Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!

 

"Robert uses two mics on his cello,
and cellotape to hold them in place."

Recording is a very good thing to do to help with your practice. Over the last few days I've managed to do an hour (each day) on my 10 unaccompanied violin pieces. I'm trying to really get inside each piece.

A front door is something that lets you get inside.

This means being very comfortable with the chord progression so that I can play it in various ways (chords, arpeggios, etc.), getting a nice big sound on the tune and making the piece sound complete. Yes, doing some recordings would be a good idea. I'm also hoping to get out and play these pieces at some point, though I don't know where. Anyway, I do open our front sliding door and play them to the neighbours. My neighbour Jim, who wants me to practise in my shed, will be enjoying that!

I had a very bad night's sleep last night, which is caused by a couple of side effects to my condition. So, as a pick me up, I'm having a coffee. This will no doubt bring it's own 'reward', but it's worth it.

Back to school next week. I wonder how much practice my students have done over the holidays? I bet that, even with my sick days, I've done more than them. Ah well, I've got some interesting technical things to go over with them. It'll be nice to see them all.

Have you ever thought about how scales are laid out on the violin? In what we call Western Music it's not too hard to list all the main scales. Most fit under five headings - major, minor, dominant 7th., augmented and diminished. There is also a scale that contains the 12 notes of Western Music. This is called the chromatic scale. Remember that there are only 12 different notes in Western Music. A major scale, for example, can start on any one of these notes. This gives us 12 different keys. There are 7 notes in a major scale and, if you start this scale on each note, you get 7 modes. Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian.

Each of these modes fits somewhere into our major, minor, dominant 7th., augmented and diminished scales. Though there is also a diminished and an augmented scale.

On the violin there are only four fingerings for playing a major scale, or any of the other six modes. 

Knowing these scale fingerings really helps you to get around the violin.

I'm not using any mics or
violintape here. Hey, I haven't
even tucked my shirt in!

One question I often get asked is, "When will The Curmudgeon update his blog?"

This is like asking, "Why does God let innocent people and children die horrific deaths?"

There is no sure answer to either question.

You have to understand that TC has a computer room, in his house, with two computers in it. However, there are only certain times that he is allowed to go in there. Yes, yes, with a name like The Curmudgeon, people assume that TC is the boss, but he isn't.

[Oops, coffee release time!]

[Done.]

Well, that's it from me for this morning.

Timetodosomedamnpractice!

I'll make some recordings. Not for show, but just so that I can hear the reality.

Buonafortuna. (yes, Italians like long words too!)