Carolyn

(“Be in a club” as in, more than just me who got the wind taken from my sails)

She just sort of smiled and went on with the lesson while I was just quiet then.

But an interesting follow up. Probably a dozen years or so after the month of lessons I had with her, I’d moved, and turns out she has family in this area and moved up here too. She is a part of the larger musical community I’m in. My music buddy (who is a newer fid…[Read more]

That’s great! It’s so hard to work out fiddle accompaniment and tags that don’t walk on the vocals and also sounds nice. I know–I’ve tried!
Also, your fiddle has a sweet sound.

Nice! It’s such a cool tune, and you are doing great on it! Metronome is a demanding master.

Thanks! It really is encouraging to hear from other players.
I’ve gotten to 185 now, but decided not to make a video, since it sounds just the same, only a bit faster. Maybe I will get it up to real speed, set it with other instruments and do a grand finale sometime soon!

Nice! That is a tricky little tune. (AKA “Who’s Been Here Since I’ve Been Gone?” as the soldier returns to his pregnant wife)

Well done! Inspiring.

I recorded with my iMac Quicktime app. Don’t know why I didn’t think of it before, it was much easier than fiddling with a camera or device. Not much new, just a bit faster. I played 3x through, trying to build up stamina. When I play for reals with other people, the tune may last a long time, not just a few times through.

And I look like I’m reading the music, but I’m not. Just focused on the music in my head.

Trying my best to do about one a day! Thankfully I remembered to have them give my Covid shot in the left arm, since it doesn’t have to move as much as the right arm!
Frustrating to have to match up the videos on iMovie, since I can’t find any really fine controls. But good enough for this purpose.

You can see that I don’t try to “fix the video up.” If I messed around trying to make it look nice, then I would never get it up there. Since I have my regular YouTube channel I share a lot of stuff on, I don’t particularly want these practice blurbs thrown in the mix, so I use another account to post them.

No banjo this time, only a quick practice today. Up to 160bpm.

Well, I couldn’t resist moving up the speed dial on the metronome. I always figure this in the importance of learning tunes (if you intend on playing with other people) #1. Keep the beat. You can play all the wrong notes, and it might not sound that nice, but at least everyone else can play along. Mess up the beat and it’s a train wreck. #2. Be…[Read more]

Ok, I was pretty sure I could speed this up a bit, so here is Angeline at 145 bpm, with an occasional drone. At this point, I think I will stick at around 150 or 155 for a couple days while work on style.

I’ve been making little movies on iMovie for awhile, it is pretty user-friendly. I would know more if I had the patience to sit down and go through the tutorials, but I’m always ready to get started on something when I sit down! I knew a split screen had to be in there somewhere, so I googled it and found out where the controls were.
I love…[Read more]

Thanks! I was so impatient to try it once I decided to, that I just propped up my phone to take the shots. Now that I know how it works, I’ll see what I can do to make the next one better!

Ha ha! Yeah. No, but I do have a dedicated cubby space in a shelf unit for them.

Some people just don’t know. They didn’t learn from an instructor who helped with the small stuff. I was in a music camp class when the instructor told the class why they should clean it off. You could see some uncomfortable “what? really?” looks, and the next day you could see they had made an effort. But the build-up needed more than a wipe by…[Read more]

I missed it! But I watched it on the recorded version this evening. I loved hearing the questions and answers.