Hi,

Yesterday was a bad day all round. On Friday I had a bath but found the usual sensitive skin Dove soap I've used for years was now Dove Beauty soap and it was highly scented having picked this up in error at the supermarket. I used this scented soap much to my regret. I'm intolerant to dairy products these having made my life a misery for the first 57 years until Bron found an article in one of her girlie mags regarding food intolerance; I immediately switched to Soya and this radically transformed my life; within a couple of days I was skipping around like a five year old child and since then just suffered the occassional flare up.

Now I know the hard way not to use scented soap ever again; yesterday from my neck down all my back was on fire and my skin was covered in very itchy bumps; I still use Dermal moisturizing cream on my legs daily but I applied this to the problem area which did ease it a bit but made the entire day most unpleasant.

In spite of the discomfort I spent most of yesterday double checking the fingering chart I'd redrawn only to find errors; I found it incredibly hard to concentrate but I stuck at it redrawing the fingering chart and must have wasted at least a dozen sheets of printer paper until I started to use correction fluid.

This morning I didn't like the post I'd added so I've completely deleted it hence anyone wondering why this post is different this is the reason why. I'd posted the inaccurate chart and couldn't delete it so I added the updated chart making the post look a mess which bugged me hence I'm now starting over. I've just run the animated video at very slow speed and this new fingering chart drawing is accurate at last.

I've now spread the notes out a bit into smaller batches which should help. It's surprising how much time and effort it took just to draw this simple chart; as I say yeasterday was a bad day; my violin practice too was the worst ever; this morning I'm much improved and I turned the heating in the studio up before breakfast so by now it should be warm and cosy just right for a bit of violin practice.

I've got the Tascam recorder and amplifier but still await new cables I bought through eBay these now overdue so it looks like more wasted time today sending emails to chase them up; the violin beginners book I bought should arrive early next week so fingers crossed everything I've ordered will magically arrive allowing me to move forward.

Kind regards, Colin.

Hi,

Many thanks @ABitRusty I did suffer shingles just before I retired in 2000. It was the shingles that decided me to get out of my hugely stressful job walking out before I was carried out. I made the most of the week off work though whilst I was contagious; I just ignored the shingles and replaced a row of wall foundation bricks in the garage; no point in sitting around moaning I had shingles whatever I did.

Here's an unpleasant picture of a small flare up from intolerance to dairy products; in July 2016 I was rushed into hospital as an emergency spending three days there. This latest problem though I believe is just down to a change of soap; two days of misery and I'm on top of the world again; I'm extremely careful but I still get caught out. Since dumping dairy products though I'm generally very healthy being Soya powered; they do say cows milk is for cows?

Hopefully the book and cables will arrive this week; I'm keen to record my violin practice sessions then play them back through the amplifier but taking neighbours into consideration regarding noise. Bron and I are a very quiet polite couple getting on with our lives without upsetting or offending anyone.

I can be extremely thick at times missing the obvious; yesterday I struggled with finger control on the strings whilst attempting to play Lara's Theme; Fiddlerman's finger positions are clearly shown in the drawings; I've been using the wrong fingers but I like to learn the hard way making every mistake possible before getting it right. I still am prone to making the same mistake a number of times but I don't worry about it just carrying on.

I was back home by 7:30 this morning after doing the shopping; I do the supermarket shopping on my own; there's no point in Bron doing it with me; I get around the stores like a missile working from the shopping list for each store; no impulse buying just get in and out as quickly as I can. We're about to set off to a store 12 miles away which has a crafting section Bron likes; returning home I'll probably wash the car then the rest of the day is mine; whoopee.

Kind regards, Colin.

Hi,

What a shame @JohnG that the video is not available due to copyright; I never gave this a thought because here in the UK it works fine at least it does on my computer. Out of interest though we're YouTube Premium users paying about £12 monthly so we can watch videos without lots of adverts; we use YouTube a lot so it's good value for us.

Thanks Emily @ELCBK 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075472/

The original "All Creatures Great And Small" from 1978 was the time we spent the week in the coittage where it was filmed. Often we find remakes of old TV series to be poor but the new series now just made are also excellent; terrible shame though regarding the lovely Dame Dianna Rigg passing away;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.....TV_series)

Both the original and new series to me are what TV should be about.

