Playing the piano

I ought to get sick more often.

Apparently, when I'm sick, I'm more creative. I created The Website's current layout when I was sick about a month ago, and today I was absent again. Therefore, I used AccessColor to make sure there was difference enough between my colors and stylesheet, then validated the code for EACH PAGE. Maybe that's just busywork, but hey---I learned the DOCTYPE was important. (I also figured out a better navigational system).

Odder yet was when I sat down at the piano this evening. I messed with a couple of songs I knew---"On My Own", "Beauty and the Beast", etc. However, then I actually started improvising. It might have sounded a bit better, but I've tried improv on piano before, and it didn't turn out well. This time, it actually wasn't half bad. I used some of the rhythm things that I've been thinking about over the week, but aside from that, I figured out whether to hit Bb of F quick enough to keep a little natural pace.

Kind of impressed with how it went, I tried piecing together a few songs I've enjoyed recently; "Children Will Listen" and "No One Is Alone" from Into the Woods, "Jack's Lament", "Sally's Song", "This Is Halloween", and "Making Christmas" from Nightmare Before Christmas, and "Ice Dance" from Edward Scissorhands.

Some went better than others. I've figured at least part of the melody for "No One Is Alone", "Children Will Listen", "Sally's Song", "Jack's Lament", and "Making Christmas". Sure, I found the first eight notes for "Ice Dance", but I don't really consider that "figuring out the melody".

I'm kind of surprised that I actually got to some of the possible bass clef lines for "Sally's Song", "Making Christmas", and "No One Is Alone". I have the definite first four bass clef notes for "Sally's Song", and the rest is mostly just "This sounds nice, even though it probably isn't what the real line is".

I can't figure out an Andrew Lloyd Webber piece or Evanescene song to save my life, even though I have sheet music. (Yes, I know that these guys are awesome and stuff, but other people just write more complicated stuff that make the orchestra beg for mercy.) However, I'm figuring out all of these Danny Elfman and SONDHEIM pieces by ear.

Is that weird?