Category Archives: Music

Rule 5: Bang Tam

Posted on October 1, 2014 | Comments Off on Rule 5: Bang Tam

VNSingerBangTam

Taking a break from plus-size models, one of my favorite Vietnamese singers. The backup violins are’t bad either. With a competent stab at translating the lyrics of this love song.

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Posted in Fiddle Stuff, Music, Viet Nam

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Super cool fireworks

Posted on July 5, 2014 | 1 comment

“Inside the Explosion,” was made by a camera-carrying drone quadcopter over some unspecified city that has a waterfront for the barges that carry the rockets and other explosives.

What’s different about the video is that the copter-and-camera hovered inside the colorful star cluster bursts and yet survived unharmed. I don’t usually post YouTube videos, but I’ll make an exception with this lovely example of individual expression of freedom. The Andrea Bocelli aria is the perfect accompaniment.

Don’t miss it. And be sure to go to YouTube and make it full screen. The FAA will have a cow.

Via Instapundit.

UPDATE: Apparently whoever owned the Bocelli recording had a cow. It’s been replaced with some forgettable techno. Pity. So turn off the sound and substitute your own.

MORE: Andre is back! Still the perfect accompaniment. Well worth a viewing, as the 10 million views as of 10/9/14 shows.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Music, Science/Engineering, The Culture

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Rule 5: The C String

Posted on June 28, 2014 | 4 comments

The-C-String

Underwear, sort of, as opposed to beach wear, though the latter could work, too. If the surf’s not too high. There’s a C string on a Viola. I wonder… Nah.

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Posted in Evolution, Music, Rule 5, The Culture

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My recital

Posted on June 6, 2014 | 2 comments

My first fiddle recital came off pretty good. I got through the one piece I had memorized thoroughly (having practiced it at least a hundred times) just fine and only momentarily got lost in the second, less-memorized one (dueting with another adult learner) and was able to find a place where I could jump back in.

Teacher was happy, but I expected him to be. He tends to exaggerate my progress, but, as Mrs. Charm says, “Would you rather he criticized you all the time?” Of course not. I just get suspicious when I’m always “awesome” and “excellant.” Of course some sort of criticism usually follows.

Fortunately, Mrs. C. videoed excerpts with her iPhone, so I got to see two problems that need correcting. I was hunched over as if trying to hide behind the music stand and it was as if my poor bow had shrunk to a few inches long I was using so little of it. “More bow, more bow,” the everlasting fiddle teacher reminder.

The best part was the adolescent Mr. Boy whom Mrs. C. decided to drag along, grumbling all the way, to get him there. He later complimented me and exclaimed that he had “really enjoyed it,” apparently struck dumb that it could have been anything but more boring adult shite.

So it was worth it and I’ll do it again in the fall and from now on if allowed.

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Posted in Fiddle Stuff, Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Music, Rancho Roly Poly, The Culture

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Marty Robbins: Gangsta Rapper

Posted on May 28, 2014 | 2 comments

martyrobbinselpaso

Woke up the other morning inexplicably humming this Marty Robbins oldie, a big hit in 1960, which, of course, you never hear on the radio any more but sure ’nuff did way back then.

I wonder if Scott Chaffin does that from time to time, stirring from a doze in his box seat at the baseball diamond in the sky? Would not be surprised. It was Scott’s idea to include Robbins in the Gangsta Rapper Pantheon. Works for me.

I love the idea that the character of “wicked Felina” was adapted from a girl Robbins had a crush on in fifth grade. As they say, write what you know.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Music, Obsessions, South of the Border, Texana, The Culture

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Whistle while you work

Posted on May 22, 2014 | 2 comments

Practicing for my June 1 fiddle recital, my teacher has been pushing me to use a metronome to keep the rhythm of my two pieces on point. Nobody who uses them likes the damn things and I’m no exception.

I struggled with the metronome for a week before complaining. Okay, he said, how about singing the notes of the tunes as I play them. Uh, then, how about whistling them as I read the dots on the chart?

It works. The only question is why? Perhaps, he said, because like most people I’ve been whistling to music all my life. Nor is it unusual for musicians to do it. Jazz players, he said, whistle or sing along with their work, sounds that usually go unnoticed because they’re lost in the other instrumentation.

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Posted in Fiddle Stuff, Music, Rancho Roly Poly

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The problem of tone

Posted on May 4, 2014 | 2 comments

Working away at memorizing the two pieces for my recital on June 1. Got one down and the other is coming along. My intonation is usually on the mark. An old joke about that goes like this: All fiddlers play out of tune, but the good ones notice and correct it the fastest.

I’ve been listening to YouTube renditions of the pieces, The Blue Jig and Shove That Pig’s Foot A Little Further In The Fire, (both at the link above) to make sure I have the rhythm down. That also seems to be doing well. The only real hassle is my tone. It sucks. Fortunately the pieces, both being dance tunes, are fast and that helps mask it. It would only sound really bad on a slow number.

Tone is the hardest thing to master with the violin/fiddle. As my teacher says you want tone on a piano, you push down the button and there it is. Tone on a violin depends on mastering the bow and that takes years. Two and a half years into it, I’m still struggling with tone. But I just drive on. It’s the only way.

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Posted in Fiddle Stuff, Music, Obsessions

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