Day 12 - Superstart Violin Level 1 Arrives

I awake this morning to find a piece of post that I must have missed upon returning home last night. A chest of the finest oak lay before me, but there was alas no key. With the aid of Scissors, I tore open my parcel to find the sunken treasure of Mary Cohen - A book entitled; Mary Cohen - Superstart VIolin Level 1: Basic Skills and Pieces for Beginners

From the brief read through of the book, it does look to be aimed at the more youthful population. Unfortunately, it appears to be meant as the students counter-part to an Accompanyment book that a teacher would have, and so it will not be the primest novel for the sole-practitioner. On the plus side, it does have a fair few nuggets of information in the little tip boxes.

The book also provides some pieces of music which will be useful for practising. There are a number of pieces in the back that are traditional tunes in which they have changed just one or two words in each song. While I find this a little bit infuriating, I guess many might find it intriguing / amusing - I mean, who can resist the sound of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat" or the oh so joyous, "Old Mac Donald had the Blues"... *Sigh*. On the plus side, you can obviously sing along with the correct words in your head if it'll help whilst practising. Overall, a fairly average looking book. I'll have to dissect it properly a little bit down the line.

And in closing, It's nice to be back home and in touch with the old Virtuosi Violin once more. I plan to meet up with my PhD Muse tomorrow in the hope that we might share some Violin Secrets that will aid my quest in mastery. In the mean time, I'm considering scouring the web for Some Classical Violin CDs to help myself get used to the sound of the Violin, and clearly, to see what sort of music I will be playing in 11 and a half months time...

Day 11 - Music III - Counting, Sharps & Bits

Day Eleven is here, and I've almost caught up with the backlog of my quest that I need to log in this journal - a journal that could easily be compared to that of Mr Bilbo Baggins of The Shire. And so, I present to you the Third and final part of the great Trilogy about reading music.

Now, it's hard to get across this point, but it's definitely worth a note that I found it quite useful just to sit back and think a little bit about timing. Now, it might sound obvious, but in considering the 4/4 timing, I had a look at Beathoven's Ode to Joy;


I found it worth just counting through this tune taking special notice of the end of each line. A dot after a note-head indicates that the time-value of the note is increased by half (to 150%). So, there's a 'quarter-and-a-half-measure' note, an eigth-measure note and a half-measure note. If you'd like to listen, have a go with the Midi which I've made available (Ode to Joy Midi - 2Kb). If you'd prefer, you can enjoy The Crazy Version of Ode to Joy Midi.

Next we come onto sharps and flats. Certain notes can be modified to 'step up' half a note, or 'step down' half a note. And so, a C-Sharp (C#) would be half way between a C and a D. A B-Flat (Bb) is half way between a B and an A. These symbols appear before the note-head to be played, but sometimes appear at the start of the line (in the Key Signature) which means that every note on the part of the staff marked by the modification is played sharp or flat, unless especially marked (with a Natural/Accidental symbol). Example;


Finally, a few more useful points I should like to remember. The dots on the example above indicate that this piece of music should be repeated twice. Also, the 'c' sign in the Key Signature is another way of writing 4/4 (it's that common). Finally, notes with a curved line over/under them should flow apparently. Interesting.

That concludes everything I could ever possibly want to know about music, apart from a couple of really important facts that I've overlooked I'm sure. Well, tomorrow should be fun - I get reunited with my squeeky friend; *Evil Laugh echos off into the credits.*

Day Ten - Types of Notes, Rests and Dynamics

Still away from my beautiful new instrument, I decided that it was time again to pursue with the learning of the language otherwise known as Music. Again, I turned to my trusty companion, T'Internet. Lo and behold, I also used my fancy graphics software to help to depict what I was learning.


While there are more than the above, this will suffice for now I think. We start from the left, where we can see a single note (A Semi-Breve) on it's lonesome filling up the whole 4/4 measure. In the next, we have two half-notes (Minims) that make up a full bar. Then we have four Quarter-Notes (Crotchetts), eight Eigth-Notes (Quavers) and finally a bar of Sixteenth Notes (Semi-Quavers). Essentially, we're breaking up the bar (of a fixed length) into a number of parts, each of which we fill with a note. Which leads onto the question - what happens if you don't want a note (and want some quiet from the awful racket that your violin is currently making)?

Thus, the lord brings us Rests. Luckily, these come in the same flavours as the above, giving us essentially 'silent notes' as depicted in the following diagram;


Last but not least for this lesson, something simple to finish on. It also seems that they sometimes stick letters on the staff to ask you alter the volume (and they also tend to call this Dynamics, luckily, not of the applied mathematics type...) They are as follows;

ppp	???	Very, Very Quiet
pp	pianissimo	Very Quiet
p	piano	Quiet
mp	mezzo-piano	Slightly Quiet
mf	mezzo-forte	Medium Loud
f	forte	Loud / Strong
ff	fortissimo	Very Loud
fff	???	Extremely Loud
cresc	Crescendo	Gradually Get Louder
decresc	Decrescendo / Diminuendo	Gradually Get Quieter

That concludes todays lesson to myself. Don't hesitate to come back tomorrow for the rest of Reading Music 101.

