This period after Christmas and before the concerts start up again in the New Year is always a nice time for exploring and just reading things together with my wife. Partly it is to get the brains and fingers moving again after taking a week off... but it is also time to explore and read music together with a lifelong musical partner... and to plan concerts in the coming years, and floating the possibility of our first recording together as our new ensemble!
So, lots of playing and mistakes and laughs... and the kids are just sitting around in the room, reading or playing games... at some point, it would be nice to play together with them... and we do, when they are practicing... but they aren't quite near the point when they can join us in the "real" stuff! But we do have an unfair 4 decade head start on them!
I have about a week to get back into shape before a festival performance... thankfully, that is a pretty easy job, but it would help if I didn't show up completely stiff! And then I have a month or so before a pretty heavy violin-centric programme with some concerti and solos... so, I don't want to leave all of that too late, and I'm starting a little bit of solo practice as well...
... and as I'm sitting here writing this, my wife is getting started on some of the larger solo pieces that we have programmed for the year... both on harpsichord and fortepiano... we also have a duo tour of the regions lined up for the year as well!
When we were reading... there was something that was driving me nuts... every note on the violin E string was ringing weirdly... I was wondering if it was something wrong with the violin. The ring would resonate under (flatter) than the note that I was playing... which made for a weird tone, and made it hard to play in tune. But it wasn't happening on the other strings... and so, I thought that it was more likely (fingers crossed...) that it was a string that had gone false in the couple of weeks that I wasn't playing it...
... and that meant cracking open the spare strings cache... which is already starting to run low! I had just spent 500 dollars on strings not that long ago... and I'm already running low on Violin e strings (which tend to decay fastest...) as well as forgetting to restock the d strings that I use on the higher pitched violins... so, it looks like I have another bulk order coming up soon... which I will probably add some music scores to!
Pfffff... and wouldn't you know it... the spare string that I put on, immediately unravelled... I guess that is the danger of using naked gut strings and travelling lots between high and low humidity locations... and hot and cold... even the strings that aren't actively being used decay faster than expected. I guess I could also just rub the with a thin sheen of olive oil whilst they are being stored... but that is a pain in the arse to do! And a bit time-consuming and messy...
Sigh... I guess that string order is coming faster down the line than expected! Bah... back to the fun of reading music together, I'm going to start annoying my wife to stop solo stuff and play stuff with me!
Handy Crypto Tools
Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Coinbase Wallet: Multi chain wallet with lots of opportunities to Learn and Earn!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
WooX: The centralised version of WooFi. Stake WOO for fee-free trades and free withdrawals! This link also gives you back 25% of the commission.
GMX.io: Decentralised perpetual futures trading on Arbitrum!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.
KuCoin: I still use this exchange to take part in the Spotlight and Burning Drop launches.
MEXC: Accepts HIVE, and trades in most poopcoins! Join the casino!
ByBit: Leverage and spot trading, next Binance?
OkX: Again, another Binance contender?
Account banner by jimramones
Do you want to get involved? Do you want to support music and this project? Follow us to keep you updated and read our Introduction post!
🎶 Join us on our Discord Server! 🎵
Congratulations @bengy! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out our last posts: