Robert Goode
Musician. Psychic. Iconic Individual.
A New Video
Wednesday 9th November 2022
Please press the arrows on the video to expand for fullscreen view, and remember to turn the sound up too...
Please press the arrows on the video to expand for fullscreen view, and remember to turn the sound up too...
About Me ~ Robert Goode
"It is important to lovingly acknowledge any latent abilities you may have. Forget about playing everyone else’s game. No matter how remote, your dreams may just contain the germ of a fulfilling, purposeful and exciting journey.
Dare to be different and your life could take off, with great benefits for everyone. Take pride in your individuality. It is your most precious asset..." |
Video - My Big Day Out!
My Permanent RecordI've had a very public life performing as both a soloist and also an ensemble musician. First on the harpsichord, and then the pipe organ.
In 2013 I was awarded the Order of Australia (AM division) for "Significant Service to the Arts and the Community". I am grateful and honoured, and I'm in no way ready to stop yet!
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My Latest Videos
You don't have to be psychic to know that change is the one constant in life, and these last couple of years have brought plenty of change, for all of us. I saw out the peak of Covid stuck inside (like everybody else?) and I dearly missed being able to swim at the pool every day. However - in many ways - it's been life as usual for me, with lots of cooking, music practice, phone calls and internet surfing. I still have a keen interest in current affairs and the world outside my door, and I'm doing ok. My physical health took a knock, with the lack of exercise, and so I've stepped up my care of my mental health, in an attempt to counteract the challenges of living in a battered and beaten nonagenarian-year-old body. And that means... More organ practice!
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Here are some of my latest videos and recordings.
My first heart bypass was more than 30 years ago. There's been several operations and incidents since then, but logic dictates that if I'm not dead yet then I must be alive, so onwards I go. I recorded on harpsichord last year - May 2021 - and I'm lining things up for another go soon in mid 2022, in my 91st year. I've had cancer in the meantime, and that included six weeks of radiation therapy that was almost intolerable, but here I am, so just keep going! I've had my second round of cancer radiation, and - as of today - I am STILL HERE. Life can certainly keep surprising you. I do love it all, and I'm not ready to go to the flipside just yet.
I don't know many other 90 year olds with their own YouTube channel. I've been running it for ten years and I've got more than 300 subscribers, and over a quarter of a million views, so I'm shyly starting to admit that I may have done something right in my life after all... I hope you like the music, and I hope you like my homemade videos too. I taught myself how to skim images from the internet, while waiting the couple of days for the recordings to be rendered and delivered back to me. It gives me great pleasure to express myself more fully through the pictures as well as the sound. There are still unique gifts to experience and share in all of us! Chin up. Smile. Change is constant. Keep going.
My first heart bypass was more than 30 years ago. There's been several operations and incidents since then, but logic dictates that if I'm not dead yet then I must be alive, so onwards I go. I recorded on harpsichord last year - May 2021 - and I'm lining things up for another go soon in mid 2022, in my 91st year. I've had cancer in the meantime, and that included six weeks of radiation therapy that was almost intolerable, but here I am, so just keep going! I've had my second round of cancer radiation, and - as of today - I am STILL HERE. Life can certainly keep surprising you. I do love it all, and I'm not ready to go to the flipside just yet.
I don't know many other 90 year olds with their own YouTube channel. I've been running it for ten years and I've got more than 300 subscribers, and over a quarter of a million views, so I'm shyly starting to admit that I may have done something right in my life after all... I hope you like the music, and I hope you like my homemade videos too. I taught myself how to skim images from the internet, while waiting the couple of days for the recordings to be rendered and delivered back to me. It gives me great pleasure to express myself more fully through the pictures as well as the sound. There are still unique gifts to experience and share in all of us! Chin up. Smile. Change is constant. Keep going.
My Music Life
Fifteen years of teaching French and German languages in schools came to an end as I turned forty and became ready to move full-time into a musical career. I'd been playing the piano since I was a child, but somehow never considered that music could provide me with the steady income I felt was expected of me. The school teaching turned out to be a fabulous apprenticeship though, and as I continued to extend my musical skills, studying with some excellent mentors, I discovered that the audience connection and performance aspects were already well-honed.
I eventually found the courage to make the leap into professional musicianship.
I am eternally grateful to the guidance from the incomparable Dorothy White, my first specialist harpsichord teacher. I was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel internationally and study 18th century French keyboard music.
Needless to say I delighted in immersing myself in this very precious and highly mannered artform, as I've always had a great affinity with all things French, but above all there was one mentor whom I shall always remember with particular affection. The English virtuoso Trevor Pinnock, recognised with a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the level above MBE and OBE, and second only to a knighthood), proved to be a most sympathetic and inspiring teacher.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Europe. While my days in England were often spent practising madly on the Italian harpsichord, the other important Trevor in my life achieved notoriety on the tennis court, winning the Oxfordshire Open Mens Singles, courtesy of his infamously deadly forehand!
Following this wonderfully rich period of both expansion and connection, I was then fortunate to embark upon countless concerts, radio and television performances that took me from Australia’s Red Centre to Moscow’s Red Square. The Consort of Sydney was formed. This versatile ensemble had a necessarily wide repertoire, and a most memorable tour was organised to the Russian Eastern Bloc, to represent Musica Viva and the Australian government in a whirlwind of goodwill in regions we did not have strong connections with at the time. Over many weeks we five kept up a punishing rate of public performances both in concert halls and on radio and television. We went to Tehran, Greece and Crete, then onward to almost all of the Eastern European countries, including Austria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia and the premiere concert hall in Moscow. What an eye-opening, and exhausting, experience! But what a much-treasured privilege, too.
I eventually found the courage to make the leap into professional musicianship.
I am eternally grateful to the guidance from the incomparable Dorothy White, my first specialist harpsichord teacher. I was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel internationally and study 18th century French keyboard music.
Needless to say I delighted in immersing myself in this very precious and highly mannered artform, as I've always had a great affinity with all things French, but above all there was one mentor whom I shall always remember with particular affection. The English virtuoso Trevor Pinnock, recognised with a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the level above MBE and OBE, and second only to a knighthood), proved to be a most sympathetic and inspiring teacher.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Europe. While my days in England were often spent practising madly on the Italian harpsichord, the other important Trevor in my life achieved notoriety on the tennis court, winning the Oxfordshire Open Mens Singles, courtesy of his infamously deadly forehand!
Following this wonderfully rich period of both expansion and connection, I was then fortunate to embark upon countless concerts, radio and television performances that took me from Australia’s Red Centre to Moscow’s Red Square. The Consort of Sydney was formed. This versatile ensemble had a necessarily wide repertoire, and a most memorable tour was organised to the Russian Eastern Bloc, to represent Musica Viva and the Australian government in a whirlwind of goodwill in regions we did not have strong connections with at the time. Over many weeks we five kept up a punishing rate of public performances both in concert halls and on radio and television. We went to Tehran, Greece and Crete, then onward to almost all of the Eastern European countries, including Austria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia and the premiere concert hall in Moscow. What an eye-opening, and exhausting, experience! But what a much-treasured privilege, too.
A definite highlight during one of the European tours was visiting Handel Haus in Halle, Germany, where George Frideric Handel was born in 1685. This landmark is beautifully presented and now open to the public as a museum. It was an unforgettable and very moving privilege to be invited to play on the same harpsichord the great composer had once weaved his magic on.
Here - below - are some of the wonderful instruments I've had the privilege of being a custodian for over the years. A French harpsichord, an Italian harpsichord, the magnificent organ that took up much of my living room for decades, and the English clavichord that formed the backdrop for a photoshoot involving Gerald and Linda.
Can't quite see Gerald and Linda? Look again, they're parading along the clavichord. They're the two Greek tortoises I purchased at Hemel Hempstead market one day, to soothe the homesick feelings of missing my animals back home in Australia. I've always been a devoted animal lover. Dogs, cats, tortoises, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, rabbits, guinea pigs, silk worms... You name it, I will care for it and delight in growing to understand each animal's characteristics and personality. Although Gerald and Linda were well fed with a full diet of lettuce, dandelions and violets, and were given lots of time in the sunshine and grass, I must confess to never really knowing for sure if they returned my affections. C'est la vie when you're a tortoise, I suppose. No fond farewells either, as these two characters were already long-established in hibernation under the stairs on the cold October morning we flew out from Heathrow.
Can't quite see Gerald and Linda? Look again, they're parading along the clavichord. They're the two Greek tortoises I purchased at Hemel Hempstead market one day, to soothe the homesick feelings of missing my animals back home in Australia. I've always been a devoted animal lover. Dogs, cats, tortoises, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, rabbits, guinea pigs, silk worms... You name it, I will care for it and delight in growing to understand each animal's characteristics and personality. Although Gerald and Linda were well fed with a full diet of lettuce, dandelions and violets, and were given lots of time in the sunshine and grass, I must confess to never really knowing for sure if they returned my affections. C'est la vie when you're a tortoise, I suppose. No fond farewells either, as these two characters were already long-established in hibernation under the stairs on the cold October morning we flew out from Heathrow.
And then, after ten years of constant harpsichord work, out of the blue an engagement came to play the Grand Organ at the Sydney Opera House.
I thoroughly enjoyed performing at the newly built icon-down-under, on the world's largest mechanical tracker-action pipe organ, and soon realised I needed a break from the incessant clang, twang and phut (lute stop) of my beloved harpsichords. It turned out there would be two great musical loves in my life...
I thoroughly enjoyed performing at the newly built icon-down-under, on the world's largest mechanical tracker-action pipe organ, and soon realised I needed a break from the incessant clang, twang and phut (lute stop) of my beloved harpsichords. It turned out there would be two great musical loves in my life...
After my debut on the Sydney Opera House pipe organ, I was very excited when Sydney Town Hall management invited me to play. This was the mighty pipe organ I had first observed as a young child, sitting with my father and looking up in awe at the most fascinating piece of machinery this country boy had ever seen. A whole new world of sound.
The Town Hall invite was a community event to honour a bunch of oldies. I knew that the standard organ repertoire would be hopeless in such a situation, so I opened the proceedings with 'When the Red, Red Robin' to an enthusiastic crowd - which proves there is more than a grain of truth in the saying "A tortoise gets nowhere until it sticks its neck out"!
I'm not ashamed to say it worked a treat, and I had a wonderful ride on the magnificent Town Hall organ with more than 700 events over nearly thirty years.
Here are some random transcripts - some "Media Musings" - from my music performing life, all done back in the time when newspapers were actually a thing...
The Town Hall invite was a community event to honour a bunch of oldies. I knew that the standard organ repertoire would be hopeless in such a situation, so I opened the proceedings with 'When the Red, Red Robin' to an enthusiastic crowd - which proves there is more than a grain of truth in the saying "A tortoise gets nowhere until it sticks its neck out"!
I'm not ashamed to say it worked a treat, and I had a wonderful ride on the magnificent Town Hall organ with more than 700 events over nearly thirty years.
Here are some random transcripts - some "Media Musings" - from my music performing life, all done back in the time when newspapers were actually a thing...
Organ playing continues to give me great challenge, and great pleasure.
With the vast array of tonal colours and dynamics at my command, I found it relatively easy to grab (and startle) an audience, which surely is the point of the whole thing anyway!
With the vast array of tonal colours and dynamics at my command, I found it relatively easy to grab (and startle) an audience, which surely is the point of the whole thing anyway!
Perhaps that's where my Town Hall nickname 'Bobby Dazzler' came from? Or perhaps it came courtesy of the exquisite Helen Zerefos OAM, whose stunning taste in stage costume dress eventually extended to providing me with my own sequin-covered shirts which sent audiences diving for their sunnies. In any case, Bobby Dazzler seems to have stuck. Which is fine by me, as I must admit I do rather like it 😊
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Music is for sharing, for inspiring, for communicating, for connecting us together at a fundamentally deep level. It could be laughter, it could be tears, it could be a shocking surprise or it could be the deep comfort of familiarity.
The joy of music is the joy of being alive.
The joy of music is the joy of being alive.
Now in my older years, and not as able to travel or give live concerts, I've discovered the internet and YouTube. Hooray!
Starting on my 80th birthday, I touched a computer for the first time. The year was 2011, so I guess I was late in some ways, but not too late in others, especially for an old person! Anyway, I took to it like a duck to water. I decided to keep active by uploading and sharing some of my recordings, and also by creating new recordings thanks to having a lovely organ at home with electronically sampled, amazingly authentic sounds from some of the great organs around the world. It really is marvellous what technology can do these days. I owe my sound engineer Ross Ahern a huge thank you for his highly professional work in bringing these later recordings (2015 onwards) to life in such a small studio. We've had great fun, and he always seems to produce a worthwhile result out of what sometimes feels like chaos as I play for the recording session.
The dogs here at home appreciate it, and I now have more than 300 subscribers and 200,000 hits and several hundred videos on my YouTube channel so it does appear that others may do too...
After much trial and error, I managed to create simple little videos with images to accompany the music. I've had many technology-fuelled laughs and tears along the way, but wow it all gives me so much enjoyment. My most recent recordings were done in the last week of 2019, and the first week of February 2020, and two I uploaded here - near the top of this website page - were recorded in May 2020. Gotta keep going!
Obviously I'm playing in all of the recordings, mostly as a soloist, but some of them feature a few of the glorious singers and dear friends I've met along the way - Jeannie Kelso, John Garrett, Fiona Maconaghie, Marilyn Richardson, Amanda Thane, Sussane Towers, Helen Zerefos...
We've all had such fun together over the years. While the last thing any of us want to do is become over-rated and dimly-lit, it's important to just keep going as best you can. Adjust your sails to the prevailing wind. Enjoy every part of the journey. We have! Xx
Starting on my 80th birthday, I touched a computer for the first time. The year was 2011, so I guess I was late in some ways, but not too late in others, especially for an old person! Anyway, I took to it like a duck to water. I decided to keep active by uploading and sharing some of my recordings, and also by creating new recordings thanks to having a lovely organ at home with electronically sampled, amazingly authentic sounds from some of the great organs around the world. It really is marvellous what technology can do these days. I owe my sound engineer Ross Ahern a huge thank you for his highly professional work in bringing these later recordings (2015 onwards) to life in such a small studio. We've had great fun, and he always seems to produce a worthwhile result out of what sometimes feels like chaos as I play for the recording session.
The dogs here at home appreciate it, and I now have more than 300 subscribers and 200,000 hits and several hundred videos on my YouTube channel so it does appear that others may do too...
After much trial and error, I managed to create simple little videos with images to accompany the music. I've had many technology-fuelled laughs and tears along the way, but wow it all gives me so much enjoyment. My most recent recordings were done in the last week of 2019, and the first week of February 2020, and two I uploaded here - near the top of this website page - were recorded in May 2020. Gotta keep going!
Obviously I'm playing in all of the recordings, mostly as a soloist, but some of them feature a few of the glorious singers and dear friends I've met along the way - Jeannie Kelso, John Garrett, Fiona Maconaghie, Marilyn Richardson, Amanda Thane, Sussane Towers, Helen Zerefos...
We've all had such fun together over the years. While the last thing any of us want to do is become over-rated and dimly-lit, it's important to just keep going as best you can. Adjust your sails to the prevailing wind. Enjoy every part of the journey. We have! Xx
My Psychic Life
Wow I can't believe I'm finally going public with this. So much of my life has been hidden, through what I perceived as necessity in the face of judgmental public opinion, but writing here at 90 years old, I quite frankly couldn't care less about being who I'm supposed to be...
I'm only interested now in being me! And so often, it's the uniqueness of each of us that provides the spark that blossoms into the wonderful gifts that we all have to share, in some way, with the world around us.
That individuality is where our best contribution almost always comes from, don't you think?
I'm only interested now in being me! And so often, it's the uniqueness of each of us that provides the spark that blossoms into the wonderful gifts that we all have to share, in some way, with the world around us.
That individuality is where our best contribution almost always comes from, don't you think?
I'd grown up as a country New South Wales boy. Most importantly at Inverell, but also Armidale and Murwillumbah, in a loving but conservative family that relocated to support Dad in his career as a highly respected school principal and community leader.
I went to the New England campus (now UNE) of Sydney University, taught languages in high schools, then performed on harpsichords & clavichords, followed by organs, and as I neared fifty years old I knew my life was still continuing to change. I mentioned my strangely expanding levels of sensitivity and awareness to the eminent music critic Roger Covell... My psychic faculty was developing suddenly, and at a rapid rate.