I've not watched "Britain's hidden villages" Emily but there are so many series on TV showing all aspects of Britain; "Escape to the country" is interesting.

The cat has a big fiddle. Looking out of our kitchen window earlier this morning we had a new friend visiting us; a tabby cat so it will soon be a member of the cat family which visit us daily to receive a saucer of food under their chin from Bron and lots of fussing; we like all animals and birds; the bicuits and food not eatien by the cats or birds during the day gets eaten by the badgers or foxes during the night; we watch these on CCTV.

I managed to wash the car yesterday but this morning our black car is now white; it's still covered with frost. The new cables arrived yesterday so I'm now in with a chance of setting the studio up for amplifier sound from the Tascam recorder. I turned the heating up in the studio first thing before breakfast so I'm about to head in there for a bit of happiness. Too cold to play out today.

UPDATE; back to violins and WOW my confidence has just received a huge boost; I've just been playing the first line of "Lara's Theme" to Bron in our front room "Somewhere my love there will be songs to sing" Definirtely not perfect but I can get the notes correct using the electronic tuner as I play and my fingers are starting to behave too; bow pressure and note length now to concentrate on but first hurdle well and truly over; I hope to do four practices today; I'm finding shorter but more practices are better than pushing myself until I start to ache and hurt; I feel fine so let me at it.

Kind regards, Colin.

Hi,

With another frost overnight and just above freezing at the moment the studio took a lot of heating up this morning. I've just knocked off feeling rather frustrated; I've been playing with the Tascam and amplifier; everything I've touched so far seems to have a mind of its own; the amplifier has a pronounced hum.

I'm powering the Tascam from a 240V mains adaptor and it works fine but I think the hum is a mains hum; I'm very familiar with this due to my vintage radio restoration days; usually a class X2 capacitor gets rid of such hum but why couldn't I just plug everything in without the usual hassle. Next session I'll insert batteries into the Tascam to test if this gets rid of the hum; if it does then it confirms a mains hum; I've just walked away in disgust but tomorrow I'll see what I can do to resolve this problem. If all else fails I've got a big sledge hammer.

It's a beautiful sunny day but bitterly cold outside.

Kind regards, Colin.

Hi,

Thanks @stringy for your excellent suggestion. Yes the Tascam is plugged into the amplifier. Later yesterday out of curiosity I popped into the studio and removed the mains power adaptor to the Tascam; with just battery power the hum was drastically reduced with just a low background hum from the amplifier; the temperature in the studio had dropped a great deal so I didn't want to hang around.

A forum member friend also kindly suggested it could be hum caused by flourescent lighting but my studio is lit using LED strip lights. This cold weather is tormenting me a bit; this morning just as I was about to set off to the supermarkets at 7 o'clock I turned the studio heating up and the temperature outside is a bit higher than it was yesterday; no frost this morning.

I'm about to wander into the studio to play around a bit. Hum can be a pain to locate and a lot of things can cause it. Years ago when I had the idea I could run both my Graduate woodturning lathe and my Lorch Schmidt engineering lathe from a single VFD I had real fun for ages; both lathes have identical high quality inverter rated motors and with switching included I could isolate each lathe in turn just powering one lathe at a time.

I've never seen this done previously and still not seen it done by anyone else but the lathes had power cables and signal cables; for simplicity I'd run the power and signal cables alongside each other; this caused a great deal of frustration until I realized there was "Cross talk" I seperated the cables but this time used "Cat 6" for the signal cable the lathes are now happy.

During my vintage radio restoring years certain sets had shielding around HF valves to prevent interference to other valves; for mains hum I used to install class X2 capacitors which would cure it.

I'll be pleased when the weather warms up because at the moment I'm only heating the studio as needed; I don't like throwing monery at the energy suppliers and as seen in the news energy prices here in the UK are going ballistic. Gone are the days when I'll go outside in freezing conditions unless I've no choice; I feel the cold a lot more these days.

I've downloaded and printed off Lara's Theme music score with lyrics but this is just one free page lifted from Pinterest; it's "Somewhere my love" music by Maurice Jarre lyrics by Paul Francis Webster; I'm grateful to have this but I'd like the full score with lyrics and I don't mind buying but I've browsed the web without success; I'm unsure if what I have is for violin and because of copyright I'm unable to share it.

