The I Scream Robert.

 Rob has created a new character, on his blog, whose name is not stolen from another blogger.

Good on him. The character is called 'The Ice Cream Robert' (TICR for short).

It seems he is also called The Ice Cream Rob.

At first I thought that this comment on my blog was written by The Curmudgeon, that blogger who goes on and on about his bloody windows but, look at the time - 4.13am. No way!

Old TC would still be busy in his fart sack.

* * *

So, it's Monday. I return to work tomorrow. For anyone who is new around here, that's teaching violin, viola and double bass. 

So, what gigs have you got coming up Richard (of RBB)? 

Well, I'm probably playing at a funeral on Saturday. I'll play a solo version of Autumn Leaves. Then I intend to play some solo violin Bluegrass at an open mic night on the last Sunday of this month. Last up, I'll be probably playing a violin duo gig and possibly a double bass duo gig, with my youngest sibling, at a couple of libraries. The duo is called Sii Gentile. The name is a translation of Jacinda Ardern's famous words, "Be kind."

The Bluegrass tunes are quite different to playing Jazz. The chord progressions are simple but you have to play a lot of double stops. Most of the required double stops are from major chords and might be thirds (with a fourth) or sixths (with a fifth). There are some tricky bowing things that come up and the tunes tend to be pretty fast. I'm working pretty hard on them.

I also need to increase my double bass practice hours. Hey, I know that, when The Curmudgeon is not thinking about his windows, he loves to read about my practice.

"I wonder what the young fella
is practising today?"

So, what am I practising on the bass? Warm ups are important - for both pizzicato and arco. It pays to do some intonation practice too. Then one moves onto repertoire. If the double bass duo gig comes off, I'll be playing original pieces that I wrote, over many years, for the double bass.

Well, that'll do for this morning. I have a busy day coming up, what with a section to tidy up. I won't be taking lots of photos of my windows though, so relax.

Ciao tutti.