His reaction surprised me. He said “Learn as much as you can, Rob, and go as far as you can with it.”
What a refreshing alternative to the raised eyebrows and disparaging remarks from the bigoted brigade who inhabit so much of society, firmly (grimly?) clinging to the conservative middle-line…
I learned to balance two worlds, both literally and figuratively, and to preserve my own self-esteem as best I could while still bowing to the pressures of “fitting in” and not standing out.
I'm afraid dreary people bring out the very worst in me. I still remember verbatim an overheard remark from a worthy church lady after a Sunday service… “Well that Robert he plays so beautifully, but when he talks he raises my eyebrows”… What a great line!
When I tune in, the psychic flashes arrive immediately. It starts with a lot of random information and I then know I'm ready to read. I always just give off exactly what I see and hear. I never make things up, or embellish them, that would be a very disrespectful thing - not just for the person I'm reading for - but also for the loved one in spirit who is trying so hard to communicate. I'm just a translator from one world to the next.
It's not my information to change, and I never change a thing, despite the information getting a little weird and wonderful at times! Some of the things I pass on make absolutely no sense to me, but they do to the person I'm reading for. The psychic can make a huge difference to someone's life when they've lost a loved one.
It's a privilege to be even just a small part of helping people feel better, don't you think?
I went to the New England campus (now UNE) of Sydney University, taught languages in high schools, then performed on harpsichords & clavichords, followed by organs, and as I neared fifty years old I knew my life was still continuing to change. I mentioned my strangely expanding levels of sensitivity and awareness to the eminent music critic Roger Covell... My psychic faculty was developing suddenly, and at a rapid rate.
His reaction surprised me. He said “Learn as much as you can, Rob, and go as far as you can with it.”
What a refreshing alternative to the raised eyebrows and disparaging remarks from the bigoted brigade who inhabit so much of society, firmly (grimly?) clinging to the conservative middle-line…
I learned to balance two worlds, both literally and figuratively, and to preserve my own self-esteem as best I could while still bowing to the pressures of “fitting in” and not standing out.
I'm afraid dreary people bring out the very worst in me. I still remember verbatim an overheard remark from a worthy church lady after a Sunday service… “Well that Robert he plays so beautifully, but when he talks he raises my eyebrows”… What a great line!
When I tune in, the psychic flashes arrive immediately. It starts with a lot of random information and I then know I'm ready to read. I always just give off exactly what I see and hear. I never make things up, or embellish them, that would be a very disrespectful thing - not just for the person I'm reading for - but also for the loved one in spirit who is trying so hard to communicate. I'm just a translator from one world to the next.
It's not my information to change, and I never change a thing, despite the information getting a little weird and wonderful at times! Some of the things I pass on make absolutely no sense to me, but they do to the person I'm reading for. The psychic can make a huge difference to someone's life when they've lost a loved one.
It's a privilege to be even just a small part of helping people feel better, don't you think?
It's the challenges, as well as the successes, that build us all - year by year - into the people we each become. So many of the wonderful psychics I know have been "cracked open" through trials and tribulations, perhaps totally derailed, in order to fully open and then set off in a new direction or level of awareness.
If we just hang in there, just keep learning and growing as best we can, then we'll all be ok.
One day while doing clairvoyance on commercial radio, I was told off for suggesting on-air that "this stuff should be taught in schools". But I truly believe that psychic ability is in all of us. It's just a matter of using parts of our brain that we unfortunately seem to want to deny, inhibit or crush in our current society.
Psychic readings have such a wonderful potential to deeply calm and reassure people.
The best part of a reading is when I see someone start to accept that perhaps we do live on, beyond the death of our physical bodies. Why would we not want to share this happiness, as far and as wide as we can?
If we just hang in there, just keep learning and growing as best we can, then we'll all be ok.
One day while doing clairvoyance on commercial radio, I was told off for suggesting on-air that "this stuff should be taught in schools". But I truly believe that psychic ability is in all of us. It's just a matter of using parts of our brain that we unfortunately seem to want to deny, inhibit or crush in our current society.
Psychic readings have such a wonderful potential to deeply calm and reassure people.
The best part of a reading is when I see someone start to accept that perhaps we do live on, beyond the death of our physical bodies. Why would we not want to share this happiness, as far and as wide as we can?
