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© 2004 by Ned Snead
All rights reserved. No part or portion of this book may be reproduced without the express, written permission of the author. This book is fiction, intended for entertainment purposes only. No character depicted herein is representative of any real person, living or dead.
Preface Willie and Joe are two of the most common names in the USA, but I would not be completely fair if I did not mention a cartoon by Bill Mauldin I saw during the Great War of 1939-1945. Two GI’s with beards were trying to sleep under one blanket amid the rubble of war. A big rat was standing on his hind legs on top of the blanket and one man’s toe. One of the GI’s was pointing a .45 pistol at the rat, and the other was saying, “Aim between the eyes. Sometimes they charge when they’re wounded.” It would also be fair to ask, “How come you know so much about the spirit world?” That’s a fair question. I have read a good bit on the subject, and I have had some ‘experiences’ that have left me certain about some things without being able to explain why I am so sure. What I ‘know’ seems to make more sense than all the stuff I have read and heard on the subject in 65 years of going to half a dozen different kinds of churches and listening to thousands of sermons. I have gotten tired of people trying to explain things to me that they don’t understand themselves. Religion has done a lot of good in the world, especially when they talk about treating other people the way you would like to be treated yourself. But religious people have caused a lot of trouble when they insist that everybody believe, talk, eat, drink, smoke, sleep, dress, make love and act just like they do. If it turns out that I’m badly wrong about some of this, you are welcome to look me up and try to help me after we are sure. But please wait until we are both dead.
Background ‘Information’ About Spirits Somewhere, perhaps within the Milky Way Galaxy, and perhaps very far beyond, two spirits met. These encounters don’t happen frequently because of the vast size of the universe. As you know, spirits, not being confined by any bodily limitations, are able to travel anywhere they wish at the speed of thought. There are lots of spirits, many, many billions at least, but they are always busy, doing the things that spirits do, finding planets and other sites suitable for various forms of life, experimenting with farming, breeding, evolution and organizations. Because spirits without bodies have no need for air, water, food, shelter, etc., they are not dependent on each other like we are, but they do like to get together once in a while to shoot the bull and take advantage of the experience gained by other spirits, just like we do. They do it faster, because they don’t suffer from our language problems, and they don’t get upset when they learn something new. Time doesn’t mean much to them personally, of course, but the experimental plots they are watching are very much time dependent. Particularly when new mutations of genes and new social experiments are first introduced, the plots need just the right amount of energy, fluids, nutrients and cultivation at just the right time, or they are likely to fizzle without ever being tried. So a spirit needs to watch his experimental plots pretty closely, and just take “time” for a bull session when he has something to report or needs to ask a question. They don’t use names, because there are so many of them. They recognize each other instantly by their genetic data strings, which they can read at a glance. Since I can’t read the data, I’ll call them Willie and Joe.
The Good War Some time in the late 21st century, way out beyond the Milky Way, Joe meets Willie for the first time in 50 years or more and says, “Hey, the last time I saw you was when you were beheaded on TV. Where have you been since?” Willie answers, “I got fed up with the whole situation. My only reason for being there was to help those folks, and they just used me to make some silly public statement. I’ve been working over in Andromeda where I get a little more respect.” But Joe wants to know more. “When they held up your head for the camera, I said, ‘Hey, I know that guy.’ What was it like?” Willie shrugs. “No big deal. It only hurt for a few seconds. Nothing like the time I was burned at the stake by the Grand Inquisition. Other times I’ve been in bed for months, begging for morphine. But I’ve been out of touch. What happened after that?” Joe smiles. “Well, it led to a pretty good war.” Willie objects. “I’ve never heard of a good war. What do you mean?” Joe had lived through it. “Well, the USA got steamed up like they were in 1942. They put a big tax on imported oil and used the money to build a fast interstate railway system. The high school and college kids all got bicycles, and the old cars were melted down to make war material. After a few years they got tired of killing and brought all the GI’s home. The War Department turned into a real Department of DE-fense devoted to the defense of all North and South America.” Willie is not convinced. “Did the war settle any of the old feuds?” “Of course not. The killing just led to more killing like it always has. It was like another plague in Europe. After a third of the people were dead, those that were left became more valuable. They re-arranged the maps some and rebuilt the cities a little better just like they have for the last 10,000 years.”
