A Bench for Me, the Same Bench for You, Praise The Lord! If We Make it Through!

What is....

Two Pianos

Plus...

One great idea!

Plus...

One amazing music score...

Plus...

Two People!

Plus...

ONE piano stool!

This Equals....

A) Disaster!

B) Success

C) A Trip to the Hospital

D) Relief (when things work out)

You decide!!!

~~~~~~The Story~~~~~~

We've been preparing for our annual piano recital.  It's going to be so exciting this year!  Jordan and I will be playing another ensemble piece.  Our piece will be Hungarian Dance No. 1 by J. Brahms. 

But there's a slight twist... literally!  Instead of playing this piece the "right" way, we'll be playing it on two pianos and one bench!  We will spin on that bench and switch parts (and pianos) during the piece!  Sound's like a great idea?  (I thought so too!) 

So we thought we'd do a blog post on all the preparation we've put into this.  This is a journey of pictures and words of our journey of spins and laughs!

Note: I would strongly recommend that you do something like this with your sibling.  This is a wonderful way to build relationships with them, learn to work with them, and get to know them in a whole different way.  God has blessed each and every one of us with special features.  You'll be surprised to see His amazing design in each person!

So here's some pointers if you ever decide to do the same!

------------------------------------

It's always helpful to tie yourself (during practicing of course) to your partner (just in case anything goes wrong!).

One disclaimer... if your partner falls off... so will you!!!  (But I'm getting ahead of myself... that comes later!)

Hold on.  TIGHT!

Who gets to be closer?  Who gets to be further away?

When doing a spin, make sure your partner is ready.  Or else...

Who gets more room on the bench?

We'll settle it with this:

Never, EVER throw back your head.  Even during the exciting parts!

 

Impact!

----------------------------

But through all the things we have to remember... we still remember to have fun!  This is what makes rehearsing so enjoyable:

So, we've spent many long hours of "practicing"... okay Sort of Practicing!

And in our "free time", we found out that you don't even need ONE bench!  Who invented benches anyway?!

Check back later to find out how this recital goes!  We're really looking forward to it!

------------------------------

One more thing... here's a movie I (Bethany) filmed of our rehearsal.  This was done from a secret hidden camera... so you can see what our practices REALLY look like!  

The first part of this movie is a MUST watch!  It was not staged!  No stuntmen here!  Also, if you watch the whole movie, you get to see a sneak peek of our piece.

 

We hope you enjoyed this post!  Comment and tell us what you thought.

I think a good closer here would be Psalm 140:4 "Praise HIM with the timbrel and dance, praise HIM with the stringed instruments and organs."

Praise be to God!  Let each and every one of us give the glory to HIM alone!  It is by Him, through Him, and for Him, that we should live.

Check back for the REAL deal.

Posted by:
Bethany & Jordan

Judah's Chocolate Song :)

At the very end of the EFF blog we posted our latest "Christmas Chocolate Song" :)

Scroll all the way down and be sure to tell us what you think!

Merry Christmas!

When Shiloh Plays Piano Judah Has A New Trick!

Pianos Galore with Judah and Bethany!

Judah and I have SO much fun together!

Well to start you from the beginning... my siblings and I are getting ready for our piano recital. Jordan and I will be playing a ensemble piece so we needed two pianos to practice on. (Yes, we did try on the same piano but it ended up sounding more like chaos than "The Cuckoo"!) Anyway, our teacher let us borrow an electric piano so we could practice together without any piano problems. And well... you know us... the day after we got that piano we knew every feature it had! (Including the one for the lazy pianist... you know, the one that the piano plays the amazing song and you pretend to play so good that everyone thinks you're playing it?) So after we had thoroughly exhausted ourselves we lowered the stand so Judah could play.

So back to the beginning. Today Judah and I did some ensemble practice together, so with me at the big piano playing "When I Think About the Lord" by James Huey and Judah at the little piano playing the "accompaniment" part, sit back and watch!

(Note: Judah knows how to work this piano too! Be sure to watch him change the sound effects! Also watch his dramatic movements (He can't stay sitting on the bench!).)

Now for Judah's big performance! Here he plays the "Turkish March" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Wow! He sure has talent!

And we sure have a lot of fun together!!! Agreed?

Agreed!

Posted by:

~Bethany R. Strang

P.S. I have another great video idea spinning around in my head! So you'll just have to wait and see what I will come up with!

Judah Plays Piano

Judah is the budding musician in the Strang family! He continually jumps back and forth from playing the violin to playing the piano. In this movie he ended up being caught on film playing the piano (last time it was violin!) with big "Bub-Ba"! Just in case you were wondering (or could hear above Judah's musical masterpiece)... Jordan is playing Do You Believe by Justin Booher. Enjoy the video!

Posted by:

Bethany

Sneek-Peek

The Strangs Strings Sneek-Peek of their first CD!

Practice Makes Perfect...

Judah loves playing his fiddle! Complete with his straw hat, "lide-lo" (his word for fiddle- it sounds like he's yodeling), and bow he will sit and occupy himself with some music for a long time...

Since a 3/4 violin is too big for this little boy he plays it cello style!
Smile Judah!

" Lovely music my dears..."

Does it get any cuter then this?