"The Piano Principle" Brad Yates

“The Piano Principle”

I read something to day that really brought home just how incredible we are as human beings. Brad Yates talked about an analogy between people and a grand piano. “I think human beings are like grand pianos—incredible creations capable of producing wonderful music.” I add or whatever good thing they dream of and work toward. Our self-talk can derail our dreams; uproot our fragile seedlings of beginnings before they get a chance to grow at all.

Think of some one you know and respect – your hero – be it Michelangelo or Bach, Beethoven, Natalie Goldberg, Kenny G, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Ronald Regan, Suzanne Lieurance, Jack Canfield, Joe Vitale—whatever field they are in – Do you think they had a special break, or the luck of the draw?

Chances are they worked, faced defeat and rejection numerous times before they “won”. Joe Vitale was down and out, homeless, penniless, he's worth millions today. Not by luck, but through hard work and following his dream.

Not everyone can climb Mt. Everest, or design an Empire State building, Or be the thing someone else already is – I read a church billboard that said “Be Yourself—[the best you, you can be] — everyone else is already taken.” That is enough. That is what you should be. But, do not go to your grave with your music, your talent, still trapped inside you.

“Imagine a world where people felt free to share their grandest music…” Yates

What is your greatness? What if…? Think about it.
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Creativity - Music and Writing

What is Music Anyway? What is Writing Anyway?

In The Intellectual Devotional by David S Kidder & Noah D Oppenheim we are given a lot of food for thought. One thing they say is that Music has a pattern where noise only has sound. I’m afraid that could define Heavy Metal for me. Noise, loud and busy that has no rhyme or reason for being. Sorry Heavy Metal fans, it just doesn’t translate for me.

Kidder and Oppenheim say the basics of music compared to noise have to do with
Pitch —How high or low a sound is to the ear;
Scale—a stepwise arrangement of pitches;
Key—which is an arrangement or system of pitches usually based on one of the major or minor scales.

Simple isn’t it? The Ghost Music of Vaudeville by Billie A Williams, as a mystery has a similar basic set up. Pitch: how intense (high) or relaxed (low) the action
Scale: an arrangement of pitches that take us from each paragraph with a beginning, middle and end, to each chapter with its beginning, middle and end; to the book as a whole with a beginning, middle and end.
Key: That is a little harder, but I think of it as all the system of pitches – the paragraph, page, chapter, and book according to one of the Major (genre) or Minor (sub-genre) scales –genre and subgenres of the mystery from cozy, procedural, true crime, or hard boiled. Check your romance against the styles created with the analogies to music. IT works there too.

Therefore, everything in writing the mystery/suspense/romance can be reduced or elevated to its musical counter part. Our culture influences our pitch, scale, and keys whether that is in writing or in music. Extremes may abound even while the rules are followed. For instance music in India compared to the music here in the west such as opera, R & B, Jazz. Or, compare the Native American Drum, to the drum of modern rock – they are nowhere in the same playing field – the Native American Drum is spiritual, the rock drum is entertainment. Both, however, are entertainment and in some circles could be called spiritual.

Music and writing are both creative processes. Whether we use pitch, scale, and key or whether we use some other method to join the parts into a complete whole – they compliment each other, and I believe they embody each other.

It is said that we each “march to our different drummer,” and I believe that is as true in creating fiction as it is in creating music.

Sing Loudly, Write like the wind and enjoy the rhythm you create!
Cricket

It's Here, it's published, it's ready to buy

The Ghost Music of Vaudeville

by Billie A Williams

ISBN 978-1-59705-310-5 (electronic)

978-1-59705-728-8 (print)

April 1, 2008

CONTACT: Billie A Williams

P O Box 134

Amberg, WI 54102

billie@billiewilliams.com

Wings ePress, Inc

www.wings-press.com

HEAR YE! HEAR YE!

Stepping center stage to entertain you ….

None other then –

In this day and age of razing landmarks to make way for High Rise Apartments or concrete parking ramps there is little left of the old world. When it comes to entertainment, the environment changes even faster. The Ghost Music of Vaudeville is about a troupe of actors, actresses and musicians who were part of the vaudeville stage at one time. The theatre sits in disrepair, and a greedy land developer is out for revenge. Part of that revenge is to demolish every Keith Theatre in the United States.

Charlie Wolfe, reporter for the Ironwood Daily Globe, Tommy Forester, teenager and champion for the down trodden, and Piano Man, (aka Rudy Poncigrau) who used to play for the vaudeville acts, the black and white movies, and more all have other ideas.

Will one last performance bring out enough support to stop the bulldozers before Damien Callistrari and his henchmen extract the revenge he seeks? Roberto Callistrari is going against his father’s wishes when he begins to fall for Charlie Wolfe –with his ties to Hollywood and Broadway he entices Bette Midler to bring her creativity and personality to help bring the Keith Theatre back from the edge. Together will they be enough to save this Keith Theatre and those lives so intrinsically entwined with the Ghost Music of Vaudeville that still haunts the walls and stage of this Keith Theatre in Ironwood, Michigan.