6 years later

I guess my last entry into this blog was 6 years ago in 2005. Where did all those years go? I am still playing the fiddle although I stopped for about 2 years due to health. I developed psoriatic arthritis and due to pain in my fingers and wrist, it was hard to play. However I am now seeing a specialist, and have good medication so I am once again playing. I have joined an informal jam group and find this very entertaining. I have also been "put on the spot" a few times by my wife. A few years ago we were at a resort and in the bar area a violinist was playing some very nice classical type music. My wife called him over during a break and after the usual request for Celtic music, she asked him if I could play a tune. I played a reel and jig.

Music Practice

I have been using two great tools to learn and practise tunes using the computer. The first one is a site called Practice Studio. There are a lot of MIDI files that play tunes at different speeds. These files are three types. One has the melody and rhythm. One has the melody line only and the third just has the rhythm. By playing the melody MIDI file tunes a can be learned and then after learned intonation can be checked. After the melody is learned, the rhythm MIDI can be played and you can play along Karaoke style. This is great for practicing beat. I have downloaded the MIDI file and converted them to mp3s and burned them onto a CD for easy playback. It is best to start on the slow speeds. Even after being able to play the faster speeds it is good to practise at the slower speed and constantly try to improve intonation and beat. Remember, first you get good, then you get fast. It does not happen the other way around.
Another tool is a freeware program called Audacity. Audacity allows you to load a sound file and crop it down to the part interested in. Audacity also can slow down a tune while still keeping the pitch. This is great for learning tune from a CD.
You will need a program like Music Match Jukebox to rip a tune from your CD to Mp3 format. If you want Audacity to edit a MIDI file, a MIDI to MP3 converter will have to be used.