Meet Me In St. Louis

Go West, Back In Time
Venture on the Shores of Mississippi

Intrinsically woven through time, the old and the new, St. Louis abounds with rich color, flavor and taste. Whether you are passing through on historical Highway 66, or visiting on business, St. Louis will whet your appetite for more. More rich, mouth-watering entrees. From southern to soulful. Satiate your appetite with historical finds like Lewis & Clark. Top it off with dozens of cultural and sporting events.

Grab your walking shoes, sunscreen, bottled water and camera. You can walk through the botanical gardens, ride on a horse drawn carriage or fly in a vintage aircraft.

The Gateway Arch is an inverted, three-sided catenary curve, gleaming, historical monument which commemorates Lewis & Clarks expeditions. A quick four minute tram ride to the top gives a spectacular view of the city and the mighty Mississippi River. Americas freedom and explorations into Western Territory are methodically illustrated here. Underneath the Arch is the Museum of Westward Expansion featuring 100 years of human history with murals depicting scenes along Lewis & Clarks journey of discovery. Dozens of national treasures including handwritten journals, maps, equipment and other artifacts are displayed here.

After the advent of the steamboat, St. Louis grew into a thriving river city. Then came the railroad and in the 1930s an ambitious local movement led to the purchase by the Federal Government of a large riverfront area and plans were begun for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Due to its industrial and engineering capacity, St, Louis emerged as a leader in aviation and automotive production after World War II and the Korean War.
St. Louis began as a fur-trading outpost on the site of what is now called Lacledes Landing. Named after the French fur trapper Pierre Laclede who began the first settlement, The Landing, is an interesting assortment of shops, galleries, offices and restaurants. At night it comes alive with music and entertainment; Blues, Jazz, Opera, Cabaret, Symphony and Rock n Roll can be heard on the streets.

Music, dance and theatre are plentiful in and around the city. St. Louis launched many talented actors, musicians and writers. Playwright Tennessee Williams lived in St. Lois, as did poets T.S. Eliot and Maya Angelou. Actors; Betty Grable, Vincent Price and Buddy Ebson from the Golden Age, to current favorites, John Goodman and Kevin Kline have all called St. Louis home. From comedy and drama, to Shakespeare, a cultural experience is offered for any age. (www.explorestlouis.com) (One Lewis & Clark Trail
Hartford, IL 62048, Phone: (618) 251-5811, URL: www.campriverdubois.com) Museum of Westward Expansion, Under the Gateway Arch, St. Louis, MO 63102, Phone: (314) 655-1700, URL: www.nps.gov/jeff/index.htm)

Sports & Recreation

The International Bowling Museum stands proudly adjacent to Busch Stadium endowing the public with a century of history and colorful memorabilia. This is the only bowling museum in the world and offers more than 5,000 years of bowling history.

A team of archeologists from the University of Pisa, Italy, found the oldest bowling alley in a city called Medinet Madi. The Italian team has unearthed an open structure dating back to the Ptolemaic age. The floor is composed of a single large block of limestone with a groove 10 cm deep and 20 cm wide. In the middle there is a 12 cm-square hole. They also found two balls of polished limestone, one of which fits the groove and the other the square hole. The structure is like no other found in the ancient world.
Earlier versions of pins are on display at the museum.

Until medieval period, sports were steeped in pagan rituals. Denounced by priests, a ban was placed on bowling in 1443 and 1447, and was permitted again in 1468. Bowling was popular at festivals, dances, and baptisms with variations. One variation of bowling is Quilles De Neuf (ninepins).
Bowling was first mentioned in Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving.
Pinsetters in the 19th century earned .03 to .05 cents per line. The sport prospered in the 1930s and 40s. The poor image was upgraded by the 3 As; automation, architecture and air conditioning. In the 1950s, television turned regular people into heroes. The Womens Professional Hall of Fame is on the third level. And on the lower level, a bowling lane is set up for visitors and enthusiasts to enjoy a few frames with their admission. (Across from Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO 63102, Phone: (314) 231-6340)

Shared Heritage

A candy apple red convertible given to Mark McGwire, has been donated to the city and is on the display in the St. Lois Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum. A plethora of leather worn gloves, home-run tattered bats and printed tickets adorn the glass cases. Young and mature athletes started their careers in St. Louis and leave behind a legacy. Heroes were made from honest, hardworking down-home lads who have a passion for baseball.

