What should I do during seminary?

[Vort]

For various reasons, my lovely 17-year-old daughter does not (yet) have her driver's license. So every morning, I take her to seminary. She does not attend the nearby local high school, but instead attends the community college through a "Running Start" program; so when seminary is over, she doesn't walk to school with everyone else, but comes home. The rain and darkness of this area at this time of year means I prefer to drive her home rather than have her walk the mile back. Though we live near the Church building where she attends, and so it's easy enough for me to drop her off and come home during her class, I decided a month or two ago that it was silly for me to go home, occupy myself for 30 minutes, then go back and pick her up. So I have been taking scriptures and other reading material with me and reading during her seminary class.

Yesterday, it occurred to me that there is a piano in an unused room that I could play (with). Please note that I do NOT play the piano. But I would love to be able to play the piano, and an hour of practice time five days a week might be just the investment I need. So I have several possible ways to use that seminary hour, and am interested to find out people's opinions on what might be the best use of my time from the following list of possibilities (or invent your own):

• Read scriptures
• Read Church-related material, e.g. the Handbook
• Read work/education-related material (I have a lot of it)
• Practice the piano
• Exercise (something I could always use)
• Some combination of the above
• Something else

Thoughts?

Edited December 4, 2017 by Vort

[bytebear]

Take up knitting.

[Vort]

1 minute ago, bytebear said:

Take up knitting.

Something I have long wanted to do. Maybe I should ask Sister Vort to teach me.

[zil]

3 hours ago, Vort said:

But I would love to be able to play the piano.

Spending a year as RSP has given me an unhealthy desire to learn to play the hymns on the piano.  (There appears to be a shortage of such people in my area, and the ability gives you a "guaranteed" calling....)

3 hours ago, Vort said:

3 hours ago, bytebear said:

Take up knitting.

Something I have long wanted to do. Maybe I should ask Sister Vort to teach me.

Have you seen the Cary Grant movie Mr. Lucky?  If not, IMO, you need to see it - it's one of my favorites - and involves men knitting.

Meanwhile, my initial approach to your question would be to determine how much I would distract or be distracted by others in the building.  E.g. if you make a racket in the gym, will it be heard by the seminary students, thus annoying their teacher and diminishing their study?  Similar question with the piano.  If you choose to study, will you be distracted by people coming and going or making a racket somewhere?

I might also consider my ability to concentrate given building temperatures, chair comfort, table size / availability, and such.  Also, do I need to haul a library with me from home, or is it easy to bring the needed supplies?

Is playing (with) the piano just a distraction so I can avoid doing things I really need to do?  Or is it a sincere goal that I'm going to commit to learning sufficient skill to be able to play in church, or at least play for my own relaxation and enjoyment?

Those seem like good places to start narrowing the list.

Edited December 5, 2017 by zil

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Vort said:

• Read scriptures
• Read Church-related material, e.g. the Handbook
• Read work/education-related material (I have a lot of it)
• Practice the piano
• Exercise (something I could always use)

Five days a week.  Five different activities...  Well... you do the math.

I'd always encourage people to learn the piano.  Do you realize that in our ward of about 150 to 200 active people (granted over 40% are under 12) there are only six (6) people who play the piano and only half of them play the organ.  And one of them is sort of going inactive because of work.  So, I have two organists who are both busy with heavy callings.  And each of them is also involved in other music activities (including my choir).

Now, I just heard one of the young women perform the piano for her YW in excellence presentation the other night.  The music chair in me thinks "fresh meat"!!! 

The bottom line is THE CHURCH NEEDS MORE PIANO AND ORGAN PLAYERS!!!

Edited December 5, 2017 by Guest

[zil]

1 minute ago, Carborendum said:

Five days a week.  Five different activities...  Well... you do the math.

I'd always encourage people to learn the piano.  Do you realize that in our ward of about 150 to 200 active people (granted over 40% are under 12) there are only Six people who play the piano and only half of them play the organ.  And one of them is sort of going inactive because of work.  So, I have two organists who are both busy with heavy callings.  And each of them are also involved in other music activities (including my choir).

