Today is day number 198 of 2026 and...

I have just completed 200 hours of music practice!

148 1/2 hours of violin.

29 1/2 hours of double bass.

22 hours of guitar. 

These are concentrated hours of serious practice. They don't include gigs, band rehearsals or jams.

200 hours.

You'll notice that the violin gets priority.

I keep the double bass going for old time's sake and the guitar is a bit of a hobby.

The violin gets priority treatment.

I had my first violin lesson in 1961 when I was eight years old. My mother bought two violins at a local school fair. She brought them home and asked her three sons (the younger two were still a way off being born) who would like to learn to play them. My younger brother and I were quick to put our hands up. We attended lessons with a Catholic nun named Sister Joachim. I think she was a good teacher. I stayed with her until I attended Victoria University and studied with a guy named Gavin Saunders. I didn't do much practice because I spent more time trying to get a girlfriend. I did scrape through level one but then turned to musical composition as my major. I did gain a B.Mus(hons) degree. I failed at getting girlfriends.

I got into playing the bass guitar and, a short time after, started studying the double bass. A bit earlier, around when I was fourteen, I had started fooling around on the guitar. 

The bass guitar and double bass became my main instruments for most of my life. 

In 2012 I started practising the violin again.

At present I teach violin (and a bit of double bass and viola) at two secondary schools, but my main efforts go into picking up my elder grandson, feeding my younger grandson and music practice. In the practice department the violin comes first. In the greater scheme of things my grandsons (and my wife and children) come first. 

Well, there you have it.

At some point I hope to get out and play my 30 tune solo violin repertoire. 

I guess we'll have to see how that unfolds.

Ah well, chi va piano va sano e va lontano, e arriva in ritardo.

Ciao.

When's Wednesday?

 It's today!

AKA Badgrammarday.
Actually, the opening of the speech marks
just got cut off at the top of the picture.

Peter will be busy trying to get rid of his plates and stuff.

Robert offered to take them. Robert who said, in his latest post, "I wonder if blogging has run its course." Well, not if you're trying to scrounge cups and plates, Rob.

Today, Wednesday, the day when my younger grandson has been around for 15 months, is day number 196 of 2026. 

At present my practice stands as:

Double Bass 29 hours.

Guitar 20 1/2 hours.

Violin 146 1/2 hours.

Total = 196 hours.

Not a bad effort.

Better than trying to sell old crockery. 

I'll get into some violin practice soon. I might take the time to play through my entire repertoire from memory, That should take about 2 1/2 hours. I'll have to get onto it soon. The double bass comes next, but maybe tomorrow. 

I'll see Henry this afternoon, after picking up his elder brother from childcare. For those who don't know, Henry is the guy who is 15 months old today. 

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

Ciao tutti.

Sabato.

Oggi, poco dopo le cinque, guarderò la partita della nazionale italiana di rugby contro gli All Blacks.

In the style of 'third person' Rob I got rid of my four very short blog posts. I'll leave that style of blog writing to Peter. Talking of Rob, his blog posts have disappeared again. No big surprise there.

Peter's latest blogging attempts seem to be all about his bloody computer. Boring. Though The Whine Guy did go on about how wine is packaged. I had to speed read that one!

Shelley and I have had a long period of not feeling very well. Fortunately, though, our computer seems to be working okay. I have kept my practice up through this time, doing an hour of violin practice every day. Unfortunately the guitar and double bass have been missing out. I'll get them back up to speed when my energy levels rise. 

I've been working on memorisation. I've also been working on the four dominant 7th scale fingerings. For those who haven't been paying enough attention to what I've written in previous posts, let me regurgitate. There are four possible ways to finger a major scale on the violin. Each major scale (there are 12 different keys) contains seven modes. These are called Ionian (another name for the major scale), Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian. These modes all contain the notes in the major scale but starting on a different note. For example, the Dorian mode in C major is D E F G A B C D. All these modes are very useful in Jazz, but the 'main' three are the Ionian (major), Dorian (minor with a #6) and the Mixolydian (also known as the dominant 7th). 

Because these modes are all derived from the major scale, they will derive four fingerings from the major scale. They just start in different places. These 'main' three scales form a progression known as the II - V - I (or II - V7 - I). There is also a minor version of this progression but we won't go into that today. 

Anyway, I'm working through the four Mixolydian forms and the four Dorian forms. 

There you go.

That's all I have to tell you for today. 

Stay warm and enjoy the rugby. 

Go the All Blacks!

I forget. I remember. Final.

 Wednesday 8th of July.

Feast of Saint Duncan of Taihape. "Every good boy deserves fruit? Most would probably prefer an ice cream or even a glass of wine."

I see that Robert is now into Acrostic Mnemonics. I blame Sister Joachim for that.

"Chris Can't Eat Eggs
Alan Ate Dead Dogs
Everyone Eats Ants Already
Dead Dogs Dread God"

Wouldn't he be better off just learning the chords to All Of Me?

Cmaj7    E7    A7    Dm7    || E7    Am7    D7    Dm7 G7    || etc.

Notice how these chords are either major 7, dominant 7 or minor 7. To know this is very important when improvising over the chords. I don't see how Chris not being able to eat eggs is really going to help here. No, better just to memorise the chords. It probably wouldn't take much longer than learning those silly words.

Anyway, moving on.

Still no new post from Peter. That's nothing this week. What is he doing on these incredibly wet days that takes up all of his time?