Sports are an obsession in St. Louis with active sports centers, loyal fans and professional athletes. St. Louis is home to: Cardinals (baseball), the hockey Blues, and the NFL Rams. St. Louis is one of the few cities to host the summer Olympics, 1906, in conjunction with the Worlds Fair. The U.S. Senior Open draws crowds from every state in the union. A single admission price of $6.00 for adults and $4.00 for children ages 5 to 12 covers the entry fee for both the baseball and bowling museums. A joint museum/stadium tour ticket costs only $9.50 for adults and $7.50 for kids. The museum is open daily from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday and noon until 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. Hours are extended to 6:30 p.m. before Cardinal home night games.

Plenty for Kids

Forest Park offers a Zoo, (www.grantsfarm.com), (www.purinafarms.com), Art Museum, Science Center, History Center, skating and more, at little or no cost for the little ones. Petting farms, botanical gardens and butterfly gardens (www.butterflyhouse.org) also bring young ones up close, presenting educational opportunities as much as fun! Wild rides, cool waves and family fun at Six Flags St. Louis. The Spirit of Thrills! (www.sixflags.com) Explore rivers, caves (caves will be in another article) and wine, Mount Pleasant Winery , 5634 High St. , Augusta, MO 63332, Phone: (636) 482-WINE
Toll-Free: (800) 467-WINE, URL: www.mountpleasant.com as you tour charming villages from Louisiana Purchase territory, vintage Cathedrals and unique historic towns. Visit Mark Twains historic boyhood home, museum and a live imitation, in Hannibal. Cruise on nostalgic riverboats.
Picturesque, sun-drenched rolling hills can be toured by bike, skates, car or canoe, Trailnet - Hiking and Biking Trails, Various Trail Locations, St. Louis, MO 63125, Phone: (314) 416-9930, URL: www.trailnet.org

Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, on of the worlds longest pedestrian and biking bridges and a Route 66 landmark, offers breathtaking view, with occasional spottings of bald eagles.

Another roadside attraction is the Wax Museum, in LaCledes Landing. More than 150 life-size wax mannequins dressed in period costumes, depict their culture, our history. Beware of the shop of horrors in the basement.
The noble Budweiser Clydesdales are the most recognizable symbols of Anheuser-Busch. Known for their size, strength and beauty, they can be seen at the flagship brewery of Anheuser-Busch. Witness state of the art technology and historic architecture at the corporate office and brewery; open for tours daily, year round. Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tours and Gifts, I-55 & Arsenal St., St. Louis, MO 63118, Phone: (314) 577-2626, URL: www.budweisertours.com

Shopping, golf, theatre, dance, music, museums, sports, day trips, fine dining and recreation are abundant and worthy for the whole family in St. Louis, Missouri.

Loretta Lynn is a freelance writer, editor and publisher residing in central Florida, yet keeps her sanity with frequent excursions.

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Effective Instrumental Practice

Each instrument has its own voice, and just like the human voice, it can express a wide range of sounds. The acoustic guitar produces everything from lush chords to delicate bell-like tones. And just compare a Cajun fiddle to a classical violin to hear the variety of timbres that instrument can produce. Effective practice is essential to coax that voice from your instrument. This article will help you get the most from your practice sessions.

Of course, the instruments themselves don’t make any sounds at all. They all require one thing -- the human touch. A person must take up the instrument and coax the voice from within it. And just as a new-born baby can’t recite poetry, a novice musician can’t evoke the instrument’s full natural voice. Through practice, he or she develops a level of skill with that instrument.

Don’t confuse skill with talent. Skill is acquired through hard work and a desire to excel. Talent is an innate ability; a gift that is bestowed on us at birth. Everyone has talent, but some people seem to have only to glance at an instrument and have it emit the most beautiful sounds. These musicians are blessed with a wealth of natural talent. The rest of us must spend countless hours ‘wood shedding’ in order to make our improvements. We depend more on our skill, which we hone and build upon with practice, to make us good players. Using that practice time effectively may be the most important thing a player can do to improve his or her musical skill level.

The goal in practicing is to improve our ability to coax the natural voice from our instrument. We want to be as expressive and nimble with it as we are with our own voice. Without thinking, we all use inflections, whispers, shouts and myriad other devices to express ourselves vocally. Ideally, we should be equally adept at manipulating the instrument’s voice to express musical ideas. Most of us can’t spend as much time playing and practicing as we do speaking, so we must make the most of the time we do have with the instrument.

Daily practice is necessary to sustain progress. When you skip days or weeks, the improvements you might have made fade quickly away. Establish a daily practice regimen that you can stick to. If you work a ‘normal’ job every day, it’s a good idea to practice before you start working. You’ll feel good knowing that you’ve been musically productive before you even begin the work day. Also, take one day of the week off. The rest will help you maintain a fresh approach to your music.