" When we open up to the psychic,
ego is left behind and we get carried away
– relaxed yet alert at the same time –
just exactly the same as when playing music... "
ego is left behind and we get carried away
– relaxed yet alert at the same time –
just exactly the same as when playing music... "
With Classical music you have to honour the composer MORE than the performer. With modern pop music, it's the exact opposite, the performer is adored and put front and centre. Classical music, even with the composer long gone, still stands confident in its timeless beauty. The fame of pop music is notoriously transient, fickle and puts one individual above other people. However, I believe that if the aim of music performance is communication with an audience, then both classical and pop music have their place in society.
We are all energy, vibrating on a certain frequency. When I achieve the same frequency as the person I am reading for, or the audience I am playing for - that's when the magic happens. The psychic is a very subtle thing, like gently turning the knob and tuning in on an old dial-up radio. A delicate mix of pin-point concentration, and gently floating non-focus. With practice, facility is achieved and attunement becomes instantaneous.
For me, doing a reading for someone
is very similar to doing a music performance.
Over the years I have practised how to tune in to the other dimension. When the time comes to read, I focus and concentrate, then I just sort of 'get out of the way' and allow it all to flow - in through me, then continually outwards again, straight on towards to the person I'm reading for. It's like a deliberate switch on, or switch off, when I activate my attunement skills and psychic abilities. Quite frankly, I'd go crazy if I were receiving messages all the time, wouldn't you?!
To access the psychic, I sort of go beyond myself, and this can happen in music performance too, when you allow yourself to receive the flow of energy.
It's like the notes aren't notes, or the words aren't words, they're nothing that I personally have created, they just flow through me and onwards out to the audience or the person I'm reading for. It's really not about me.
I'm just the conduit in the middle. You can’t say with psychic work “I’m going to be marvelous”, or know with certainty when you're going to receive. It really is a very precious thing. Something delicate that must be shown respect.
I've heard it said many times that the psychic is "a gift" but it sure doesn't suddenly arrive fully formed! Nurturing the psychic senses takes a great deal of practice and hard work, no matter what your initial talent may be. It's no different from music. Practice, practice, practice, and always be prepared to fail at the final hurdle. If you do, just pick yourself up, and practise some more.
And once you've done your best, once you're sure you've prepared as much as your can, then at the end of the day it's still out of your hands. It's a very frustrating, humbling and beautiful thing. I just love it. There's so much more to this world that what we can see and touch in front of us. So much that we can't control. Having done all the hard work, you then have to move beyond ego, and just open up and wait to see what might come through.
We are all energy, vibrating on a certain frequency. When I achieve the same frequency as the person I am reading for, or the audience I am playing for - that's when the magic happens. The psychic is a very subtle thing, like gently turning the knob and tuning in on an old dial-up radio. A delicate mix of pin-point concentration, and gently floating non-focus. With practice, facility is achieved and attunement becomes instantaneous.
For me, doing a reading for someone
is very similar to doing a music performance.
Over the years I have practised how to tune in to the other dimension. When the time comes to read, I focus and concentrate, then I just sort of 'get out of the way' and allow it all to flow - in through me, then continually outwards again, straight on towards to the person I'm reading for. It's like a deliberate switch on, or switch off, when I activate my attunement skills and psychic abilities. Quite frankly, I'd go crazy if I were receiving messages all the time, wouldn't you?!
To access the psychic, I sort of go beyond myself, and this can happen in music performance too, when you allow yourself to receive the flow of energy.
It's like the notes aren't notes, or the words aren't words, they're nothing that I personally have created, they just flow through me and onwards out to the audience or the person I'm reading for. It's really not about me.
I'm just the conduit in the middle. You can’t say with psychic work “I’m going to be marvelous”, or know with certainty when you're going to receive. It really is a very precious thing. Something delicate that must be shown respect.
I've heard it said many times that the psychic is "a gift" but it sure doesn't suddenly arrive fully formed! Nurturing the psychic senses takes a great deal of practice and hard work, no matter what your initial talent may be. It's no different from music. Practice, practice, practice, and always be prepared to fail at the final hurdle. If you do, just pick yourself up, and practise some more.
