Page 23 - Voices-2021-10

songwriter Harlan frequency of any note on the piano keyboard.
Howard described While that might be useless information while

country music playing music, it does delight my uber nerd brain.
as “three chords In the guitar class, I realized that many songs
and the truth.” I sound so much better (and more like the original
quickly discovered artist’s performance) when finger-picked, instead

the 1-4-5 relationship of just strumming the chords. I also discovered
between the three that I would have sore fingers until I develop
chords, meaning long-lost calluses on my fingertips. I also learned
whatever chord that this is more than just an academic exercise

you start with, you where you learn a bunch of facts. I must practice
count up the if I want any of this to stick, which brings me
scale to the 4th back to Toastmasters.
and 5th notes We don’t learn communication and leadership

to get the other skills in a vacuum. We must interact with other
two chords. For human beings and practice these skills, or we
example, if you get rusty. Practicing our Toastmasters skills has
play something in the key the same benefit as practicing music—it is more

of C, the other two chords pleasant to listen to us as we get smoother and
are F and G. That allowed me gain proficiency in both disciplines. One of my
to quickly transpose a song to a stated goals when I retired several years ago was
different key where it was easier to get back into music. I am pleased to say that is

for me to sing, even if I didn’t finally happening. Now, I just need to find time
know the theory and why that to do both Toastmasters and music.
worked.
My classes are now in the

second week. It has been both fun and
challenging to absorb all this new information.
My ability to read music is still very limited, but
I can tell at a glance what key a piece is in, simply

by looking at the score. In a side conversation
that wasn’t part of the course curriculum, I
learned about the relationship between the
different notes in a scale and how to calculate the

VOICES! | OCTOBER 2021 23