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Music
I've had a pretty complex relationship with music over the years... ought to write about that sometime. Anyways: I listen to a lot of it, in genres like "rock" and "pop" and "folk", and play some of it, primarily in the genres "old-time" and "classical".
I worked out a little melody on my viola this evening, and wrote it down! Thanks to the magic of ABC Notation, I can make it available here, in ABC format or PDF. I used ABCEdit to enter it, and boy is that useful -- I had thought the 3-note runs were triplets but ABCEdit's playback feature showed me that was wrong, and that I wanted two short notes and a longer one.
You can repeat the verse many times, there are a lot of rhythmic variations and note-order variations that are pretty easy to find. Also I think there was a bridge when I was playing but I could not find it when I was writing the tune down.
Update: Ok, I expanded it a little, found a part that sounds kind of like a bridge. Again, to make this sound at all interesting when you're playing it you will need to add in a lot of variations on your own.
Another fun thing about ABCEdit is it makes it pretty easy to play around with the time signature and stuff. I tried this out in 12/8, with a sort of swingy feel -- it sounds really corny that way.
posted evening of December 20th, 2007: Respond ➳ More posts about Fiddling
Further to yesterday's post: I think I've found the best of all configurations, which is to have the shoulder rest on the violin and no chin rest. The sound is lovely and it feels completely natural to hold it this way -- easier to hold than it ever was with the chin rest on, shoulder rest or no. My head leans down so that my jaw is holding the violin completely steady, and my ear is right next to the sound box.
Still not totally sure what to do about the pickup. I might mount it again, but on the right side of the instrument. Might seek out a new, lighter weight pickup. Might just learn how to play with a microphone.
Lately I have been experimenting with taking stuff off my violin. Like for the past couple of months I have been playing without a shoulder rest. I kind of like the feel of the violin that way; and when I tried to figure out what it is I like about it, I came up with that my ear is in closer to the sound box -- that is, the natural position of my head when I don't have the shoulder rest is leaned in next to the fiddle, so my cheek is against the chin rest instead of my chin, and it feels like I'm closer to the sound. Well with that going on, I've been thinking the next logical step is to remove the chin rest, so my cheek and jaw will be against the actual sound box. I tried that tonight and I'm not sure yet -- it does sound really nice*, but it's a lot of work to keep the violin in the correct position. I will try it out for a while though and see how it goes, if I can adjust to this position it would be nice. The adjustment to no shoulder rest didn't take very long.
Also, I took the pickup off -- time to learn how to play into a microphone. The pickup was throwing off the instrument's balance.
*Also I think I am getting a better sense of how well I am making contact with my bow -- the distinction in sound between full contact and partial contact is really sharp, I think moreso than it was with the chin rest on. Although another possible explanation is that when I was playing with the chin rest on, my bow hold was much more consistent.
Sylvia's semester is wrapping up; and yesterday and today she played at the winter concerts of the Youth Orchestras of Essex County, her first performances since she joined the Overture Strings (the youngest group in YOEC) in the fall. The shows were great. Overture Strings performed "The Blue Danube Waltz", "The Great Gate of Kiev" from "Pictures at an Exhibition", and "The Nutcracker March". Lots of fun, although Sylvia found the second violin part for "Blue Danube" quite frustrating -- it is mostly disjointed quarter notes with rests in between and it's hard to get a sense of the melody when you are practicing by yourself. Her favorite piece was "Pictures at an Exhibition".
Excellent news: Allan Evans of Arbiter Records has just released a new disc of old blues: Lifting the Veil: the First Bluesmen (1926 - 1956). It features newly remastered tracks from Davis, Leadbelly, Broonzy and more; and in the liner notes is a previously unpublished 1951 interview of Davis by Alan Lomax's wife, Elizabeth Lyttleton Harold.
posted evening of December 15th, 2007: Respond ➳ More posts about The Blues
I am a better violinist than I am a guitarist -- not really surprising considering I have been playing violin much more than guitar over the past few years. At the show tonight, I felt like I played a really respectable fiddle on "Smile to Pretend" -- like the performance was pleasurable in the same way that listening to really good music is, like I was tight and in the groove. My guitar parts felt more like flailing and nerve-wracking. So I think I am going to work on my violin and let my guitar serve as an aid to writing chord charts for songs, more than a performance instrument. (It can be hard to figure out what the chords are, to tell to other musicians, when you're only playing a melody.)
Something I really appreciate about the work I did with Hannah for this gig, is her helping me to work out a violin part to "Smile to Pretend" -- the chart she wrote for me helped me to listen to her CD in a way of actually hearing what the violinist was playing and how I could adapt that to my own voice. I'm not used to listening to music this way but it is something I ought to do more of. A feature of this fiddle part was long baritone notes during the lyric, moving into fills between the lines -- this sounds really good.
After the show, the second act was Felt, whom I haven't seen in a year or so. They asked me to sit in on "Angel from Montgomery" -- I was really happy to have the evening end up with more fiddling and not have to think as much about the flaily guitar playing.
posted morning of December 15th, 2007: Respond ➳ More posts about Guitar
The gig is tonight! I'm pretty excited and nervous. Hannah has been wonderful and encouraging throughout our brief acquaintance -- I hope I don't let her down! This will be the first time I have played in a bar other than at an open mic or jam. Looks like I'll be playing guitar on "Misguided Angel" (Cowboy Junkies), "River" (Mitchell, seasonally appropriate), "Can't Tear Myself Away" (Reimann, featuring horribly unfamiliar chord shapes, and that change throughout the song), and possibly one other song; and fiddle on "Smile to Pretend" (Reimann).
Monk's Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in the Making, by Dr. Gabriel Solis -- ordered back in June -- has been printed and just now arrived on my doorstep!
posted evening of December 8th, 2007: Respond ➳ More posts about Readings
So I've decided to post working versions of songs I am learning and/or writing here. It will give me a point of reference, which is a handy thing to have. So far I have been recording with Windows Sound Recorder and my laptop's microphone. Ideally I would have a good microphone and a more usable piece of software -- I don't really know what software there is, but will look into it. Short of buying a microphone, Mike suggested that I could plug in my violin's pick-up into the computer -- all I need for this is a ¼"-to-⅛" jack converter.
posted morning of December 8th, 2007: Respond ➳ More posts about Songs
This was fun. As always I find myself in need of a rhythm instrument behind me. If I were playing with a pianist and a singer or something, that could be a moderately long song with lots of verses and choruses. (And with fewer missed notes and beats.)
Update ...and in this tune, I go on without benefit of rhythm for a number of verses:
