Posted by jerry on May 15th, 2006 — Posted in Journal, Music
After doing a bit of a hunt for a hardanger bridge, I stumbled across Lennart Sohlman’s Swedish Fiddle site – and he has a delightful collection of tunes in sheet, abc and midi format from all over Scandinavia – from Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Want to buy a new hardanger fiddle? Wulffenstejn has a full price list π But I think I’ll be happy with mine for quite a while yet.
And from the sublime to the … er… creative: This fellow makes instruments by finding ways to adapt existing ones into new forms, or, even new instruments out of old boxes, bits of PVC pipe and so on.
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on May 13th, 2006 — Posted in Journal, Writing
As I prepare to head off on another adventure, the first stop is of course, to Pepe’s Paperie for a new Moleskine notebook – the squared paper being my preference. Now, one of the great design features of the Moleskine is the elastic strap which keeps the book closed – preventing all those wonderful ideas from falling out!
As I took the Moleskine to the counter, Sharon noticed a stand of bookmarks and saw at once the key thing that set these bookmarks apart from any other – yes, an elastic strap which would hold the book closed (and the bookmark in place) – just like a Moleskine π
And here it is in use with the book I am currently reading
And yes that is my latest pen – the Visconti ‘Van Gogh’ fountain pen – now with a fine nib – which works perfectly on moleskine paper.
And the moleskine, the pen and the bookmark were Sharon’s gifts to meΒ – now that’s special π
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on May 11th, 2006 — Posted in Journal, Music
Well, the tunes I’m currently learning are mostly ones that Eve has found at sessions – and a great collection of tunes they are too!
- The Sweetness of Mary (strathspey)
- Cliffs of Moher (jig)
- The Flogging Reel (reel)
- Heights of Casino (jig) – tricky with all those dotted notes!
- Blue Idol (jig)
- Catharsis (reel) (some tricky cross-bowing on the second part)
- Sean Ryan’s Jig (jig) – I’ve heard it at festivals – but most recently at a session in Brisbane where my daughter held up her mobile phone so I could listen to the tune in Canberra!
All these tunes are on http://www.thesession.orgΒ – a great resource for tunes. I’m looking forward to hearing the other tunes that Eve has in mind for me to learn – she’s got a great ear for an interesting tune or rhythm.
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on May 10th, 2006 — Posted in Journal, Music, Technology
Are you a high-tech folkie? How about taking the complete O’Neill’s Music of Ireland in your pocket to a folk festival! Here’s where Bryan Duggan’s TunePal comes to the fore. I first encountered this wonderful software when I found an early version for my Psion 5MX. Since upgrading to an HP iPaq2750 I have been on the lookout for something that would play .abc format tunes, so I can take an aural reference with me to festivals. Enter Bryan Duggan again – with an updated version for pocket PC (pocket windows 2003+).
The software is easy to instal, and, once you pay the β¬10 registration fee (ten euros)you can then install a MIDI instruments package that lifts this software into a truly useful package. So you can play the tunes with a fiddle-like sound, and control the volume, and more importantly, the speed of play. That is, you can vary the speed without varying the pitch – so you can slow the tune down to learn it, then speed it up as you get more confident with the tune – or to hear it at session speed.
This will play any .abc tune, and runs very stably on the iPaq. So now I can go armed with literally thousands of tunes, and when I hear one I like at a session, I can retire from the fray and play it over a few times to get it stuck in my head and ready to play for real π
As you can see from the screen shots above (the bulge is an artefact of the camera lens) the interface is simple, clear and easy to navigate. The only further development I would like to see is a means to display the tune as sheet music – but this has a big thumbs up from me – well done Bryan π
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on May 7th, 2006 — Posted in Journal, Music, Woodwork
The bodhran is an Irish frame drum. At the recent St Alban’s Festival I gave away my tipper (single double-headed stick) to the bodhran player in the band Mothers of Intention – I figured I would soon enough get around to turning another one.
Today I ventured out to my shed, selected a branch from our mulberry tree – which had died last year in the drought – and cut a suitable length. I mounted it between centres and roughed out the shape. Then I brought out the shape properly, using a spindle gouge, to shape the ends and a nice bead around one-third of the way from one end.
Then I removed the tool rest and sanded the piece and applied a little beeswax polish, before cutting the tipper free and giving a little touch of sandpaper and polish at the ends. And here is the result:
And here it is next to the bodhran π
This should last quite a while!
Cheers
Jerry
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