fill a whole square, but I am glad I was wrong. There were also young people with little children, which is cool if the children keep quiet. However, a few of them were too playful.



Opinions may be divided on this topic. If you have a small child, a very small one to whom you cannot explain that they must be quiet for a long time, would you take them to a concert even though it might disturb the musicians or the audience from listening to the music in peace? On the other hand, if it is summer, and this is an outdoor concert, it might be a good opportunity for children to be introduced to the world of music and concerts in this way, even though it means that sometimes the voices of small children will be heard, right? How do you feel about this?

As a musician, I can say that I would rather forgive children than adults who, for example, rustle candy wrappers while I play. 😂


Oh, I haven't said anything yet about the music that was played at this concert. It was a guitar orchestra, the final concert of students after a guitar course, and there were other musicians as guests too, a violinist, a pianist, a flautist and a singer. The music they played was really nice, soundtracks of famous movies and Disney animated films, like Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, The Little Mermaid, etc. As I also play music like this, it was not new for me, but it was also good to listen to the same tunes I play, from different musicians. What I liked the most were the lights on the mural, which were changing from blue, purple, green, yellow, red, etc. I hope you can also enjoy a short part of this concert if you decide to take a look at the video. Happy musical, summer evening vibes. ;)



Yes, I know I am still under the impression and that my post may not be very objective. I mean, maybe if I remembered the fireworks I attended yesterday after a few months, maybe they wouldn't be so special to me. I don't know... in a few months, if I remember them and am still thrilled, I will know the answer to my question. But the fact is that now, at this moment, I am still full of those positive and hyped impressions that I would like to share with you. My post yesterday was shorter than usual because I was at *work*, and I had to start playing the piano. I was there to provide music during the dinner, but I decided to enjoy the part after it, the awesome fireworks show, in the same way as if I were one of the guests. And I don't regret it.


That hotel where I played overlooks the bay of the town of Altea, right from where the fireworks display was launched from floating platforms. Yesterday, more than 1,500 kilos of gunpowder were used. I smelled it in the air, but it wasn't an unpleasant smell actually. The sound... well, being so close to fireworks, you have to suffer a bit from the noise haha. I thought for a moment that it would damage my hearing, but luckily, I quickly dismissed the negative thoughts. I didn't want anything to spoil the mood and the spectacle.


For some time, I was standing close to the fence, in the grass area where the dinner was held. Until I realised, after some ten minutes of standing, that it would be better to watch the fireworks from a deck chair. There were many as we were around the swimming pool. So, I was lying down in that deck chair and looking at the sky. It was in those moments that I felt the real impression. I got emotional, quite a bit.


No, I didn't know that artificial fireworks could move someone so much. We always look at everything from an objective perspective. We know that it is just gunpowder, that they are designed lights, and that yes, there is a lot of work behind a spectacle like this. But the moment you forget where you are and imagine it is a meteor shower on a summer night falling towards you, things change. The noise doesn't bother you anymore either; all the shapes that appear in the sky, their rhythm, intensity, and the effect of surprise impressed me greatly.


I also stopped recording the fireworks and let myself be just there in the moment. However, I am sorry that I didn't record the ending part of the show, as it was the most impressive part of it. Not that I didn't want to... but my phone informed me that I had no more space. Oh dear... *why don't I clear the storage on the phone from time to time?* I was scolding myself. 😂


Today I deleted 20GB of unnecessary stuff from my phone! 😁 Now I need more fireworks, right?

I remember, two years ago, we already talked about the topic of fireworks here in Hive... Definitely, it is not a pleasant time for small animals. Many dogs and cats are afraid of that noise, not to mention the wild animals in the area. Poor creatures... It would be great if these shows were without that loud noise, wouldn't it? Because the lights are, without a doubt, brilliant.


For me, last night was not just a visual entertainment, not just some lights that filled the space above us. They touched my heart and filled my soul with joy, something I didn't know fireworks could do to such an extent. 😃




If Caturday is a special day for cats, how could we call a day where insects are the protagonists? Little bugs...

🤔

Maybe Bugday? Yeah, let's call it like that. ;)

So, this Bugday, the temperatures in Spain were quite interesting 😂. Like in an oven (now I know how the food we put in an oven can feel...), so if there were no air conditioner, the day would be quite difficult to survive.

