A cold Thursday morning.

 Well, we are into winter.

Okay, a question.

What is the link between this ocean and Peter's bath?

It was somewhere around where this picture was taken that Rob entered the water with his phone in his pocket. Now we don't have much (if any) contact with him. We only know that he is in a place full of Catholics and very short on toilet paper. I'm supposed to pick him up from Wellington airport on Sunday. I do know the approximate time of his arrival. I will have some toilet paper in my car.

Yesterday was day number 154 of this year and my practice reached 152 hours. In a year I normally aim to reach at least 365 hours of practice. Obviously this means one hour of practice for every single day. I need to do an extra hour in a Leap Year. I don't always achieve 365 hours, but I'm on target so far this year. A good amount of practice today would help.

I'll concentrate on violin today. I did an hour of guitar practice and an hour on the violin yesterday. I'll do some more double bass practice in the near future. I need to check out some of my 12 violin unaccompanied pieces today. Well, I don't have any gigs or chances to play on the horizon. Maybe I should make some videos? Yes, that's always an option. 

I don't have any plans for today, except for picking up my little friend around 4pm, but it would be nice to go out and do something interesting. Time will tell. Anyway, it's nice not to be working today. Also, on the bright side, I have a dry phone. Peter will be envious of that. Maybe that's a good topic for his next post, instead of what he is putting in his garage cupboards?

"It's looking a bit wet for a round of golf today. Maybe I'll write a post. Well, here I go. In the P class days we didn't have mobile phones. You had to ring your mates on a landline. These days I take my phone everywhere, even into the bath. I see that Rob is following my example, except that he's looking for places with even more water. I see that Richard prefers a dry phone. Maybe that's why his posts are so boring. All we seem to hear about is how cold he is and how much practice he has done. I don't tell you about my golf practice. Hey, this is turning into a long post for me! I went to tennis last weekend, after putting some of our fancy cups in the cupboards in the garage.  Mihi placet dare omnia in armariis. Yes, we learnt Latin in the P classes. The dumber guys were made to learn French. Sheesh! I had a disagreement with a guy at tennis and it felt like old times! Well, that's it for today."

Thanks Peter. I'm feeling warmer now so I think I'll go and get organised.

Remember that avoiding sin is not as important as finding toilet paper.

Ciao tutti e non preoccuparti per il latino.

Believe me, you wouldn't want this jam on your toast!

 

That's me at yesterday's jam. I'm the guy you can see from back view standing on the left. 

I only stayed for about 40 minutes, maybe a bit less.

The jam was controlled by one guy who set out the rules and also sang most of the tunes. The jam was set to run for two hours. Notice how everyone is reading music from stands. I've got to be mean and say that the standard of playing was not very high, so I suppose it's my own fault for having different expectations. 

My expectation of a jazz jam is:

1) You don't have a music stand in front of you with all the music on it. Okay, sometimes the rhythm section might need to see the chord changes, but melody instruments don't really need to see that. Use your ears!

2) A tune is decided on by the majority, one that enough people know. If you don't know the tune, you should still be able to knock out a solo and maybe play some backing things.

Okay, maybe this jam was designed to cater for people with less experience. I should have stayed home and had some peanut butter on toast.

* * *

We (Shelley and I) are heading up to Greytown soon to see some old friends who have just become grandparents for the second time. We'll have a lot to talk about and grandparent notes to share with each other. 

Sorry to hear that Rob is a bit unwell in the Philippines and his phone is wet - he should have learnt from Peter's clumsiness. I hope he's feeling better soon.

Okay, I'll leave it there.

Worry about how your music practice is going, not sin.

Ciao.

Heathim on.

Sorry, I should explain, a heathim is a male heater.

It's cold and dark in the Nui. 

I did half an hour on each of my instruments yesterday. That gets all their practice up to date (sort of). I'll concentrate on violin today because my plan is to take it to a jazz jam tomorrow. Yesterday I sorted out five tunes (all my originals) for the guitar. I was thinking that, maybe in the future, I'll record some trio stuff with me playing my three instruments. Obviously I'll call such a session 'Playing with Myself'.

I really have nothing else to tell you today. 

Here are some random pictures...

The sun is starting to rise. 

I guess I'll leave you there for today.

I might do a little bit of guitar while the sun is still coming up.

Ciao.

The heater is on.

 Good morning.

