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

Morning has broken - just.

 I'm dressed and my heater is on.

No post from Rob this morning. Obviously nothing from Peter.

I plan to drop off some feijoas at Peter's at about 11.20am today. It doesn't matter if he's out walking or picking up things from his storage unit to sell, I'll leave them by his front door. It'll be a roundabout trip because I have to drop Shelley at 'balance'* and then pick her up at midday. I think, from memory, it's Lynn who really likes feijoas and not Peter. Peter prefers a pie but I'm not giving mine away.

Tomorrow morning I pick up Rob and L at 7am to take them to the airport. They're off to the Philippines. A big adventure for Rob that will probably mean no blog posts for a while. Though maybe he can still post from over there? Only his god knows.

"I know, but I'm not telling you."

I'm practising my 30 memorised tunes at the moment. I don't mean right now, I mean during practice time. I must get some double bass done too. You'll remember that I have 6 solo pieces, written by me, that I'm working on. I have no gigs, for either of my instruments, on the horizon. I guess this is why people take up busking, particularly as they get older. 

I have written this post without using RZ. Remember I told you about RZ in my last post? Ah well, if you didn't read the post, that's your problem.

That's it, I'm off.

Ciao tutti.

* Exercise for old(er) people at our local library.

A B C D E F G H I The truth behind AI.

 I see that bloggers around here have been looking into AI. In reality they're like musicians who only play in one key.

AI covers nine letters of the alphabet (A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 I) and can really start on any letter. Let's take Peter's name - P Q R S T U V W X. Now let's look at Rob's - R S T U V W X Y Z. So, Peter should be using PX and Rob should be using RZ. I think that the old blogger boys should look into this.

* * *

Yesterday was quite a busy day, but I did manage to get 1 1/2 hours of practice done. 30 minutes of that was on the double bass. Not too bad. As you may know, I'm really into playing my violin like a singer. At our recent PBs jam we played a lot of tunes that no one had practised or played before. Daryl (on bass) was onto it, but I noticed that the other three boys were struggling a bit and two of them spent quite a bit of time playing percussion instruments. Playing like a singer gives your playing a whole new dimension. Though, I did notice that the lady who sang with us sang songs that she knew in keys she felt comfortable with. I played on every song, as did Daryl. I played a lot of melodies that I had never played before. No one said, "Well done, Rich." I guess they all had egos to look after. 

I'm presently making sure that all of my 30 tune repertoire is well memorised. If I ever get to play it anywhere, I won't have any written music in front of me. Actually, there were only four tunes that I didn't have fully memorised already. I've done some work on those.

* * *

Okay, okay, I admit it! I did use RZ to write my musical bit of the post today. 

That's it from me.

Enjoy your day and don't waste time worrying about sin. Especially if you're not a Catholic.

Ciao tutti.

Some interesting thoughts for all you readers.

 

BLANK

Sorry, but I have to go to work.

Ciao.