Here I Am Again

 Well, if nothing else, I am consistent. I hardly ever write on this blog. I even forgot about it. But, now, as you can see, I am back, so catch me while you can because I May disappear into the cloud at any moment. Before I disappear I should let my faithful readers know what I’ve been up to. Not much. Anne and I are very vaccinated and boostered. Neither of us have had any signs of the Covid virus, or even the flu. Let’s hope things stay this way.

This is a blog about music so I will write something about music. When the pandemic was in full swing I did take some Zoom fiddle lessons from my coach, Haley, but the tendinitis in my right shoulder made it uncomfortable to practice, so I stopped the lessons. I liked taking lessons from Haley. She is a good teacher and a fun person. She is also working on her doctorate at Eastman. I also got a new hammered dulcimer made by Russell Cook at Masterworks. With no lessons, though, it is a bit more of a challenge to play things. Our friend, Jan Klapetzky has partially solved that problem by suggesting that we do a Christmas jam on December 19th, which we will do. I am practicing away on a bunch of Christmas songs.

I am also following Fiddlehed on YouTube. He has some good pointers and I can follow at my own pace so that if my shoulder bothers me I can just stop. As part of practice it is suggested that I try some of the exercises on another instrument. I am using the mandolin for that and I think it is a good idea. The lessons start with a sort of tab in which D0 represents open D string, D1 represents E and so on. I am finding it easier using this method than reading the music notation. I really want to learn to play by ear, but I may need a few more lifetimes to get there.

Fiddle, Faddle

Well, once again I haven’t posted here for quite some time. There was also a notice that the European Union now requires me to tell about any cookies that I use. Well, please be notified that Anne baked some nice oatmeal cookies and we have been enjoying them. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to transmit them to anyone. That’s good because I don’t intend to send them anywhere. I hope that the proceeding satisfies the requirements of the law.

Dulcimer lessons have been cancelled, one, by the coronavirus pandemic, and two, by the fact that both of our teachers have retired. I can still take fiddle lessons in the fall, but with the recent civil unrest in Rochester, I am not sure how comfortable I will feel driving into the city. I haven’t been playing too much either, which makes me wonder how enthused I really am. I seem to have fits and starts in which I get really interested and then periods when I don’t really care very much. I have invested a lot of time and money though, so, I would really like to get to the next rung of the ladder. I think I will never be in a band or group, so It probably all comes down to just fun for me.,But, still,there has to be some motivation to play.

Here I am, But Where am I

This is now May, 2018. I discontinued playing with the Beginning Strings Band shortly before the Holidays. The main performance was to be at Winterfest at the same time as the dulcimer group was performing, so I opted to go with the dulcimers. At least I can play something on that instrument. I didn’t really enjoy the band rehearsals. First of all, I felt I should learn to play better. The idea, as they say in the catalog, that you don’t have to know anything to play with them is total hokem. Maybe you don’t need to know how to play with an orchestra, but you need to know how to play the instrument. They offer no instruction on instrument playing. The other thing was that the rehearsals were about 9:00 downtown right off of route 490,which meant driving down there in rush hour with no way out if a traffic problem developed. It wasn’t much fun getting there.

I joined Fiddlers of the Genesee. They were very nice to me. I went to a jam session, bought their book of tunes, paid our dues, but never went back. Again, I felt that I ought to know how to play better. I really want to get back there, but I better do it soon, because the jams stop at the start of  the summer season.

I am still taking lessons from Alex and I continue to think that he is an excellent instructor. I know the lessons are expensive. When I turned 75, I wondered if I should buy myself a better violin. When I retired from work I treated myself to a decent five string Banjo. So, I thought, why not treat myself to a better violin. Instead I decided to treat myself to lessons reasoning that if I had a $3,000,000 violin it wouldn’t sound any better than the one I have in my hands. I think that was a smart choice. When I get the tone right, my violin sounds pretty decent and I find the lessons very valuable. As I said before, I am learning not only violin technique, but about music and performance as well. The hour lesson goes by very quickly. So, I will continue to practice, but, I still have to decide where I am going with the music. What about the keyboard? What about the other instruments I have, like the Irish tenor Banjo, mandolin and octave mandolin? Oh me O my!

And the Band Played On

I have now been to several band rehearsals, as they call the classes. I am also continuing to take lessons from Alex Pena. We have increased the time of each lesson from forty five minutes to an hour at Alex’s suggestion.

The band rehearsal is not for the feint of heart nor someone not skilled in at least the rudiments of Music. Without the weekly lesson, I would not be able to accomplish anything in the band class. As it is I’m hard pressed to keep up and really don’t. Alex is really a great teacher, not just for the violin, but for music in general. I am learning a lot from him; if I can only remember it.