Day Nine - Clefs, Time Signatures & Waits

Today I decided to actually absorb some knowledge about the alphabet of Music. With help of the internet and some friends, I thought I would start from scratch. Although I already know a bit about the clefs etc, I thought I would lose Face quicker than the A-Team in a Maze if I didn't know all the basics. (Joke shamelessly stolen from Not Going Out because it was that good).

And so, I crafted the following diagram with my own bloody hands to describe the very basics of Music.


While we're only interested in the Treble Clef with the Violin, it's useful to just see how the two fit together. The Red "C" on both staffs depict the same note, the middle C. The letters in Blue are the letters in between the lines. I remember the Treble clef simply by thinking "FACE", but the Bass clef is a little less obvious, so I learnt the Mnenomic "All Cows Eat Grass". As for the other marks on this diagram. The "Squiggle" is a quarter bar rest. As we have 4 notes per bar here, we need 3 to make the last bar "Valid".

Last but not least, we come to the 4/4 notation after the clef. This is the time signature of the piece which tells you how many notes to expect per measure and the length of each note. The top value is the number of notes per measure, while the bottom value tells you how long each of those notes is (as a fraction over one). For example, the standard time measure 4/4 shows 4 quarter (1/4) notes per measure. 3/4 shows 3 quarter (1/4) notes per measure. Finally, (6/2) for instance would be 6 half (1/2) notes per measure. Grooby baby.

Day Eight - Ebay, Grant Me Knowledge!

Today, I return to the home of everything known only as Ebay. On my knees and begging for a tome of knowledge regarding the Violin, I order my first learning book for only £3.50 including packaging. Thank you blessed eBay. The book, Superstart Violin Level 1 looks like it should be useful. I certainly hope that it proves to teach me something, but for the rock-bottom price that it was, I won't be too cut up if it's not what I need.

Naturally, I won't get a chance to read this book until the weekend, when home is back within grasp. This should give the book ample time to arrive and I look foward to finding some life-saving tips in this tome. Until then, I commit more information about the staff to memory and try to fix the bond in my head between the dots on the staff and the strings on my Violin.

The next beaten path of my adventure will take me through learning music. What the dots on the lines connected by more lines mean. More importantly, I also intend to learn what the squiggles, black boxes, numbers and hashes stand for too.

Day Seven - Unfortunate Break & Open Strings

Due to unforseen circumstances, it seems that the proposed practise that was to take place today will have to be postponed. While it is but a minor hiccup in the quest, the next few days will unfortunately see me some distance from my violin. I will not be reunited with my new bride until the weekend, but I plan not to allow this to hinder my progress.

The Open Strings on the Staff: And so, I start by learning the open strings once more, but this time around, I also seek out the knowledge of where the open strings live on the staff. With a small amount of aid from Wikipedia, I find the following diagram and make every effort possible to commit it to memory.


I consider this work enough for today. My trek tomorrow will take me once again through the town of Ebay, where I shall be looking for books of lore and knowledge to aid me upon my grand adventure.

Day Six - The Day of Tweaking

Today I took my new friend to see someone that I had been previously acquianted with. It came to my attention that perhaps it was worth checking with a more experienced musician to ensure that I had infact setup my violin correctly. This mainly came to mind as it became rather hard to keep my strings in tune for more than just a few minutes. And so, I visited the wise woman and, after entering not quite naked and offering goods of strange origins, I had my instrument overlooked and tweaked.

First of all, it seems that my bridge was infact placed correctly. Score one for the amateur! I did a little happy dance and continued to watch as the woman of wisdom played with the more intricate parts of the violin.

Chalking Slipping Pegs: One of the reasons why I couldn't keep the instrument in tune for more than 10 minutes was simply because the pegs were prone to slipping with the tension of the strings. To overcome this, the obvious solution was to push the pegs in with a reaonsable amount of force. However, I also learnt that it's a good plan to "paint" the pegs with white chalk, which adds extra friction between the pegs and the violin. The only danger of a beginner doing this is breaking / having problems with the strings. Luckily, I had an experienced player to help out.

Growing Strings: The other problem that I have with keeping the instrument in tune is one that this hero can do nothing about - other than waiting patiently. New strings have a tendency to stretch over time, and so I'm gracefully informed that I will just have to put up with the problem until it goes away. Slightly annoying, but now that I'm aware - I can proceed to the next stage of my mission.

Day Five - Hello Notes!

The fifth day of my adventure and I thought it time to learn (and practice) some basic notes. I'd heard that C was often a good place to start in music, and so it fell upon me to look at what notes I could strike ranging from the lowest C I could find on the instrument. Sensibly, It seems one can manage 2 scales in C, which led me to the following.


And I must confess, it came as a small shock but a massive relief, that this system was incredibly logical. We have the open strings (depicted at the top), and then you simply "slide" (although, you of course don't SLIDE per-se, just in a step-by-step basis) your finger down that string to progress through the notes until you hit the note of the next open string, then start on the next one. This means I don't really need to learn notes other than the open strings - fantastic news indeed, I feel like an expert already...

With my new found knowledge, I thought it was time to hammer out my first set of sounds. I won't lie to the world and call it a tune yet, but it was certainly an audible noise. I call it "Frere Jacques in some out of tune key".

Today has been useful, and has also inspired me in two ways. 1. I should learn how to read this music stuff. 2. I should investigate how I can record my noise to share with all you lovely people.

Day Four - A Day of Research

Unfortunately, today did not present me with the opportunity to make noise from my instrument. I thought it wise to do some reading online before potentially destroying that which I had just purchased. I found out today many important facts.

The Parts of the Fiddle / Violin: The Scroll, Pegbox, Neck, Fingerboard, Upper Bout, Waist, Bridge, F-Holes, Lower Bout, Fine Tuners, Tailpiece and Chinrest. Fantastic, I can now sound like a pro when talking about my violin, not that this is going to aid my quest greatly, but it's always useful.

The Rosin and the Bow: Puts lots of Rosin on. If you put too much on, it will sound bad and scratchy. If you don't put enough on, it'll not really sound at all. Early conclusion - put stacks on until it starts making sound, then I'll just have to re-apply a tiny bit every time I use it. Oh, and I'll need to scratch the top of the rosin block with a knife or sandpaper before I start.

The Notes of the Open Strings: Not touching the strings and playing them generates the following notes from thick to thin. GDAE. Not easy to remember, until the wonderful memory aid hit me... G'DAy MatE. Or just GDAY(E). Cool, that's actually going to stick. I'll worry about the other notes later.

Joining Symphony Orchestra: Is going to require some practice so I can make a realistic sound from my instrument. Proposed plan is to have a couple of days messing, a couple of days practise and join not this week, but the week afterwards.

In short, I'm definitely happy with the research. Note to self: keep up the good work.

Day Three - The Violin Arrives & the bridge is set.

Lo and behold, Parcelforce did not let me down with their speedy delivery policy. By the time I had returned from campus this morning my Violin had already been delivered and signed for. Without further ago, I eagerly tore open the packaging to spy my beautiful instrument inside!

I spent the evening slightly bewildered. This was the first time that I had ever seen a violin up-close - infact, it was probably the first time that I'd ever touched a stringed instrument other than the odd guitar. Even so, I set about trying to figure out this rather strange piece of wood, which I believe they call... The Bridge.


After reassuring myself that this wasn't part of a ship from Star Trek, I set about putting it into place. Following a bit of logic, and a tiny bit of help from some data at Wikipedia, I matched the bridge up quite nicely; the lower part of the bridge by the tiny string (and the higher part by the fat string), as well as making it stand perpendicular to the body, in line with the little notches that cut up the inside of the "f" holes in the body.

Fantastic - that's definitely enough for today. Tomorrow, I endeavour to figure out these strings, get them in tune, and try to figure out just what I'm supposed to do with the block of resin type material (cunningly called... rosin).

Day Two - Where fore art thou Ebay?

The conspiritor that aided in the prescription of this Quest, Owen, inspires me once more, telling me of the great evening he had had, just the night before, with the University Symphony Orchestra. While I was not encouraged enough to make the rehearsal without even purchasing an instrument, I was directed once more to the Alladin's Cave otherwise known as Ebay.

It's important in these times to set ones limits, and with this in mind, I decided that I would be shooting at least £20 above the minimum price I could find, but definitely no more than £80 on my, soon to be, best friend. Not a massive price I know, but I felt it was only fair, giving that I hadn't yet been paid and I'd just found out I still hadn't had this month's rent removed from my bank account.

With this in mind, I scoured the market. Applying my untrained eye to the plethora of options available to me, the name Virtuosi stuck fast, and so First Brass Instruments Ltd were the ones to get my plea for a Violin. Understandably, when I produced the payment of £43 via Paypal, they agreed to send me my first quest item. Even better, I was promised the item in under 48 hours. Fantastic, I could hardly contain my excitement...

Day One - The Idea is Born.

I awoke this morning with a strange feeling running down my spine. After unfathomable inspiration from a fellow PhD, who will undoubtedly be appearing many times throughout this tale, it was clear that it was time to solidify my interest in all things musical.

With only the barest of experience, my latest adventure was set in place. It was time to purchase a Violin, and to master this exquisite instrument. And so, I set out upon my journey, twoards the brick road of Ebay, to find the item that would be paramount in my quest. A fabled artefact... The Violin.