A Look at the Piano Brands and Finding the Best Piano for You

A short post today. Robert Estrin of Living Piano TV talks about the major piano brands and how to find the best piano for you: Robert Estrin on Piano Brands:

Robert Estrin on Finding the Best Piano for You:

Robert Estrin is a musician, blogger and instrument collector. His website and Youtube Channel, Living Piano is full of helpful posts and tutorial videos.

Omatsuri J-Pop and Anime Talent Show Highlights

I'm going a little out of sequence from the Calgary Omatsuri programming schedule, simply because I feel the need to stir things up a little. A new addition to the Calgary Japanese Festival programming was the addition of a J-pop and Anime Talent Show. This part of the show featured young singers from across Alberta. They each had a chance to sing one number earlier in the day. The talent show itself was the second last event on the programme. Here is a video compilation of some of the performers:

The performers featured are: Sierra, Rachelle, Bryan, Colton, Yan (YT: Blue Reminiscence) and Kathleen (YT: Irulanne). They performed "Tsukiakari no Dearest"  - Camus and Mikaze Ai, "Hikari" (AKA "Simple and Clean") from Kingdom Hearts and "Sora wa Takaku Kaze wa Utau" from Luna Haruna and Fate/Zero.

I also had the opportunity to interview Bryan and Colton, two of the performers. I'll upload that one once I'm done editing it.

Interested in checking out the featured songs? Here they are:

Uta no Prince-Sama Duet CD Reiji & Ranmaru / Ai & Camus

Game Music

COLORS

Hikaru Utada

Sora wa Takaky Kaze wa Utau [w/ DVD, Limited Edition]

Runa Haruna

Renshikan Karate Demonstration at the 2013 Calgary Omatsuri

At the 2013 Calgary Japanese Festival, members of the CJCA Renshikan Karate Club and Fish Creek Renshikan Karate Club perform at karate demonstration. In this clip, they perform basic blocks and kicks:

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch up to Sey Yamashiro-sensei or Frank Prystupa-sensei for an interview. At least, I can share with you some information and point you in the right direction if you'd like more information.

Perhaps, karate is the Japanese martial art that most people are familiar with. My generation grew up with the original Karate Kid and Miyagi-sensei ("Wax on, Wax off.")

"Karate" means "empty hand". It is a form of self-defense, as Frank Prystupa-sensei described in the demonstration.

They learn a variety of blocks and kicks in the form of kata (forms). In addition to grading, practitioners can participate in tournaments.

Here's where things get interesting. There are so many different schools of karate. The style that is shown here is called Renshikan-Ryu. It is a relatively young style, founded by Japanese-Canadian David Akutagawa (1927 - 2008). It is a combination of two older schools: Shito-ryu karate and Chito-ryu karate. Akutagawa sensei was an eighth dan in Shito-ryu, a sixth dan Shihan and renshi in Chito-ryu.

For more information on karate, or to find a dojo near you, check out the following:

Japanese Martial Arts (book)

Karate Alberta Association

Karate Canada

Karate USA

The Karate Dojo: Traditions and Tales of a Martial Art (book)

In the Dojo: A Guide to the Rituals and Etiquette of the Japanese Martial Arts (book)

About the Featured Photo: Members of the CJCA and Fish Creek  Renshikan Karate Clubs demonstrate a kick at the Calgary Omatsuri. Photo by Christine Kohl. Publisher: Kathleen "Irulanne" Boucher.

Music Practice Advice from Barney the Dinosaur

I was never a huge fan of Barney the Dinosaur (he just wasn't as cool as Snuffy and Big Bird to me). However, I recently came across this two-part episode where Barney and his friends talk about how practice makes music.

Pianist Greg Murray shows the kids a few neat things that you can do with music once you've worked hard to learn a song. In this clip, Greg plays some different variations of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:

Barney & Friends: Practice Makes Music (Part 1):

And Part 2 of Practice Makes Music:

The main point to take away is that Barney the Dinosaur's friend Greg practiced a lot to get to the point where he could have fun with any song, whether it was Mary Had a Little Lamb or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. 

Trying to Tame the Paper Monster

Summer is speeding to a close. I am quite happy to say that my summer decluttering project is nearly finished as well. I've decided to try using baskets to manage my papers for the week:

I've tried Bring Forward Files however, "out of sight, out of mind" happens all too easily. I've also tried weekly hanging folders. I broke a set of hanging folders because I stuffed it too much.

That brings us to the baskets. They're not that big, so I need to be vigilant to prevent spillage. They do hold more than a file folder, so that's good.

Let me translate and explain the labeling (they're in Japanese):

1. きょう ("Kyou"): Today

2. あした ("Ashita"): Tomorrow

3. こんしゅう ("Konshuu"): This Week

4. しはらって ("Shiharatte"): Pay

5. よんで ("Yonde"): Read

I've tried enough systems to know that my active trays need to be as lean as possible. Keeping it simple is really the only thing I remember out of my copy of Donna Smallin's book,  The One Minute Organizer.

Three is a  good number The remaining two trays contain items that need to be dealt with within the month.

Fingers crossed that this paper management system works!