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I was a pianist, a fairly competent accompanist and piano teacher. I also studied singing and had perfect pitich. At about age 23, I started developing what I can best describe as 'holes' in my voice - in the midst of singing a scale or a passage,, my voice would disappear for a few notes and then reapppear. In retrospect, guess this must have been one of my earliest symptoms as the throat musclees refused to do what they were supposed to. About a year later I displayed the first signs of tremor in my right hand.That is also when I gave my last decent public solo performance on the piano. Llike most of the children of the sixties and seventies, I strummed a guitar and sang some folk songs - my voice was still good enuff for that(!) As the years passed, my accompanying skills deteriorated - I found it difficult to follow the soloist whilst reading my part of the score ---- ie I couldn't do two things at once - and I found myself choosing ever slower and simpler music to play. Till fiinally, in 2002 (nearly thirty years after my first symptoms,, I played in public for the last time - accompanying an elementary school christmas concert. And now I have a new problem : when that blessed moment arrives that I am neither too off or too on, and I can actually sit down to play the piano, the movement of my fingers on the keys or the rhythm or something sets off an attack of dyskinesia! And what's more - I can't hold a tune any more! But still, thirty plus years is a pretty good run. I have seen my children grow up, have fouond the perfect soul mate, and I'm still walking on my own two feet (with occasional help from a walker) And I'm going tonight to the Kennedy Center to hear Cecilia Bartholi! hilary blue 56/32/23 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn