hannah

Music Cartoon: Musical Compliments

Musical Compliments: A music cartoon by Hannah Sterry of Sterry Cartoons.
| Hannah Sterry

I got a tablet yesterday, so I’ve been trying to re-draw my old cartoons and had a few new ideas along the way. Anyway… here’s the new digital version of the Musical Compliments cartoon. Hope it makes a few of you music teachers and students chuckle! 😀

Musical Compliments - Music Cartoon by Hannah Sterry. Comic shows some music notes complimenting each other. Text reads: "Liking the natural look!" "Thanks! You're looking pretty sharp yourself!" Great joke for music teachers and students.
Musical Compliments
“Liking the natural look!”
“Thanks! You’re looking pretty sharp yourself!”
Image © Hannah Sterry 2012. All rights reserved.

 

The cartoons reads:

“Liking the natural look!”

“Thanks! You’re looking pretty sharp yourself!”

Gift Ideas for Musicians:

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Live Music at The Cottage Hotel

| Hannah Sterry

On the 1st January I’ll be in Hope Cove at The Cottage Hotel playing jazz flute with John (keyboard) and Joe (sax) as part of “The Sterry Family”.

If you’ve not been to The Cottage before, it’s a hotel with a stunning sea view, really good food and the people running it are lovely (they’re even nice to musicians!!!). I chose to go there for my birthday meal because the atmosphere and food is so good (the puddings are delicious too).

Picture from http://www.hopecove.com

Another day, another instrument…

Yesterday I played harp at The Cottage and it went down really well! I got to speak to some wonderful people afterwards about  and brought my dad and sister along to listen.

People tend to ask quite a few questions about the harp, because it’s a fairly modern design. This particular model is a Smartwood Harp and is much lighter than some of the more traditional designs, which makes it much more convenient for travelling with. Most importantly, I enjoy playing it and it sounds good (the low notes in particular have a wonderful warm rich sound). I’m tempted to add levers soon, as I am finding the standard modes a bit restrictive, but overall I’m very happy with it.

Dusk: New tune uploaded on bandcamp!

| Hannah Sterry

I’ve had this tune sitting on my hard drive for a while now, but haven’t known what to do with it, so I thought I might as well post it and then anyone can have a listen if they feel like it.

I’m a bit of a cynical flautist, so I really really enjoyed improvising on this big dark tune. All of it is my work, it’s just that the flute part was the most fun to play. The photo above is mine too and is called “Hope at Sunset”.

Ollie – New Kitten

| Hannah Sterry

Here’s Ollie – the newest member of the Sterry household!

A few funny things have happened since he came to live with us and he’s shown himself to have quite a bit of character!

5 Things he really seems to like:

  • Rubbing his face on everything and purring madly. Sometimes he does this to wake me up.
  • Hiding in the bath. He loves trying to attack water, but seemed a bit shocked once when he jumped in the bath, only to find that it was full of water. Here he is hiding in the sink:

    Ollie hiding in the sink.
    Sink Cat
  • Playfully biting toes. He’s fairly gentle and doesn’t use claws, but it tickles!
  • Annoying the other cats until they get mad and hiss and growl at him or take a swipe. He nibbles their tails if he’s in a really irritating mood.
  • Weird Sleeping Positions…
Ollie's Crazy Sleeping Pose

He’s a bit mad, but I love him to pieces.

Malborough Cycle Path

A morning view of the cycle track between Malborough and Salcombe in Devon.
| Hannah Sterry

Another of my photos has been published in the Kingsbridge and Salcombe Gazette. This week it was my shot of Malborough Cycle Path.

A morning view of the cycle track between Malborough and Salcombe in Devon.
The path provides a great car-free way to travel between Salcombe and Malborough and apparently there are plans for it to eventually reach Plymouth too [source], although I’m not convinced that’ll be happening for quite a while.

Morning Walks in November

| Hannah Sterry

Last Friday one of my photographs (Start Point Lighthouse) was published in the Kingsbridge, Salcombe and South Hams Gazette (link). I was happily surprised to see it there and hope that someone out there likes it.

This week I’ve been practicing a set for my harp gig at The Cottage Hotel on 27th December. There’ll be mulled wine and a chance to chat over a selection of carols and well known tunes.

To end, here’s a picture from my morning walk the other day. I’m struggling to believe how warm and sunny it is, when this time last year everything was covered in a thick layer of ice. Hope the weather stays this way!

Malborough-Salcombe Cycle Path

Jazz Sketch

| Hannah Sterry

This is just a little idea for a jazz tune. I’ll embed a better video once I’ve recorded it properly, but for now, here’s some real, rough-around-the-edges music:

Let me know if you like the sketch. I still don’t know whether uploading at this stage is a good idea. Most music isn’t seen at this sketchy, made-up-on-the-spot stage.

On another note, does anyone else look like a crazy fool when they’re playing piano? I seem to rock, grin madly and occasionally headbang (all unintentionally).

Ada Lovelace and the School Syllabus

| Hannah Sterry

Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace

Why is Ada Lovelace not on the school syllabus? Learning about interesting scientists and inventors in history lessons would be much more fun than killing the enthusiasm of students by studying the same two wars for years and years.

Other things that should be on the school syllabus:

  • Cooking realistic meals for one.
  • Managing tax, bills and finances.
  • General DIY
  • Basic Car/Bike Repair

These subjects shouldn’t be graded in the normal way, because the focus should be on encouragement of hard work, and not on a pointless letter on a piece of paper.

I’ll probably edit this and add some more in the future.

The Non-Phonetic Alphabet

| Hannah Sterry

I was wondering if I could create a useless alternative to the Nato Phonetic Alphabet, so I decided to give it a go (with a little help from the internet, friends and a pencil that claims to be 100% wool and has the instructions “DRY CLEAN ONLY” printed on it).

Anyway, here is the Non-Phonetic Alphabet:

A – Aether, Aisle, Auxiliary
B – Bdellium
C – Czar, Ctenophore
D – Djembe
E – Euro, Eye, Eight, Eiderdown, Euthanasia
F – ???
G – Gnat
H – Honour
I –   ???
J –  Jalapeño
K –  Knee, Knight
L –  Llanelli
M – Mnemonic
N – Nguyen
O – Oestrogen, One, Oujia
P – Pneumatic, Pterodactly, Phlegm, Phonetic
Q – Quiche
R – Rzeznik
S – Sgraffitto
T – Tsunami
U – Uighur, urushiol
V – ???
W – Write, Wrap, Wrestle
X – Xylophone
Y – Yvonne, Yreka, Yttrium
Z – Zaragoza

Use it to annoy people in call centres at your own risk.

My name is Hannah, spelt H for honour, A for aisle, N for Nguyen…
The name is also a palindrome so you should be able to spell the rest by yourself.

If you’ve got better ones, just comment and I’ll add them to the list.

I’ll be really impressed if you find any good ones for F, I, L, N, R, S, U, V, Y and Z!