A Small Change to my posting schedule

Hi there, teacuppers!

I’m not really saying a lot in this post. I just wanted to let you know about some changes to my posting schedule.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reconsidering my goals and resources for this blog.

I have decided that posting twice every week is too much for me right now. Therefore, I am no longer going to follow the set posting schedule you see here. That means, for my subscribers… you won’t have to delete my notifications every week! (No fingers pointed.)

If you really like my songs, then I have some good news for you.

The blog will still remain up and I will still publish new covers whenever I have some ready. I’ll still be taking your feedback about songs and all that. So don’t leave quite yet – I’m still going to have a bit more!

Thanks for taking time to listen to my songs in 2018!

~Liya

Where did the year go?

Whoa!! What happened to 2018?!?!

If you're asking that question, that's one of the things we have in common. (Other than an interest in music, which you wouldn't be here without.) I feel like the year went by pretty fast. From one post to the next isn't that much time, and there's only 52 Wednesdays, one of which is already behind us, before another year passes. 

The rate at which time passes can 'seem' to change. When you're really looking forward to Christmas break, the time seems to drag and drag and drag and drag on forever. But by the time you feel like you've had a break, it's nearly over. 

You usually feel like you're stuck in the periods of time you don't want, but if you stared at the clock all that time, the second hand would always move at the same rate. It's just the way we think about things.

We also think about things differently when we listen to songs.

Why are we doing this?

(Note to anyone who is subscribed to my email list: Something went wrong when sending this post, so it didn't actually appear. Sorry for the confusion!)

It's the first day of December.

Often times, there's one thing that we think about in December: Christmas.

You've seen it everywhere, haven't you? Stores have discounts leading up to this holiday. You can't look anywhere without seeing a red and green sign. Everyone's talking about it. It's a big thing.

But have you ever seen someone who is rushing around in December to buy all the presents, make all the food, and host all the events for the 25th? On top of that, are they rushing so much that they forget that we are supposed to be celebrating?

You may think that this is not connected to music at all. But I'm going to show you why it is.

What just happened?

Some of you might not know this, but Thursday is actually a big day over here. On that day, Tea with Liya will have been around for a year. It might sound like a long time, but really, 10 years from now it won't.

In my last Saturday post, I was talking about trying new things. But it's hard to do that when you don't know what to try. How do you know what things will succeed and what things won't? How do you know what ideas are good? How do you eventually decide something to do?

My answer is: you look back.

What if...?

Sometimes, we're not sure whether we should try something or not. It ends up going like this...

What if I start playing that style of music? Well, I could lose my skills in this one, or I could start thinking differently about music, or I could.... And then what? So I just won't do it.

What if I go to that recital in a couple weeks? Well, I could mess everything up, or - possibly even worse - I could be told that I just won the gold medal and I'll be in all the newspapers within a week, or I could.... And then what? So I just won't do it.

What if I try taking a solo on that song? Maybe I could try this thing that I learned. Well, I could lose the rhythm that the rest of the band is playing, or I could make everyone think that I'm not a good player, or I could... And then what? So I just won't do it.

I'm not really accusing you specifically of anything. I'm just pointing out that all of us (including me) probably end up doing this at some point. What (will happen) if I do this? Well, I could.... And then what will I do? So I just won't do it.

Why can't I be like that....?

You know sometimes, we all get caught up in comparing ourselves to others. I admit that I've been guilty of that sometimes. We all end up thinking things like this:

Whoa, he sure is a really good singer. If only I could....... That video got 100,000 views in only 3 days? I'll never get there.....There's 4 year olds playing ARCT songs. What about me......How did she get the money to buy that car?

There's many things we want to reach, but we think that we can't get there. Sometimes, we really can't get there. Other times, it's because we are stopping ourselves. Still other times, it's because we can't do everything.

What if it's raining.....?

Hmm..... it's been a while since I made a post that wasn't the title of a song. But I was thinking that you might want one for a change. For those of you that haven't been reading my blog for months, these are posts where I'm telling you something related to music that I know or think, and I don't actually have a song attached to it.

You might notice that the title says "rain," and you might be wondering if this blog is really about music after all. But the title, "Tea with Liya" has nothing to do with rain, unless I'm sitting inside my house drinking tea and waiting for the rain to stop so I can go for my walk. I suppose the title has nothing to do with music either, but that's why I tacked on the "A Blog about Music" part.

Now let me get down to the point.

Are you using.....?

Ah....once again, a question mark post. Actually, the first since Seven come Eleven, which was 6 posts ago. I said back in my Maybe post that I would give you the songs from a while back after 25 posts. Seems like I don't keep my promises, huh? I was only one song over the mark, though. So you can expect the old songs (hopefully) a week from now. I'm hoping that you haven't decided not to trust me with any future plans I reveal.

When do you stop....?

You might notice that I always start my Heads Up posts with a question. That's to get you asking, ".........what?", and then you might read the little piece of musical advice I have for you today.

Now I'm sure you want to know what it is, so I'll tell you.

Have you ever gone to a concert with someone you know who plays music. You both sit down in row J and you're having a nice time. Then, about 15 seconds after the second song starts,

Why does it really matter.....?

As musicians, we often wonder if our audience really likes our playing. If we're playing in a band situation, the comparison levels just go up.

Did those people like my solo?......Uh-oh, the drummer is looking at me like I did something wrong......What does that person over there think of my song?......Gulp. I think I just made myself the worst player out of everyone in the music contest. 

Why am I always hearing.....

If you've seen my I've Got Rhythm post, you might want to know that, in jazz, there's no way of leaving behind the two G's. I think you could probably say about at least 50 songs, "A standard by George Gershwin." Of course, we usually just say, "It's a Gershwin," even though that doesn't make grammatical sense.

I want the songs!

Maybe you've once gotten tired of scrolling down through three-quarters of a page - full resolution pictures and all - before you find the actual content at the bottom. You might not want to know the full details about the darkness of the green color of the 8.2333 x 7.9867 inch pan that was used in the recipe. On the other side of the spectrum, there will be a button that says "Skip the pictures." What a relief!

Since I know what it's like, I decided to set up my posts differently and put the song at the top. Less time looking around, and more time to listen!

Did you note?

Listening to music is SO important if you ever want to play it well. It improves your ear, makes you familiar with the music, lets you analyze it and SO much more. In fact, this is how I usually learn music(which I summarized in a recent post):

1. Listen
2. Start learning the song
3. Listen
4. Continue learning
5. Listen
6. Memorize/Work on details
7. Listen
8. Review
9. Listen

By the way, about the title. I was supposed to type, "Did you know?" I guess I've got music on the brain. Although something you could "note" is the amount of "Listen"s up there.