I know he's not practising the violin NOR the bagpipes. He certainly won't be worrying about Acrostic Mnemonics. Okay, I know, I know, he did have to drive Lynn to work but that would only take about half an hour, at most. Come on Peter! Get your A into G!

I might as well leave it there for today. I've started making preparations for going to Hell. I won't be packing warm clothes. A pair of togs might be handy. I'll take my water bottle too.

Ciao tutti.

I forget. I remember. PART 2.

 

Unfortunately, I can never forget this picture! 

Or this one!

But I'm here today to talk about memorising music.

Thanks go to Rob for introducing the word 'mnemonic'. Memorising music is all about getting it into long term memory and being able to retrieve it. I have been successful and unsuccessful with this process. In my latest attempt (yesterday) I even tried using the mnemonic process. It did help with memorising chord progressions. For example, for A7 Dm7 G7 C, I thought of the strings on a viola. I also had three dominant 7th chords that led into key changes after sections of the piece - D7, A7 and G7. I thought of the word 'dag'. That did help. Then I thought of how I never forget names of family and old friends and how I never forget the times tables I learnt in primary school, yes, that same time when I looked up a girl's skirt. 

I spent half an hour working on an easy piece that just contained a tune, in three different keys, and chords that are not complicated. Obviously repetition plays an important role. I didn't put much effort into learning my brothers' names. I guess that a lot of repetition was involved but not noticed. When memorising 'Peter' maybe, without much thought, I used a mnemonic for the male organ? 

Okay, this music memorisation thing is still a work in progress. I'll push on with it today.

Maybe there will be a PART 3 to this project?

Maybe Peter will write another post before Christmas?

Time will tell.

Ciao tutti.

Make sure you get your music practice done.

I forget. I remember.

I've been sick for the last couple of weeks and it has been rather unpleasant. Among other things, I have been low on energy.

?

Before you start panicking, I have kept my instrument practice up and, at the time of writing, I am sitting on 186 1/2 hours for the year so far.

However, the 'low on energy' thing does mean that I have spent quite a bit of time laying on the couch and looking at my phone.* I always seem to finish up scrolling through Facebook. Facebook is full of SO MUCH SHIT! I have only got myself to blame, I know. However, one thing that caught my attention was people writing about how to memorise music for performance. There have been quite a lot of people who have written on this topic. They go on for quite a while and, when it's time for some helpful answers, they tell you that they want money before they will tell you anything more. This pisses me off. If I had the answers to this 'problem', I'd just tell everyone. Why do so many things always have to be about making money?

I have been thinking about memorisation quite a bit lately. Evidently there are three steps involved in the memory process: Encoding (short term memory), Consolidation (long term memory) and Retrieval (recalling).

As you know, I have 30 pieces in my solo violin repertoire and they are all memorised to a degree. I can play all the pieces in this repertoire by memory, but some could use a bit more work to really lock them into my memory. Hence I think quite a bit about memorisation. I also continue to work on these particular pieces.

I had a thought the other day. Don't get me wrong, I'm not as old as Peter, but I have noticed that I have a tendency to forget names of people who I haven't seen for a while or I don't know well. I have little tricks that I use to recall these names or to not forget them. One thing I do is make up an association. I know a guy called Cory, so when I think of him I think of an apple core.

I needed to remember the name of a lady named Denise at work. I think of Dennis the Menace.

Now, don't get me wrong, this lady is nothing like the comic character. It's just that a bit of humour seems to help the connection and is easier to remember. In these situations I never tell people how I remember their names.

When my first grandson was born I found his name hard to remember. The name Harrison was not a name that I had much experience with. Then I put his father's name in front of it. George Harrison. We all know who George Harrison was!

There are some names I just never forget and they don't need prompting - parents, brothers, children, very old friends, the list goes on. I mean, I don't have to say, "Peter McDonald Trump." to remember Peter's name. I just use that one because it is fun!

I'm going to leave you there for today, but this topic is not finished.

To be continued.

* That thing that Peter keeps dropping into his bath.

Here we go again...

 Happy as can be,

All good friends and

Jolly good company.

Another cold morning. Our heat pump has decided to stop working. Peter has already left a comment on Rob's latest post. He thinks that Rob has got his facts wrong. 

"Quintilis. In 44 BC the Romans change it to July in honour of Julius Caesar; though I doubt TC would accept that as he thinks everything back then was myth. Around that time Luke had written the first account of the life of Jesus or was it Mark?"

No doubt the boys will fight over this for a while. Ah well, it keeps them busy on a very cold morning. It's evidently 2 degrees in the Nui. It'll be warmer in Thorndon because it is considered a posh suburb. I think they have heat pumps on the side of Peter's street. 

I don't think that is the case in Moera. Evidently the temperature here is 4 degrees now. Both our car windows are covered in ice. At least it's not raining. That means that Peter won't have to drive Lynn to work. Though I suppose he still could. He could wear his new pants.

It'll make it look like Lynn is being driven to 
work by a tradesman. Cool!

I'm off work today, which is good because it takes the rush out of my morning when one is not feeling 100%. I was offered a break today because I am going in to assess performances tomorrow. 

I have a new routine in my practice. Every week day (Monday to Friday) I play 6 of my 30 repertoire tunes so that, over five days I've played every tune. I still practise on the weekend and it doesn't mean that I won't do extra practice on tunes that need it. It's just a way to make sure that no tunes are neglected. Peter will be pleased to hear that. I also MUST get some double bass practice done.

Well, that should do for today. 

Oggi la mia pratica inizia con la melodia numero tredici e arriva alla numero diciotto.

Ciao tutti.