My task now is to decide how far I want to go with this band thing. Some of the ladies I talk to at the class say they have been in Beginning Strings since 2001. That’s 16 years! I don’t think I can do that or even want to. So, what exactly do I want to do with my hopefully, soon to be learned violin skills? Or, for that matter, what do I want to do with my dulcimer playing skills, such as they are. What genres of music do I want to concentrate on? The pieces that we are working on in band are fine, but difficult for me now. They are: Dance of the Tumblers, El Toro and Shoe Symphony. If I don’t play with the band, what outlet will I have for music. Perhaps I should look into Fiddlers of the Genesee.

The Music goes On & On

The music goes on and on, but the blogging sure takes a lot of rests. Dulcimer classes are finished until Fall. Our class in History of Western Music is finished. It was more work than Anne and I thought it would be, but it was worth it. We both feel that we learned a lot and want to keep learning.

Never content to leave well enough alone, I decided to sign up for the New Horizons Band beginning strings group. They call it the "Green Band." The New Horizons Band is a concept that originated here in Rochester and is primarily for older players who would like to participate, even if they don't know how to play. This is play the violin, which, of course, I don't know how to play. So, I also signed up for private lessons at Eastman with an instructor, Alex Pena. I have been taking lessons (6 so far) to get ready to meet the band in September. I will take four more lessons over the summer and then at least seventeen weeks more in the fall. This is in addition to continuing with the hammered dulcimer. Maybe I need medication. Anyway, I wanted to get something down for the record so I will know how all of this started.

Time Sure Flies

Here it is almost the middle of January. My last post was about playing with our class at St. John's home. Since then we played at the Eastman School of Music for their annual Christmas Festival. The pictures were taken with my iPod and are not perfect, but they convey the general atmosphere.

The lady with her back to the camera is Mitzie Collins, our instructor. In the bottom picture, Anne is directly to her left.

Our Eastman School lessons begin again next Tuesday. In the meantime, we have had one private lesson with Linda Taggart, who is a local dulcimer player and teacher along with being a Lutheran minister. She is a busy lady.

For our upcoming class sessions I am working on Red Wing, The Rakes of Mallow, The Road to Lisdoonvarna and Soldier's Joy. That's a lot, for me anyway. We went to the Y today to renew our membership. It's free this year with our new health insurance company, Aetna. We were also asked to be sacristans at our church and we're planning a lunch on Friday with our sailing friends.

Back to music for a minute. Linda had mentioned a program for putting all of our sheet music on an iPad. It's called Unreal Book. I have scanned some music onto it by using the iPad's camera. I don't know just how handy this will be. I can certainly see the value of not having a lot of heavy binders to carry around, but, of course, the music on the iPad is smaller than on an actual sheet. You can adjust the size, but then you don't get the whole piece in view. Linda mentioned another program called Musescore with seems to do the same thing. I guess as we progress, I'll have to see how this all works. She also said that we probably wouldn't be happy for long with the 12/11 dulcimer. We did buy that one as an "interim" instrument, so, again, we will have to wait to see what develops.

So my message to anyone who is thinking of retiring is to keep on working. Working is not as much fun, but you'll have more time.

Dulcimer Bill?

Now what am I going to do. Anne and I have gotten through ten weeks of hammered dulcimer lessons, so now what should my music blog be called? Barrister Bill, the Dulcimer Man? Doesn't sound right and, anyway, before one should call oneself a "dulcimer man" one should be able to play competently, I think. Oh, the argument could be made that the fact of competency didn't prevent me from calling myself "the Banjo Man," but that at least rhymes.

We played at St. John's Home in Rochester as our first concert (or show and tell) as our instructor, Mitzie Collins, likes to call it. We were told that playing "out" is different, and it is, even if the audience was mostly in wheel chairs and in a number of cases, not in the same dimension. But, they seemed to enjoy the music and, as we were also told, that at least we now have our first performance out of the way. Well, maybe so, but our next "show and tell" is at the Eastman School of Music and the audience there will be very much in the same dimension.

Anne got "her" dulcimer on November 18th. A Songbird Phoebe Chromatic 17/16/8. A week or so before, we bought a Master Works 12/11 dulcimer as an interim dulcimer until we decided what I would get and "the grandchildren can use it when they come." But, now the smaller one is being referred to as "my" (meaning Bill's) dulcimer. I knew this would happen and I even predicted it. We'll have to wait to see what happens and if I ever get a "grown up" dulcimer.

I have now learned several songs on the hammered dulcimer. I can't play them perfectly every time, but I can get through them. They are:

Michael Row the Boat Ashore
Silent Night
Tallis Canon
Joy to the World
Scarborough Fair
Amazing Grace
Away in a Manger

I have to learn how to add embellishments to the basic melody. Stay tuned.