The Human Spirit
It is difficult for spirits like Willie and Joe to be heard and taken seriously by “real, live people”, so sometimes, for their own special reasons they decide to live again. For instance, Joe had once been a glider pilot and developed affection for buzzards. He decided to live among them for a while to enjoy soaring every day and eating meat without having to kill anything. He also wanted to teach the buzzards to drag the carcass off the highway where they could eat it without having to dodge the automobiles. He helped thousands of birds get to be old buzzards, but eventually a fast-moving sports car bumped him off while he was demonstrating the technique. The idea is still getting around slowly, but Joe is satisfied and has moved on to other projects. He knows what many of us on earth are still learning, “There are no tragic endings for those who are doing the Lord’s work.” And furthermore, the Lord is not on any timetable. If something takes 600 years, that’s OK with Him. We have just run across Willie talking to Mike, who has never lived before. Mike is full of big ideas about making a difference in the world, but thinks it would be good to get some practical advice from Willie, who is a veteran of many campaigns. Willie is saying, “I like your ideas and your enthusiasm, but the odds are long. You have to pick one baby at the moment of conception, and then you’re locked in through that kid’s whole career. You can study the DNA of both parents to improve your odds, but only one kid in fifty million gets to be a king or president who can make the kind of difference you have in mind.” Mike is not discouraged. “I know the odds are long, but you can’t win the lottery without buying a ticket. I’ve got to start somewhere.” Willie takes a deep breath and settles in for the long haul. “Mike, most of the time you’ll be like the crew down below the water line, keeping the engine running, patching leaks, and pumping out the bilge water. The skipper can make heroic or stupid decisions, without ever asking you if they are right or ethical. He could operate for years, maybe for life, without ever knowing who you are and why you are there. Most of your time will be spent supervising a million chemical reactions every second, tracking down hostile life forms and chemicals, and repairing the damage they do before you find them. Once a month, if you’re lucky, the skipper will call you up on the bridge to advise him on a decision he is about to make. The rest of the time he will be thinking about food, comfort, sex and entertainment. If you have been able to turn him into a political creature, he’ll be thinking about re-election.” Mike understands. “Yeah, but as you say, there’s lots of time.” Willie responds, “There’s lots of time only if you can keep him alive. I had just barely got started one time when my mother learned that the guy who promised to love her forever and never let anything bad happen to her did not have the guts to finish the job. She decided the two of us could make better use of the next 50 years with a husband and father. I agreed with her, and we both had better luck the next time.” Mike is a little taken aback. “Well, at least you have had other chances, and your mother’s spirit was allowed to finish the job.” Willie grins. “What you call finishing the job is no piece of cake. Life is a little bit like driving an old car across the desert. Old age, rust, wear and tear accumulates until you are stopping every few miles to repair something with chewing gum and bailing wire. The process is painful for your host, and you are torn between wanting to keep moving toward your goal and sympathy for the suffering it entails. It reaches a point where you run out of tools and materials anyway, and there is no choice but get out and walk. The old car turns back to dust or gets picked up by a scrap dealer and is turned into something new. For the spirits involved it’s all just a memory. Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.
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About the Author
Born in Texarkana 75 years ago, but raised in Austin where he specialized in Boy Scout canoe and bicycle camping trips, Ned played first trombone in the Austin High School Band and later in the Texas Aggie Band and Aggieland Orchestra. (“Not good, but loud.”) An avid flyer, he learned to pilot Piper Cubs in 1944 and Schweizer gliders in 1955. He was an Air Force Communications Officer in Taegu, Korea in 1952 and ’53. Following, Ned worked at keeping his father’s Texas Crushed Stone Company out of bankruptcy until he learned about management at the Harvard Business School in 1960. He then learned about selling computers from IBM in 1965, and started his own software company in 1968. “It’s still in business, but not doing as well as Ross Perot’s,” he comments. Ned has received more than a dozen patents on heavy equipment transport and weighing equipment. Cash flow from inventions paid for a wide variety of interests, including politics, barbershop singing, travel and writing. He raised three daughters, all outstanding mothers and part-time missionaries. Sherron, who Ned says likes to be introduced as “my last wife,” has made “the last 22 years a lot of fun.” Ned recently organized the Snead Institute to teach “The Arts of Innovation” to young engineers and managers. “Can’t wait to see what happens next.”
For more about Ned Snead, see www.sneadresearch.com |
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INTRODUCTION
I have disregarded entirely the conventional music staffs and notes. A guitar player can read chords from the little grids with black spots to show where to put his fingers. You will be reading letters, words, and simple diagrams. Although a guitar player might be able to tune his instrument from a pitch pipe without knowing the names of the notes, he will probably learn to find E, A, D, G and B on the piano eventually. Knowing that, it doesn’t take much imagination to find C and F, which takes care of all the white keys. I’ll use the letters, A through G to suggest the melody of familiar songs. If the songs are really familiar, it should not be necessary to print anything to suggest the rhythm. I’ll show you how to play simple ‘block’ chords like you would produce by strumming the strings on a guitar, starting with MAJOR chords. Inside the back cover is a KEY Finder and a CHORD FINDER printed on stiff paper that can be placed behind the black keys and used as a training tool and memory aid. I’ll show you how to build up SEVENTH, DIMINISHED, AND MINOR chords by the same methods. I’ll suggest several ways to choose WHAT CHORD COMES NEXT when all you know is the melody. After each lesson there will be several traditional songs with suggested melody and chords that can be played using only the techniques introduced to that point. |
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How To Play the Piano By Ear by Ned Snead Includes Key & Chord Finder 8.5x11 format, comb binding , 54-pages $12.95 |
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Instead of taking this page out of the book, use the KEY FINDER printed on heavier paper inside the back cover. It can be used with many different lessons.
If the owner of the piano doesn't object, you can use a pencil to write the letter names of the notes on some of the white keys. The friction of your fingertips on the keys will rub out the letters about the time you have them memorized.
Now we are ready to play the simplest song I know, TAPS. The note G will be needed in both a high and a low version. Let’s use a lower case ‘g’ to indicate a low G, and a capital ‘G’ for high G.
Select notes in a range you can sing without straining.
g = low G = high
g g C g C E Day is done Gone the Sun
g C E g C E g C E From the lake From the hills From the sky
C E G E C g g g C All is well Safe - ly rest God is nigh
TAPS was written for a bugle, which has no valves. It can also be played (in the key of B-flat) on a trumpet without using any valves or on a trombone without moving the slide. You can play it on a cheap harmonica, blowing all the notes without having to draw (or inhale). |
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How To Play the Piano By Ear by Ned Snead Includes Key & Chord Finder 8.5x11 format, comb binding , 54-pages $12.95 |