Rain and Creativity

I finally had a long-awaited extra full day off from work on my new return-to-part-time schedule (I decided last month that the stress of my full-time job wasn't worth the additional income, so as of 2 weeks ago I'm back to part-time work), and we were hit with a tropical storm that brought torrents of rain and steamy humidity to these parts.  A perfect day to stay indoors and occupy myself with artsy things!  Among my projects today were crocheting, fabric painting, and music transcribing.  The crocheting I can't show here yet because it's a gift for someone and is only about 1/8 done anyway; and the fabric painting was just a subtle addition of gold metallic to a leafy print for an autumn altar cloth and I don't think it will show up in a photo.  But I can give you a glimpse of the transcribing.  I'm such a music geek that I can become completely absorbed for hours on end in this process!

One of our band members at church suggested we try Sarah McLachlan's new song, "Bring on the Wonder," which is gorgeous and extremely complicated harmonically!  Actually, the song was written by Susan Enan, who does a much simpler version that has its own beauty, but we want to try to get the richer effect of Sarah McLachlan's cover.  And I can't find a score on-line yet.  Which means scoring out the parts.  After a little more research, I came upon a downloadable software program called Transcribe!

Transcribe! worktop

that promised to make transcription easier and offered a 30-day free trial period.  I've done some transcribing, so I know how tedious it can be to keep scrolling back to the point you want to hear, hitting Pause and Play and Pause and Rewind and Play and…you get the picture.  True to its word, Transcribe! really does help simplify that process.  And it provides an easy way to mark the beats and measures and sections, etc.  I managed to get the melody line down and the structure sketched out in just an hour or so of work. I still have 23 days left in my free trial, but I'm sure I'll be happy to shell out the $50 for the program then.  Like I said, I love this process, tedious as it is.  It's totally engrossing for my brain, which is really restful in an odd way.

The fabric painting was fun, too—I haven't worked with paint in a while, and I've missed it.  Crocheting is my sit-on-the-couch-and-watch-TV activity, keeping my mind active enough that I don't get bored or antsy.  I just do simple rectangular objects (mostly scarves so far) so I don't have to pay attention to patterns or constantly count stitches.  Stripes are as fancy as I get!  But again, the simplicity is restful, another perfect thing to do on a rainy day off.