Upon completing the 15 Miles in June to fundraise for the American Red Cross to provide swimming lessons, I immediately returned to my music. There has to be a way to describe the process of meeting that challenge. Swimming laps is repetitive. One has to count. Here is my short programmatic piece to describe my experience.
It’s the second time that I’ve fundraised for this cause. I also fundraised for the American Cancer Society last September. So this is my third fundraiser.
Finding places to swim
A year ago, I signed up for the American Red Cross challenge in May, before I knew where I could swim. It was exasperating to hunt for access to water I could swim in.
The nearest beach Nantasket Beach in May was too cold. Visible outdoor public pools were not open until school vacations began, i.e. mid to late June. As I was no longer a member of the YMCA, I simply didn’t know where to look.
By googling “places to swim” I stumbled upon a website which showed locations in and around Boston. I found an entire network of public pools near me. The Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF) required registration and booking of swim slots but it was completely free. The lifeguards rotated shift every half hour or less.
Each pool in the BCYF system was different in the scheduling of swim sessions. Those associated with elementary schools were only open from late afternoon. The pools closed on Sundays and public holidays. Only one was open on Mondays.
Some pools were easy to get to. Some did not have free parking. Three were accessible by bicycle. All were reachable by the extensive public transportation network, which usually took twice as long as driving.
Once the weather warmed up, I discovered the joy of swimming in fresh ponds and lakes.
The one closest to me was five miles away. A lifeguard told me that anyone is free to swim when the guards are not on duty, i.e. before 10 AM and after 6 PM. The water was colder than the 83 degree Fahrenheit of public swimming pools. It was impossible to see beyond my fingers despite the clean spring water for it quickly dropped to the maximum depth of 42 feet.
The fresh pond became my favorite place to swim, well into October.
Counting the laps
To keep track of the mileage swum, I had to count laps and calculate the miles according to the size of the pool. Counting kept me focussed but it could get boring. Here are different ways I managed to keep track of my laps. Each lap is a round trip from one end of the pool to the other.
Numerical counting: recalling what did I do at that age; songs that included those numbers; time signatures
Alphabet: going through the letters of the alphabet; jukebox in my head; songs that were titled with that letter or had repeating words starting with that letter. I always struggled with the letters Q, X, and Z. Besides Que Sera Sera, Exes & Oh’s and Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, there were plenty of songs in Chinese.
Promoting the fundraiser
Inviting someone to the fundraiser does not mean the person will donate. Just like events. So many people tell me afterwards that they would have attended an event or donated to a fundraiser if they had known. I need to make sure they know about it and have plenty of time and opportunity to do something with that knowledge.
I started creating 90-second reels on Facebook to record my fundraising journey.
I selected pieces I enjoyed playing on the piano, an instrument that takes up a quarter of the room but gets neglected because of my current pre-occupation with the ukulele, guitar, and organ.
So far, I’ve played the beginning of the following pieces in the reels:
- Kiss the Rain by Yiruma, Korean composer
- The Day After by Yiruma
- Fairy Tale by Guang Liang, Malaysian singer songwriter
- Bella Notte by Einauldi, Italian composer (picking mulberry leaves to make tea)
- Spring from Piano Stories 4 by Joe Hisaishi, Japanese composer of anime films
- Back to Life by Giovanni Allevi, Italian composer
- To Zanarkland by Nobuo Uematsu, Japanese composer of video games (geraniums on the balcony)
Although I’ve reached the 15 miles, the fundraiser is still open for donations. To date, the nine donors have raised $412. I will keep producing musical reels (videos) until the fundraiser ends in early July.
A solo instrumental piece in three parts
The short piece I wrote today has three sections. It is programmatic in describing what it’s like to swim laps.
I marked the left hand fingering in purple to help with smooth transitions.
Swimming laps is repetitive. As such, I’ve included repeats. To make it interesting, I suggest playing the passage with different dynamics. Play it softly the first time; loudly the second. Or vice versa.
The second section is shorter than the first. As usual, it takes awhile to get started. I have to get used to the pool, the lifeguard, the swimmers around me, etc.
After a long winter of not swimming (because I did not go to Maui this year), I was not only pale but also terribly unfit. Plus there was the weight gain from sitting at my desk composing rather than taking walks and moving about. So there was extra weight to carry in my swims.
The green h letter represents the left hand technique of hammer on.
It’s possible to repeat the three measures before the final D minor chord.
Fundraise for a cause
It’s never too late to donate.
It’s never too late to learn to swim.
I’ve always wanted to do something with my music, beyond teaching, arranging, composing, and performing.
Music can be used to get and hold attention. Hopefully what I do will make a difference.