And don’t over-do it. If you intend to practice for more than an hour-a-day, work up to it slowly. Don’t jump right in with two hours in the morning and two at night. You can easily cause permanent damage in the form of tendonitis, carpal tunnel, or other repetitive stress injuries. These are debilitating and may never heal. If you do feel discomfort while you’re practicing, stop immediately. Do not keep going and think the pain will go away. If you feel pain every time you play, see a doctor.

You should also strive for privacy when you practice. If your environment is quieter at night than it is in the morning, set aside time in the evening. Let those around you know that this is your own time and that you are not to be disturbed. Turn off your beeper, don’t answer the phone, and stay out of earshot of the television or stereo. The further you are from the mainstream of household activity, the less likely you are to get distracted. Practicing in private also helps you feel less self-conscious about making mistakes.

And if you don’t make mistakes when you practice, you aren’t working on the right material. You should be concentrating almost solely on the passages that give you trouble. Instead of playing a song through from start to finish over and over, you should play it through only once to warm up and then work on the difficult measures. During the warm-up, make note (no pun intended) of any bars where you miss notes or beats. Then go back and practice each of these trouble-spots slowly enough so you can play every note clearly. Repeat the offending section until you can play it twice without errors. Then increase the speed a little and repeat the section some more until you can play it twice without errors. Continue this way until you can play the part up to speed. If after you increase the speed you find that you can’t play it without making a mistake, slow it down again and repeat the section until you can play it cleanly.

Practice sometimes seems like drudgery. The repetition gets boring and it’s easy for your mind to wander while you’re playing a passage over and over. You go into a sort of ‘auto-pilot’ mode and your fingers move without your brain being engaged. While this is sometimes desirable when you’re performing, it can be counter-productive during practice. Stay aware of what your hands are doing to make sure you’re playing a passage correctly. If you are playing it wrong over and over, you wind up reinforcing mistakes rather than correcting them. And if, while you practice, your wondering about what to have for dinner, you are not fully present for the activity at hand. Keep focused on the instrument and making it sound as musical as you can. Even if you’re practicing “Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star”, you should be fully aware of the sound (or the voice) that you are forming.

Varying your practice material is a good way to minimize the monotony of repetition. If you work on songs A, B, and C on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and songs D, E, and F on Tuesdays, Thursday, and Saturdays, you won’t become bored with your daily practice. And be sure to do warm-ups every time you pick up your instrument.

Developing a good sense of timing is as important in music as playing the correct notes. Just as with spoken language, your playing must maintain a natural, rhythmic flow. If your speech is fractured and difficult to follow, no matter how profound your words are, people will have a hard time listening to you. In music, if you hit every note but your rhythm is off, the musical message will be lost. A metronome is the best practice aid available to this end. It serves a couple of different purposes. First and foremost, it keeps you playing in time. It taps out an indisputable beat, and as long as you listen to it, you’ll be right on the money. Secondly, a metronome helps mark your progress on a given piece or passage. When you slow a difficult part down, make note of the metronome setting at which you can play it without making any mistakes. As you master the piece, set the speed higher and higher as described earlier. Keep track of your progress by marking down the songs and metronome settings that you’re working on in a practice journal. This makes it possible for you to know exactly how fast you played it yesterday, the day before, last week, etc.

Good technique is the cornerstone of good musicianship. If you form proper habits when you start playing an instrument, you’ll set a strong foundation upon which you can build. If you form bad habits, you may find at some point that your technique actually hinders your playing ability. Breaking old habits is extremely difficult, especially if you’ve been repeating them for years. Do everything you can up front, including taking lessons from a reputable teacher, to develop the proper technique for your instrument. While you practice, pay close attention to maintaining that technique. Eventually, it will become second nature and you won’t have to think about it.

Remember, when you practice, you are improving your ability to express yourself musically. Strive to find your instrument’s natural voice and listen for that voice in every scale, arpeggio, or paradiddle that you play. Follow these rules for effective practice and you will be rewarded with a lifetime of music.

Practice daily, but don’t over-do it

Don’t practice mindlessly.

Focus on the musicality of what you’re working on, even if it’s only a C major scale.

Work on material that you find difficult

Use a metronome

Keep a practice journal

Develop good technique.

Joe Pescatello is an author, a guitar player and commercialsoftware developer. Visit http://FourthFret.com for a sample of his work.You can reach him at joe-p@unclebobsattic.com.

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