Absolutely no practice yesterday. Not a single note on any of my instruments. I got a ring from daddy early yesterday who told me that the electricity was out at childcare and that both he and mummy needed to go into Wellington* for work. Their younger son was okay in his childcare but there was nowhere for the elder boy to go. That's where grandparents come in. H, as he is often called when his name is written, is three. Three year olds are very busy people and grandma and I were both exhausted by the end of the day. There was definitely no time for music practice. I'll try to make up some of that time today. The poor old double bass feels forgotten. The other day I showed H my violin to show him the similarity and main difference (size) between a double bass and a violin. He told me that the violin would make a good double bass for Henry, his 13 month old little brother. He often seems to outsmart me!

Today Shelley has 'balance', which I will drive her to, and I need to pop into Wellington to pick up a school violin that needed some work on it. Then it'll be H later in the day. So, it'll be another busy day.

Rob has been writing posts from the Philippines. Interesting stuff. It seems that it can be very difficult to get toilet paper over there. Obviously not a good place for me to visit. Hey, it's also full of Catholics. 

Peter actually wrote a post. I left some comments to cheer him up. To save you having to go over and read it, here is the most informative part of it.

"I've been busy today having done a major and breathtakingly expensive supermarket shop (it'll be cat food and cleanskin wine for us soon) after taking cardboard cartons to the recycling centre and then going to play golf. I played 6 holes only but played them very well so I'm reconsidering my opinion of Berhampore golf course."

You probably understand now why I had to help out with the comments. His post will not turn out to be a comments magnet, I can promise you that!

Maybe his post will attract nails?

Well, that's it from me. Let's all be thankful for toilet paper.

Ciao.

* Wellington includes the suburb of Thorndon, where some people might be drinking Cleanskins soon, so I've been told.

Off to work.

 Another cold morning. *

Video HERE.

* Peter style post.

Up, heater on.

 Another cold morning.

I practised my three instruments yesterday. 2 1/2 hours in total. I won't be expecting me to do every instrument every day, but I will be giving preference to the violin. 

Today's plan: 

- Take Shelley to 'balance'.

- Haircut.

- Go for a walk.

- Practice.

- Go to the supermarket.

- Pick up the boy from childcare.

C E G Eb - Eb G Bb F# - F# A# C# A - A C# E C 

This is a John Coltrane lick. It works over C7 or C7b9. It's made up of notes from the diminished scale starting on a semitone - C Db D# E F# G A Bb C. Bear in mind that I'm using some enharmonic notes there.

Enharmonic?

A# = Bb, Db = C#, etc.

I mention that for anyone who is not schooled up on music theory.

Peter's last post was hardly a post.

In a time when Rob has buggered off overseas you'd think that this is a good time for Peter to help out by writing some posts. He did sort of try with a post named *** POST CANCELLED ***. He starts off by mentioning some guy called Martin Heidegger, then he writes, "But, blow me down, today has sprung (well, Autumn really) a surprise in the form of blue sky and sunshine so no Heideggerian posers for you readers today I'm sorry. I'm off for a nice walk and hopefully some tennis in the afternoon.
Auf Wiedersehen." And, along with a silly picture, that's it!

There was a silly comment under the picture
but we won't bother with that.

This is why you're better off coming to Richard's Bass Bag.*

Okay, I think I'll start the day with some guitar practice, followed by a short walk.

Ciao tutti.

* the original bass bagging site

Welcome back, old friend.

 I have decided to start practising my guitar again.

Yes, I know, that's three instruments I have to practise now. I have two guitars, but the one shown here is my favourite. It makes such a great sound. It's a small instrument, I think it's called a box guitar. There is nothing small about its sound. When I bought it, quite a few years ago, I had a pickup installed. My plan is to do most of my guitar practice in the evening, though time will tell. Why the evening? Well, hopefully it will take over the time I waste sitting on the couch and looking at Facebook. Don't worry, my violin will still occupy first position.

Obviously, I'll still be working on my double bass pieces too.

Here's an old video of my Gretsch in action.

Hey, that was quite a few years ago!

What's happening around the blogs.

Nothing really. Rob has buggered off overseas and, as you know, we only get the occasional post from Peter - normally about something in his house, like fixed windows, or a video of a song he likes. Don't worry though, Richard's Bass Bag* will be here for your reading enjoyment!

Well, that's about it from me this morning. I think I might put in a bit of time on my guitar.

Enjoy your Sunday and stay away from Catholic churches. Hey, it's only a mortal sin for not going to mass.

Ciao.

* the original bass bagging site