...I have NO will power. 

Even though I don't have much room for bowing on MAEZARINE'S E string (nature of the beast) - I'm good & used to it now!   It's definitely made learning some tunes by ear easier, even if I'd rather hear them played lower. 

St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner! 🍀

Decided to get 'Maggies's Pancakes' down tonight (they tasted very good 😁) - hopefully in another couple days it will be easier to switch keys so I can play along with 'The Smokey Lum'.  I just won't be able to play it as fast yet, but faster speed is becoming easier & more natural... been pushing some tunes & phrases faster for over a year now & it's paying off. 

The Fiddlerman 'Noir' violin bow with BLACK hair has made a big difference!  It lets me get better sound with a more relaxed/lighter touch when playing faster.

It's definitely a nice thrill for me to play reels faster, but they don't entice me to do anything on the electric fiddle side. 

Guess it's a good thing I also have a boatload of slower tunes to play & experiment with... just learned 'John Nugent' - another O'Carolan tune, love it's got a baroque feel. 

Ah-ha, YES! 

The Orba 2 will allow me a GREAT, SIMPLE intro into synths... by using Artiphon 'Orbasynth', it has EIGHT modules! 

Orbasynth: Intro & Overview – Orba by Artiphon 

Orbasynth: Oscillator Deep Dive

THIS (to me) is what is SO COOL ABOUT SYNTHS - ways of having the wave form MORPH over time!!! 

Should be close enough to a moog sound for me right now!

'Orbasynth' is a separate desktop app - sampling & other features for the Orba 2 use the 'Artiphon Connect' mobile app. 

Sampling of ANY sound (including my violin, or Bugsy's cute meow) is possible with the Orba 2, but it also includes orchestral samples that are great for fattening up some accompaniment (including 'strings')!

Orba 2 is a bluetooth midi device - with FIVE hours of battery life! 

...counting down the days for delivery.

I have absolutely no business adding anything more to my practice & experimentation time right now... but I did learn "Maggie's Pancakes" & have it going at a good speed, but the Tannahill Weavers play it in a different key with "The Smokey Lum" (which I really have going well), so trying to get used to it with different fingerings is not easy, yet - needed a break.

"Timebomb" by Post Precious. 

Came across "Timebomb" (totally by accident), it's new to 'me'.  Obviously has some features in the melody & a nice driving rhythm - just learned it acoustically (by ear) on Maezarine, but it's a simple enough tune I'm going to plug her in tomorrow & see what I can do to have fun playing it along with my new electronic music 'toy'.  I probably should attempt to transcribe this, maybe after Fiddle Hell.  

It caught my ear with a modulation!   Maybe C Phrygian (can't be Ab Major!) over to C Locrian (or maybe Ab Mixolydian), but I have to look closer because it is melancholy - definitely NOT major sounding!  Think I better look more closely at what I can hear of the chords (should help), but there's a lot of my hearing the tonal center to be Ab & C - anyway, it's a scale/mode with 4 flats going to a scale/mode with 5 flats.  I've ruled out Blues scales, but too late to do more tonight. 😕 

At least I've played it & know all the notes to the melody now.

"Timebomb" was part of the 2019 Netflix film soundtrack for "Someone Great" (I have NOT watched the film).  There's one other tune I liked on the soundtrack, but it's by Ryn Weaver - "Reasons Not to Die". 

...I'll think more clearly after some 😴

I plan on sharing something worthwhile here later, but while I'm contemplating how to spend practice time today - thought I'd share a 'senior moment'. 

Is today March 22nd?  ...feeling a little confused. 

Kevin took this photo an hour ago (right after he cleaned the car off) & it's been snowing harder ever since - like someone dumped out a HUGE bundle of white goose down (even more snow, now)!

So much for my diet (and SPRING), it's HOT COCOA TIME!

I had a heck of a time changing strings, yesterday! 

The overly wide pegbox on my 6-string Violin is really becoming a pain in the 🤬! 

I posted a photo quite a while back, not sure if I pointed out the extensions used to make the geared pegs long enough to fit.  The darn pegs are still VERY hard to disengage & the end (that's not supposed to move) tried to come right out of the hole when I tried to tighten the strings.  I ended up having to crank them in counter clockwise to get the ends seated tight in the pegbox - before threading each new string (winding while disengaged) then pushed in & tightened the last tiny bit.  Next time, think I'll just apply some GLUE!  ...again, NEVER had issues with the geared pegs on my other instruments, but I'll learn to live with this - one way or another.

Anyway, it felt worth it - Maezarine sounds ALIVE, again... or resuscitated. 

Just won't know if this is really over until the strings settle. 🥴

Forgot to mention I was able to give myself a little pat-on-the-back the other day. 

For THE FIRST TIME EVER... picked up my 6-string Violin (Maezarine), ran my thumb across the strings & heard it was not in tune - so, WITHOUT CHECKING AGAINST A TUNER (OR FINGERED NOTE), I just tightened up the the 4 middle strings different amounts to what I thought sounded right (the low F & high E strings sounded fine).

NAILED IT!!! 

...only took me 5 years to have any confidence. 🥴

@Mark -

Yes!  Think we ALL need to celebrate every minuscule step forward! 

I still have a few pain issues to resolve that are above & beyond my 'everyday' ones (working on them too), but my goal is to feel good enough to record - that will be great. 

SharonC's recent Wave Chinrest Review had me thinking again. 

I have been having a lot of pain in my neck the last few months - and it isn't Kevin. 🙄

I like my shoulder rest, but I see I could really benefit from a taller chinrest!  I try to monitor any squeezing, but taking my chin completely off my violin is my only relief right now.  It doesn't keep me from getting in some practicing, but any extra pain just drags me right down.  It's funny to remember when I started learning to play - everything was too high then & my neck hurt from the opposite, 'over-stretching'.

Problems: I can't just swap out my EV chinrest - it's got batteries, electronics inside & my cable or/bluetooth  transmitter plugs into it, too.  The 2nd issue I have - can't have my violin stationary, so my chin/jaw always changes position.

Figure I have 2 options - thick cork added between my violin & chinrest (+ need taller brackets), OR some type of self-adhesive pad stuck on top.  

Going to try a few materials, maybe I'll get lucky. 

Think I'll order the Impressionist Chinest Comforter, from the Fiddlershop (Review Thread) - but it will be unrealistic to shape it exactly to my chin/jaw form, maybe a little more generic/flatter. 

My chinrest is VERY flat, so ordered some black self-adhesive neoprene pads to try (4"x4"x½") - not going to use the adhesive unless I'm VERY sure this material will hold up to the stress (have real doubts).  Gambling on the actual density, so we'll see. 

Then there's my dentures... just too much pain - so, it's research time, for a comfortable solution that's compatible with the material they're made of.  Grandkids don't care, but I'd like to smile again - without pain. 😁

Knock-on-wood, Maezarine's new strings have been holding their tuning this past week (despite the peg issues I had) & the black-hair bows are a real asset... have some things I'm itching to try with EV now, almost ready to focus my time on it.