I'm up early again and have read Robert's latest post. He tells us that some guy named Tent likes the contingency argument, whatever that is. I read on. "I doubt that proofs work with the non-material. If God had wanted to be sentient to our minds He could easily have done so. Nobody doubts His creation. But He has chosen to keep Himself, the Creator, behind a veil. He wants faith."
I'm not sure whether this next bit is Rob or Tent talking. "There are many good reasons to believe in the one God, as witnessed in the Bible. The main reason for not doing so is pride. We have all-consuming egos that yearn for first place. There is just not room for God and the subdication (I'm not sure that's a known word) it requires. To put ourselves in the place of the loser or think of ourselves as sinners and failures causes too much pain. In truth none of us doe (I don't think he meant to mention a female deer) anything on our own. But we like to think that we won the victory or earned the applause".
Well, that certainly doesn't sound like proof of anything.
Back to the violin.
I have been doing three hours of violin practice every day. Yesterday I devoted over two hours to changing my chinrest to a more conventional one (more to the left) and using an expensive shoulder rest that I bought at the Rock Shop some time back. I tried it at different angles and heights. After a while I put my center chinrest back on and it seemed to work better. However, somehow the shoulder rest made me feel restricted and, in the end, I took it off. FREEDOM!
I watched some videos about the use of shoulder rests, and no real conclusions were reached. However, it was interesting listening to one guy (he doesn't use a shoulder rest) who talked about the difference of holding a violin with or without a shoulder rest. With a shoulder rest the violin is held in place by the neck and chin. Without one it is held in place by the collar bone and the thumb and first finger of the left hand. That second option is the way I've been playing for the last five years, and I like it!
Did I finish in first place with this violin decision? Will I earn victory and applause? In reality, I'm not driven by either. Lately I've had some nice feedback about my playing, but I also have a couple of acquaintances who I am sure don't like my playing or what I choose to play. Every year, around January, we go and stay at places with Shelley's old friends and their husbands. These two guys I mentioned are husbands. Neither of them really knows much about music, but they seem to have very strong views. One is a Neil Diamond fan and often suggests things that I should add to my repertoire. The other one seems not to like too many notes. One night, as we all sat around, I played some background music - not me playing but Spotify. I played quite a mixture. Then I put on John Cage's 4'33. Check it out, if you don't know it. The guy got very upset. Naughty me!
Well, I'll leave you there for today.
Sii gentile.
8 commenti:
I heard once that by touching the collar bone the sound resonates through the body ..
Ha ha - I liked it.
You should adapt The Last Post like John Cage's 4'33 and perform it on Armistice Day at the Wainuiomata gathering.
That'd show them.
Is not silence merely the absence of music and has no substance of its own in the same way that a hole in a wall is just the absence of wall!
The hole in a wall could be a gate. John's idea was that people would become aware of the other sounds around them. Sort of like what you hear when you meditate.
Rests can be very important in music.
Yes, I see that. Expectation of a note or a sound increases concentration.
I would have thought that Robert the Catholic Christian would see the absence of something (like proof of a god) could be the possibility of a substance in that void (like a god).
And in old people's homes - like my house where I dropped off to sleep watching TV today.
You could be the guy who writes 2hr44'.
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