Better Latin never.

 Okay, I'm up and I have checked around the blogs. 

Peter:

NOTHING NEW.

No big surprise. 

Robert:

A post about his girlfriend, archangels and the Latin mass. There's a bit of transubstantiation in there too.

No big surprise. 

* * *

No, this is not meant as a rude sign.

I'm showing you which one of my left hand fingers is sore and interfering a bit with my violin practice. After a busy day yesterday, I was pleased to get 1 1/2 hours of practice done. I hope to be back on 3 hours today, sore finger or no sore finger.  It does feel a bit better than it has. [toilet break]

I'll work on my bowing first today. This is a very important area that is easily overlooked. I'll start with long bows, then look at where I place the bow on the string. Then I'll move on to string crossing and different bow strokes. My favourite sounds to put into my solos are the b9 and the #4. As I'm sure that the other two bloggers around here know, putting in 'out there' sounds works especially well over dominant 7th. chords. There are two things that happen to dominant 7th. chords.

1. They go to a I chord, as in II V7 I, which is like what Classical people call a perfect cadence (IV V I), or
2. they don't go to a I chord. 

It really works well to drop in 'out there' notes in the first option, because it all resolves out on the I chord. It sometimes pays to be a little more subtle on the second option. That's where the b9 sound works really well. Here's a little bit of advice. Let's take G7. A minor progression normally goes IIb5 V7b9 Im(maj7), but the b9 can work over a major progression too. Okay back to G7. The b9 would be Ab. Here we can use a diminished arpeggio - Ab B D F. It sounds great! Remember that there are only 3 diminished chords (arpeggios) - B D F Ab, C Eb F# A & C# E G Bb. Each one of these services four b9 chords. Okay, I'll leave it there because Peter will be yawning and Robert will be thinking about Hayden or Latin masses.

* * *

Dominus vobiscum. (The Lord is with you.)

When I was young our family got visited by a parish priest one night. He was looking for altar boys. 

I can't remember why, but I got the job. The first task was to go to the friary and learn responses to the mass in Latin.

"Et cum spiritu tuo." I think that was the reply. "And with your spirit."

The altar boys came out with the priest, after getting changed with him in a side room, and had the main job of fetching things for him, but they also took part in the ritual of the mass. I remember getting up early to be at 6am masses. I had to walk from home to the church - an early start for a young guy.

So, why was the mass in Latin? Not many of the congregation would have understood what was being said. They weren't trained like altar boys. Ah well, not my problem.

* * *

The sun is coming out later now. It is still dark as I write at almost 6.50am. I got up at 5.30am because I had achieved enough sleep. Robert had already written his post. I read it in bed not long after 5am. I also checked to see that there was nothing from Peter. Lazy bugger!

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

Don't worry about silly little sins.

Si gentile.