Now, I just heard one of the young women perform the piano for her YW in excellence presentation the other night.  The music chair in me thinks "fresh meat"!!! 

The bottom line is THE CHURCH NEEDS MORE PIANO AND ORGAN PLAYERS!!!

It's also very good for the brain.  As are things which are significantly different from your current brain-skills.  Keeps the brain pliable or elastic or flexible or something like that - very important as you get older and your brain turns into peanut brittle.  (Pretty sure that's what the YouTube video said.)

[my two cents]

Indexing and other family history tasks!

[Guest]

If I had an hour a day while waiting on my daughter to attend seminary, I would probably spend it on this site!  (but reading scriptures is a much better use of one's time).

Edited December 5, 2017 by DoctorLemon

[JohnsonJones]

18 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Five days a week.  Five different activities...  Well... you do the math.

I'd always encourage people to learn the piano.  Do you realize that in our ward of about 150 to 200 active people (granted over 40% are under 12) there are only six (6) people who play the piano and only half of them play the organ.  And one of them is sort of going inactive because of work.  So, I have two organists who are both busy with heavy callings.  And each of them is also involved in other music activities (including my choir).

Now, I just heard one of the young women perform the piano for her YW in excellence presentation the other night.  The music chair in me thinks "fresh meat"!!! 

The bottom line is THE CHURCH NEEDS MORE PIANO AND ORGAN PLAYERS!!!

I agree, learn to play the piano.  Your leadership will always be glad that you do if they find out (though it may be you might not be quite as glad at times).

[mordorbund]

5 hours ago, bytebear said:

Take up knitting.

That's what sacrament meeting is for.

[Blossom76]

You could choose a couple of things you want to do and alternate them, I exercise first thing in the morning and I love it, its a great way to start the day, maybe exercise 3 times a week and pick another activity for the other 2 days. Whatever you choose make sure you enjoy it  

[Sunday21]

Re: disturbing others. I know nothing about piano but..Is it possible to depress one of the piano foot peddles and thus play very quietly?

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Sunday21 said:

Re: disturbing others. I know nothing about piano but..Is it possible to depress one of the piano foot peddles and thus play very quietly?

Only a little.  There is a pedal that softens the sound by 30percent. But contrary to it's name, the Piano is still a loud instrument.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Sunday21 said:

Re: disturbing others. I know nothing about piano but..Is it possible to depress one of the piano foot peddles and thus play very quietly?

I saw you were confused by my last post.  Since I said two things, I'll explain two things.  I'll use the "cord" spelling to differentiate between the wire and the musical collection of notes (chord).

1) We're talking about the "soft pedal" (una corda pedal -- literally "one cord").  The piano strings are set up where most keys hit three strings.  Some of the lower ones hit two.  The lowest hit only one string.  When the soft pedal is depressed, the battery of hammers is shifted over slightly so that the three cord keys hit only two cords.  The two cord keys hit only one cord.  The one cord notes still hit one cord.  Thus we hear a reduced volume.

2) The word "piano" in Italian (from which all musical terms derive -- hence @Vort should have an advantage learning musical terminology) means "plain."  In musical terminology this is interpreted to mean "played softly" or "quietly."  So, I found it odd that such a loud instrument is called "quiet."  The reason for this is in the etymology.  The Italian word for what we call the piano is pianoforte, a portmonteau which means "soft-loud" (literally plain-strong)  So, in English we shortened it to simply "piano."  Unfortunate.  But there it is.