I've been practicing with the electronic tuner attached to the violin and with the tuner turned on; I'm starting to recognize finger positions and yesterday I could play F; G; A & B with open E on the E string noticing I could find the positions without tuner and by moving a finger just a bit could hit the note at it's loudest which I assume is in tune; I've so much yet to learn but I'm sticking with it.

UPDATE,

I've just enjoyed a session in the studio but it's still too cool for comfort; I should have turned the radiator stat up fully to #5 instead of #4 first thing this morning.

I've been playing around with the Tascam and amplifier @stringy but moving the Tascam further away from the amplifier makes no difference to the hum; I did however find I'd connected the Tascam into AUX so connecting to amplifier "Input" helps a great deal; I live and learn; there's still hum but not as pronounced and I can live with it for the time being; I want to concentrate on practicing. The hum is coming from the Tascam so is being picked up somewhere; the Tascam and amplifier though are brilliant.

I'm rapidly learning how to use the Tascam with amplifer and have just recorded about 15 minutes violin playing; I've a long way to go yet but I feel happy to hear the playback; it could be a lot worse; the first line of Lara's Theme cheered me up and surprised me because it sounds better than Twinkle twinkle which I've practiced a lot more.

I've just tried to copy this recording from the Tascam to computer using the USB connection without success; the Tascam needs either the batteries or the adaptor it doesn't work just from the USB; no problem though I'll do this later; this morning I can describe as a success; everything is falling into place; I've done this practice without using the electronic tuner and I now know how to record and playback.

Kind regards, Colin.

Hi,

Back home again and a bit of time before tea time.

At last I have the "Somewhere my love" sheet music with lyrics to work from; I've been gathering bits of this music for a while but this is available through eBay so I've now got a full copy.

I can play the first line on my violin "Somewhere my love there will be songs to sing" and I'm practicing over and over again in order to get the correct notes. As shown in previous posts I'm copying every note and adding what note it is and giving it a number but now I'm working from sheet music rather than the animated video; this not only gives exact note but is also teaching me how to read music; I'm making progress but everything seems so slow hence I've not posted on the forum for a couple of days; pity I can't be in two or three places at the same time.

I've also been looking at lots of shoulder rest designs; I want one that hooks over my shoulder and I'm rather put out by this cold weather because I could make a bespoke shoulder rest in my workshop but it's been too cold to get into the workshop in comfort.

I'm now also turning the studio heating up before breakfast this allows me to get on with violin practicing a few times each day; there's so much I want to do but time flies by; I've just spent time scanning and printing copies of these music sheets allowing me to keep the originals in top condition; I can now convert the music into play lists I understand allowing me to at least play by numbers; I'm firstly using the electronic tuner  in order to get the right notes then once I've got these something like I turn the tuner off; possibly not the correct way to learn but it's working for me and I'm enjoying myself.

At the end of March we alter our clocks once again so daylight should be lengthened; these short dark cold days are so depressing but they won't stop me.

I've also been looking at where I'm going in the workshop longer term; this year I plan to make a violin which doesn't involve much of my big machinery; I've seldom had time to use my Union Graduate woodturning lathe which doubles up for metal spinning and now I'm so involved with violins it's unlikely I'll have time to play with the lathe for some time to come so I'm considering selling the lathe with lots of accessories; it's just sitting there unused; I do enjoy lathe work both metal and wood but I can't do everything so something has to give.

Bron always comes first for me and I want to spend time taking Bron out for day trips in the car too this year so I'm rapidly getting older. I'm on a roundabout which is going faster and faster and I can't get off; I'm never bored though.

Kind regards, Colin.

Hi,

Thanks @ABitRusty you're most welcome. There are many good reasons to live here in the UK; our National health Service (NHS) is wonderful; at the moment Covid has caused a huge backlog of treatment but if it's an emergency it's very quickly sorted out; we could take the NHS for granted because it's something we don't have to worry about or pay for other than a small deduction from wages; no huge insurance costs and it doesn't matter whatever age anyone is.

The high wind is trying to remove our bungalow from this exposed valley side usually it's rain trying to wash it away. Roll on springtime when we alter the clocks again.

Kind regards, Colin.