And once you've done your best, once you're sure you've prepared as much as your can, then at the end of the day it's still out of your hands. It's a very frustrating, humbling and beautiful thing. I just love it. There's so much more to this world that what we can see and touch in front of us. So much that we can't control. Having done all the hard work, you then have to move beyond ego, and just open up and wait to see what might come through.
My Personal Life
I came from a very loving family. I must have been a huge puzzle to them. Like my parents and my sister, I don’t know how I ended up in my family. But I do know I miss them.
I’ve had the good fortune of an extraordinary life partner since 1974. Trevor Hodges has supplied me with a vast array of harpsichords and clavichords, all so tonally and visually magnificent, including the splendiferous organ in my home studio that is now constantly in use for my YouTube videos. It's been quite a frustrating yet marvelous joy for me at this age, but hey... Where there's a will, there's a way!
Trevor is an ex-restaurateur and Qantas flight steward, then for twenty-five years he was a theatre manager at the Sydney Opera House. Although Trevor doesn't play an instrument himself, he was already a devoted music enthusiast when we first met. This has given him the good-natured stamina to stand by while I rehearsed, practised and performed day after week after month after year.
I’ve had the good fortune of an extraordinary life partner since 1974. Trevor Hodges has supplied me with a vast array of harpsichords and clavichords, all so tonally and visually magnificent, including the splendiferous organ in my home studio that is now constantly in use for my YouTube videos. It's been quite a frustrating yet marvelous joy for me at this age, but hey... Where there's a will, there's a way!
Trevor is an ex-restaurateur and Qantas flight steward, then for twenty-five years he was a theatre manager at the Sydney Opera House. Although Trevor doesn't play an instrument himself, he was already a devoted music enthusiast when we first met. This has given him the good-natured stamina to stand by while I rehearsed, practised and performed day after week after month after year.
Another wonderful aspect of our pairing is that Trevor's professional experience has naturally and generously lent itself to being the most marvelous MC for many of my concerts and performances. At times, the introductions and observations he shared with the audience appeared to bring as much delight as my playing did!
I’m deeply indebted in many ways to him for his incredible support. Trevor possesses two wonderful qualities...
He is never boring, and he can spell the word 'loyal'. Trevor’s idea of love is to put someone else’s needs before your own. This has suited me, as I care about myself, and so does Trevor, so for forty-seven years our relationship has continued to hum along beautifully. |
It's not been easy being me. As an adult, I was very fortunate to meet and work with many people who immediately accepted me exactly as I am, and encouraged me along the way. Specifically, I was lucky to spend so much of my life with musicians. They're generally such a creative and tolerant lot. Complex, unique, yet still able to connect.
I'm very grateful to have had their support. Thank you.
At this late stage of my life, I've finally realised that the way to heal is to be your authentic self.
In fact, it's the only way.
So be yourself. And remember to be kind to everyone you meet.
All of us just want to fit in as best we can.
I'm very grateful to have had their support. Thank you.
At this late stage of my life, I've finally realised that the way to heal is to be your authentic self.
In fact, it's the only way.
So be yourself. And remember to be kind to everyone you meet.
All of us just want to fit in as best we can.
Ode to Joy
I've become best mates with the birds on my daily walks with Trevor at Manly beach. Somehow I've been adopted by Scragg, the most misshapen and quirky little fella. He just flew up one day and landed on my shoulder. Now he waits for me and joyfully sits in my hand, refusing to budge, happily reminding me to live every moment. Isn't this life a wonderful journey? We can all find joy in the most unexpected places!
There once was an old man called Goode
Who had more affairs than he should
It sounds quite absurd
But after the third
He ended his life with a bird!
"There's more concern than there is cause for concern"
JB ~ My mate xXx
I've become best mates with the birds on my daily walks with Trevor at Manly beach. Somehow I've been adopted by Scragg, the most misshapen and quirky little fella. He just flew up one day and landed on my shoulder. Now he waits for me and joyfully sits in my hand, refusing to budge, happily reminding me to live every moment. Isn't this life a wonderful journey? We can all find joy in the most unexpected places!
There once was an old man called Goode
Who had more affairs than he should
It sounds quite absurd
But after the third
He ended his life with a bird!
"There's more concern than there is cause for concern"
JB ~ My mate xXx
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