Even though it was nicer to be inside with that cooling appliance, we decided to go out for a walk or anything in the afternoon. To take a ride, actually, as my son passed the driving exam and got his driving licence!!! He wanted to give us a ride, to practise and show us how he drives! The young chauffeur did so well; he drove from our home to a place in the mountains. Then he parked and we left the ~~space shuttle~~ car, congratulated him and were happy to arrive in one piece at our destination. 😁


Already using our feet for moving around in nature, we walked among the reeds and many shrubs. The place was also full of Nerium plants, which were so pretty with their pink flowers.


This wooden board reveals the place where this Bugday happened. I visited it a few months ago and posted about it. Water is life, as someone wrote there, and indeed, lively nature showed itself through little flowers and plants while we were hiking there.





However, the main protagonists, as I already suggested at the beginning of the post, were the bugs. Butterflies and bumblebees, so many of them, but for me it was not easy to capture them nicely.

They were flying, climbing the stems of the plants and pretending to be busy, so I could not take a nice photo of them. 🤷‍♀ That's life...





Oh, wait, I can make a little video where they can be seen! That was the solution. 😁

Btw, the air was so good outside, in nature... much better than being inside with the air conditioner. Even though I didn't meet any cats today for Caturday, I am glad these little insects came here for the Bugday. 😆



**So, it happened!**

My long-standing dream of riding this means of transportation came true. For the very first time, I enjoyed a funicular ride in Graz, about a month ago. 😍

I was reminded about it yesterday, when we had a rehearsal with the students of the music school, and one little girl played the piece called Funiculì, Funiculà, by Luigi Denza. She played it in a simplified version, for piano, but if you want to hear the original version and sing along, you can open this [YouTube link](https://youtu.be/MmMiZsZcShw) where José Carreras, a famous Spanish tenor, sings it. I really can't choose which interpretation I like more, his one of Luciano Pavarotti's... Well, both are great.

As the funicular ride was great too!! Too quick in my opinion haha, I wanted it to last for more time, and in that moment I thought I would go back to the top of the hill and do the funicular ride once again. 😆 In the end, I didn't as we were quite tired from the morning activity, which was the [cleaning challenge](https://peakd.com/hive-155530/@mipiano/the-schlossberg-cleaning-challenge) and later in the afternoon we had a guided tour through the city centre. We decided to go to our accommodation and have a short siesta before getting back to the whole afternoon/evening activities.


As you could see in the post where the topic was the cleaning of the Schlossberg hill, the views were so pretty! I still have a few shots, as I was amazed and took several photos from different spots.


The city of Graz can be nicely appreciated from here, from a distance - from the top of the hill, although the guided tour in the afternoon made us learn from close about its history, traditions and architecture.


The Schlossberg hill is not missing its history either. Already in the 10th century, there was a fortification here. Later, another fortification that was built in the 16th century was demolished in a war at the beginning of the 19th century, but luckily, the tower clock survived!


The whole area is so nice and clean, of course it is, as some very dedicated Hivers thoroughly cleaned every corner of the path leading to the top of the hill, as well as the whole park on the hill.

As it was a Saturday, the number of tourists strolling around was high. We added to that number of people, with our Hive bags, Reach Extenders, garbage bags, and from time to time, taking photos too. 😁




It was really nice and interesting for us, and after the announcement of the winner of the cleaning activity and our lunch, we were supposed to go down the hill. You could go on foot, by elevator or funicular!! I immediately knew that was what I wanted.


I was already hyped here. 😂

But now the real one! We entered the carriage that was already waiting with people inside, and the ride started a few moments after that. I think we were the last ones who hopped on that ride. If I am not mistaken, it goes on every 15 minutes or so.


The man in the blue shirt was as excited about this ride as me haha. He was also taking photos and videos. 😁

Here you can see that the other carriage was ascending and that soon we will meet it.


The moment it passed by us. I think I was like a little child, finding joy in such small things like seeing the meeting of two funiculars... Silly, right? 😆


And the ride finished... sniff, sniff... too quickly.


