Tomingas on ICE

It's been cold for a week or two but no snow as yet, so I made the short mile and half hike up the base of the Tetons and Tagert Lake to do a little skating. It was a gorgeous day, a very warm, sunny 45 degrees which in this dry air feels wonderful, no coat required. While the day was perfect, the ice was not, it had two inches of snow on it (the mountains make their own weather including exclusive mini snow storms) plus the ice had snow on it when it froze the last little bit which made for a lot of "corn ice", air bubbles that crushed as you skated across them. All this made for tough skating but it was also hilarious. For me, it was like being in a time machine, growing up in Jackson, the roads would be hard packed with snow and ice, I used to skate down the road at night to the outdoor Ice Rink which was often covered in snow and rough, the road surface was better than the lake today but fun is still fun. I always have an instrument with me, even when I used to study computer programming, I had an instrument in my hand, many times people came in and thought I was sight reading music and were appalled that it was some technical monstrosity instead. The Ukulele has worked out particularly well for me, I tuned it like a Viola and have a heavy bass string instead of the thin traditional Uke thing. The instrument has been a fountain of inspiration and I can put it in a back pack. The tuning makes it weird for a guitar player like me, as everything seems upside down but it's a far more logical tuning than a guitars weirdness. You can usually see me when I'm driving with my knee playing the Uke or Soprano Guitar as I call it, my vehicle is usually doing a Tango down the road. However, the music I'm playing here is on my Oribe guitar, I've put up one of my Ukulele transcriptions (see Rodrigo's Aranjuez on a Ukulele video, I'll put more later). The songs are: "Ring Bells", "Sleigh Ride" and "Ave Maria". In truth, Ave was sort of a challenge made to me by a pal that is a fellow guitarist, Marco Soliz, songs with long linear phrasing should not be done on percussive instruments like the guitar or piano, they need more breathing sounds, notes that swell up in volume, it is a tribute to the quality of Schubert that it translates so beautifully. So, here I am under the stunningly magnificent Teton peaks on a perfect day with my Ukulele and corn-ice to skate on, I laughed and laughed, what glorious fun. This event combined 3 of my 4 great lifetime passions, being up in the mountains, playing music and figure skating. Remember, they who have the most experiences WINS!
Cheers, Byron

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Ice
• Figure Skating
• Ukulele
• Guitar
• Ave Maria
• Sleigh Ride
• Ring Bells
• Jackson Hole
• Jackson
• Tetons
• Byron Tomingas
• Virtuoso
• Classical
• Solo
• perfection
• experience of a lifetime

[Suzbekistan]

Awesome! Love it!  Suzy

[MusicbyTomingas]

Thanks Suzy, Unfortunately the audio is getting messed up near the end so I've uploaded several times and rebuilt the file several times but something about the YouTube conversion is going wrong, it plays fine on my end, just the conversion that goes bad. I hope to get it fixed soon so I'll be uploading new versions. It was sure fun skating but really difficult ice. Byron

[MERRITTKEARNY]

Hey, Watch my video called "Jackson Lake Hockey"

[Suzbekistan]

I just love your laughing!