[zil]

@Vort, In case you decide to learn the piano, I'll pass on my dad's advice:  Don't pause or go back when you make mistakes - keep going forward.  He said this was one of the best things his piano teacher taught him.  The reason for this is obvious if you think of performing in front of people / accompanying others - no one else is gonna go back if you make a mistake, so you need to be in the habit of just playing through them.   If you have a hard section where you keep making mistakes, practice that section (starting a ways before the mistake and ending a ways after, but don't stop right at the mistake and just replay that one note / set of notes).  FWIW.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, zil said:

@Vort, In case you decide to learn the piano, I'll pass on my dad's advice:  Don't pause or go back when you make mistakes - keep going forward.

I absolutely agree, and for the same reasons.  

[zil]

The other advice won't be so applicable - he got out of gym class in high school by agreeing to teach the gym teacher how to play the piano. (But maybe you'll find a grown-up variant of that example.  )

[anatess2]

I am soooo happy that my 16 year old got his driver's license last summer.  He now drives himself and his brother to seminary!  For the past 2 years, I've been leaving the house at 5:30AM half-asleep to drive him to seminary.  There was a period of time where I used the time to do 5K training (with the help of the C25K app).  Then it got too cold so I ended up just curling in the backseat of my car with a thick blanket and going to sleep.  Then some lady in our ward started a seminary yoga class so we did that for a while.  Sometimes I would take the opportunity to grab some quick stuff from the neighborhood walmart.

There was also a time when I sat in on the seminary class.  But I found out that this super early time before sunrise is the worst time for me to ponder scriptures.  My brain just refuses to be a morning brain.  I am actually very impressed that both my kids have no problem with it at all even as they grew up in my grumpy-morning household.

In any case, if you want to try out piano, there's several good piano tutorial videos on youtube like this guy below.  Although you might want to do some research on what kind of instruction you want - classical instruction, suzuki and the like, or just basic music reading to get you to the point of playing off the hymnbook.

 

 

Edited December 5, 2017 by anatess2

[seashmore]

I vote for learning a new skill or doing something to help you magnify your calling. (Planning a lesson, writing cards to mail to less actives, etc.)

[Guest MormonGator]

Go to the local Starbucks, get some coffee....

 

Oh, wait. 

[Fether]

Get really good at playing the intro of Fugue in D minor

[askandanswer]

On 05/12/2017 at 9:33 AM, Vort said:

• Read scriptures
• Read Church-related material, e.g. the Handbook
• Read work/education-related material (I have a lot of it)
• Practice the piano
• Exercise (something I could always use)
• Some combination of the above
• Something else

Thoughts?

I'm guessing that you've been doing the first three listed activities for most of your life. I suggest using this time to do something new and different, specifically, learning to play the piano AND organ. They're so similar that I'm never quite sure why some people can play one and not the other.

[Vort]

On 12/7/2017 at 6:41 PM, Fether said:

Get really good at playing the intro of Fugue in D minor

You mean the toccata part?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, askandanswer said:

I'm guessing that you've been doing the first three listed activities for most of your life. I suggest using this time to do something new and different, specifically, learning to play the piano AND organ. They're so similar that I'm never quite sure why some people can play one and not the other.

Three things characterize the organ as quite different than the piano.

1) The foot keys.  Just because you can use your hands doesn't mean you can use your feet.

2) The stops.

3) The lack of a sostenuto pedal that is used extensively with the piano.  The organ doesn't have it.  To make up for it, the organist has to come up with very creative fingerings in order to play it without sounding like everything is staccato.

Edited December 9, 2017 by Guest

[askandanswer]

Some second thoughts - perhaps use the time for scripture study but in a way that you possibly haven't studied them before. From President Nelson's talk in last April General Conference:

Earlier this year, I asked the young adults of the Church to consecrate a portion of their time each week to study everything Jesus said and did as recorded in the standard works.⁹ I invited them to let the scriptural citations about Jesus Christ in the Topical Guide become their personal core curriculum.¹⁰

I gave that challenge because I had already accepted it myself. I read and underlined every verse cited about Jesus Christ, as listed under the main heading and the 57 subtitles in the Topical Guide.¹¹ When I finished that exciting exercise, my wife asked me what impact it had on me. I told her, “I am a different man!”