So nice red carriage, taking us down from the hill. :)


The slope was this steep. 👇


And here is a short video from the ride. I hope it will upload as 3Shorts as I have no idea what I have done there while uploading it. 😅



There are train stations that stand out for their beauty and historical or logistical significance. Some of them are inspiring and sometimes awaken the imagination to write stories, make films or compose music set in that space. But there are also train stations that are nothing special. I mean, they are just normal ones. Of course, they also serve a good purpose, which is to provide a travel service to all passengers who decide to use this mode of transport, on the rails.


One of those is the station in Linz (Austria), quite ordinary but excellent in its purpose. To bring some more vibes, there were two guardian lions in front of the entrance, a fountain with water and some statues. Water creatures, probably. And people could enjoy themselves on the lawn in front of the building while waiting for their train, I suppose. First, we printed out the tickets we had purchased online the previous day and then settled down on the benches in this small park.


As we still had some time, I went to buy a bottle of water and some snacks for the ride, and I found something we had when we were children last time - soft drinks packed in this way. I bought two, just because of memories about those times. I had the orange-flavoured one.



Here, in this green area in front of the train station building, my friend found out that I have some dark sides... oops!! I was tempting her with a chocolate croissant! Without mercy! Well, her reaction said everything, and since then, she has mentioned the discovery of this dark side of mine a few times. Mainly when I was joking and showing them on purpose again in the next few days. 😂



The chilling time passed quickly; we had to enter the station and search for our train. That is where we printed out our tickets before the chocolate croissant event happened. This time we just checked the number of the platform where we should find our train and passed through the station.


I forgot to take a photo of the train from the platform! 🤦‍♀ We entered, took a seat and then I didn't go out once again just for the sake of the photo. But this is how it looked inside.


I didn't press anything here - I promise. I can have my good sides too, and behave. 😁


The train ride lasted for three hours, actually a bit more, but it was so beautiful! Everything was so green, we passed by meadows, fields, houses, rivers, forests, mountains... This ride was a great *intake* of green colour into our eyes! I recorded a very short part of it, but imagine three hours of beautiful landscape. ;)


Here we arrived at Graz, the place where we met already that afternoon a few other Hivers!! 😃 Hurray, I remembered to take a photo of the wagon in which we spent this green time! 👏


Graz train station! No bomb alerts that day, hahaha, and from here we headed to our accommodation, which was a few minutes away.

If you have never visited Austria but decide to do that, I think you will not be disappointed if you take a train ride. 😊


Music used in video by Julius H. from Pixabay



*People are constantly coming and walking away from the courtyard of this sealed face,

full of eyes bathed in rain,

and sun.*

*Do you know where we are?

*


*Just a few steps further, the domes challenge me!

Can you too keep your crosses straight to the sky like us?*


*A conversation frozen in time that has never happened beyond that bench,

maybe neither there...*


*...yet, in Kraków, where the weather plays its tricks and heavy sculptures rest on benches,

there was a performance of a piece of music played in The Kingdom

that has never been heard beyond that room...*

***

I have started this post with some photos taken in the city of Kraków in 2023. Indeed, the little concert I played in the Kingdom has never been shared with anyone (at least not by me), just that photo of me playing the piano appeared [here](https://peakd.com/hive-148309/@mipiano/we-just-did-it-nothing-was-impossible-hivebeecon-). I thought it was not good enough, like not *perfect*; but what silly thoughts are those!?! Why would we expect ourselves to perform perfectly when it comes to live performances? Our whole life is not perfect. And things that happened in the past are how they are. We have to let things off, perfect or imperfect ones.

This video? Belongs in the latter group. The reason why I didn't publish it at first was that my playing had some mistakes or missed notes; I was ashamed of them. Later, when I listened to it again, I thought it was not that bad (like I could survive if others heard it 😆) and that maybe I would publish it one day, even though it is just one piece and not whole, the beginning of it is missing. And then - I forgot about it, until now when I found it.

I remember asking @hallmann whether there were chairs without arms (as I saw some photos with an armchair in front of the piano). I felt sorry that I wrote him the message late in the evening, but it was not a problem, as he was awake until 5 a.m., which is when he responded that there were other chairs I could use for playing the piano. I needed some additional cushions, though. 😆

The only thing that was perfect in this recording... was the audience. 😇 Hivers at HiveBeeCon!

I am grateful to all those who were there listening to this Waltz in E minor by Chopin, among other pieces. And I am also grateful in advance to those who will maybe happen to listen to this video. 🎶