I read Robert's latest post.

 

He's still using the old long style of post writing. It was all about his morning coffee drinking.

My elderly neighbour's delivered newspaper blew away in the wind.

 

I drove to our local petrol station, filled up with gas, and bought her a replacement paper.

I did some practice yesterday.

 

I played through 12 of my tunes by memory.

A very cold start.

 It certainly was.

I'm writing McDonald Trump style posts today.

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.