Of Tuners and Metronomes

My new Seiko SQ50V metronome arrived. I had ordered the model closest to my old Seiko SQ44 metronome that had the fatal fall last month.

I also ordered a tuner mike which allows me to plug directly into my tuners. This will help eliminate ambient parakeet noise and also help me tune in other noisy environments.

I actually have two tuners. The first one I got 25 years ago -- a Zenon Chromatina SQT-363. It allows you to select a note and either play it or tune to it. Good for droning scale exercises or tuning to an exact note.

Droning is great when one is trying to play a scale in one of those funny keys with too many sharps or flats.

My other tuner is a KORG CA-30. It tells you which note you are attempting to play.

Both are good tools to help keep me honest.

Well I'm off on another cello hiatus. I'm visiting some friends until Saturday.

Boring stats:
M 7/23/07 - Work up "Old Joe Clark" M5. Schroeder 8, G minor scale.
T 7/24/07 - Suzuki III # 2 and 6, Schroeder 8, E flat Major Scale. Bow exercises
W 7/25/07 - Schroeder 9, Upper bow only exercise
R 7/26/07 - No practice - Entertaining out of town relatives
F 7/27/07 - No practice - Entertaining out of town relatives
S 7/28/07 - Weiner 1-4c, Exercises for Thumb, Vibrato, Trill, Bow, Schroeder 10, Scales: E flat major and C minor. Suzuki III # 2, Review M1
U 7/29/07 - Weiner 1-4c, Exercises for Thumb, Vibrato, Trill, Bow, Schroeder 11, Scales: G and E minor. Suzuki III # 2, Review M1-M4. Look for more notes on the Swan.
M 7/30/07 - Mostly just sightreading, seeing how many notes I can find in the Swan and the Brandenburg Concerto #3.

Scores

My Suzuki teacher friend just asked if I'd be interested in playing with his students later this year. He emailed me scores of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Brandenburg Concerto #3, Beethoven's Symphony #7 (2nd movement), Bach's Violin Concerto in E Major (Continuo part), and Bach's Concerto in D minor (Continuo). Wow, what a challenge! Should I pick up the gauntlet?

Learning to Talk Like Yoda

Anticipating travel in Turkey in October, my husband and I are trying to learn a few Turkish phrases. It's another interesting language. No masculine and feminine to deal with but one has to listen closely to hear the Moo and the Mee syllable which falls in the middle of a phrase to determine if the phrase is a Question or a Negative.

Here's some examples:

turk-che biliyourmoo sehnez.
Turkish Know? You
turk-che bil mee yourum.
Turkish, Know Not, I

Another phrase that will be useful
Ee yehdeal Turkche konishur um
Good Not, Turkish Speak I

60 days and Old Joe Clark

Today is the two month mark for my cello studies. I'm counting all days except vacation and sick/injury time. Here's something a little different thanks to Maricello. I decided to make Old Joe Clark a position and shifting study. Issues: intonation and still need to get more wrist into the bowing.



Boring stats:
7/9/07 - 7/16/07 - Review Essential Elements Cello Book I
7/17/07 - Review M1, M2, M3, M4.
7/18/07 - C Am Scale, bow exercises
7/19/07 - bow exercises
7/20/07 - Weiner 1-4a, String crossing exercises, Thumb, Schroeder Exercises 1 to 5. F Major Scale, bow exercises
7/21/07 - Dminor scale. Scroeder #6, Upper Bow only exercise.
7/22/07 - Thumb, try to find more notes for the Swan, Bflat Major Scale, Reading Old Joe Clark

Rabid Reader

My mother-in-law recommended Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett so I ordered it from the library. In the meantime a friend gave me 3 Discworld fantasies by Terry Pratchett. Needless to say, I've only read two chapters of the serious book but have already finished 2 of the 3 fantasy books.

On the cello front, I've managed to get back to about the point where I was when I left to go to St. Petersburg. This means I still have issues with M4 - Bach's Musette from English Suite # 3. What great fun, starting from scratch after a month of not playing.

Am watching YouTube's Gonshu animation (a Cellomania referral), it incorporates lots of things that I love. Wonder if a real video exists somewhere...

Slog, Slog, Slog

That's the feeling I get these days playing through the elementary book.

I suspect that I'm playing with a lot more sound and power but I sure get tired quickly.

Back to Basics

Since it's been about a month since I last played with Velina, I thought I might as well start from the beginning again with open strings and reading Elementary book I. Velina spent quite a bit of time lounging in bed today as I'm back to five minutes sessions.

Wild Swans

Finished "Wild Swans" which was a memoir running from the turn of the century to 1990. A slow read with a lot of sad stuff. I wonder if there are any memoirs written by Chinese men. This is the third book I've read about Chinese history that was written from the women's point of view.

Working up Prior Learning Assessments towards the BA. Getting all the materials together will take time. Tomorrow, I'll take out Velina and try to get her warmed up again. Poor girl's been neglected for almost a month.

Also distracted with more travel plans. Got word from my husband that we needed to reserve the hotel for Istanbul already even though the stamp show isn't until October. That started the planning domino effect -- started making plane reservations for visiting a friend at the end of July, Baltimore for the end of August and Chicago for mid-November.

Airfare for Istanbul runs around $900. I'll have to call Amex membership rewards and see if I can get a reduced fare. I'm planning on going a few days earlier than my husband to visit Cappadocia. Its a perfect place for me to visit alone as my husband doesn't want to go into any underground cities or float in a hot air balloon.

Looked at Rosetta Stone, Lesson 1 for Turkish. It's a strange language. A few words make sense like "adam" for man, kedi (kitty), and banya. The rest I haven't been able to connect to anything yet in my head.

Hungry Tide

Yesterday, I finished reading "Hungry Tide" by Amitav Ghosh. I can recommend it to anyone who's interested in India, its low lying islands, and/or dolphins. It's the first book I've read set in India besides "The Jungle Book". Despite some overly long descriptions which to me always feel like the author is being paid by the word, I found the history, myths, and characters engaging. Also, I liked the fact that the balance between the needs of wildlife and humans is not simplified. Now starting "Wild Swans" by Jung Chang which is supposed to be a true memoir of 3 generations of Chinese women.

Book Binge II

Been reading lots since my flight home Tuesday. It's gives one a sense of extended vacation, being able to just read, check email, read, blog, read more, eat drink, and read some more. So far, I've consumed:

1) "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel - a narrative about a shipwrecked kid, easy read and fun in a "Big Fish" sort of way. Quite memorable.
2) Michael Crichton's "Time Line" - a sci-fi time travel story with some interesting ideas, plot huhs? with some glimpses of medieval life thrown in to make one feel like they're getting some historical fact along with the fiction.
3) Carl Hiaasen's "Basket Case" - fluff adventure, murder mystery with the usual insider digs at newspaper journalism.
4) A novel about India called "The Hungry Tide" by Amitav Ghosh which my mother-in-law just gave me today which may or may not prove interesting.

I'll probably have to rejoin real life tomorrow.

Fingered

Well my sprained index finger actually feels like it is starting to get better. Today I can actually bend the first joint ever so slightly as opposed to holding it stiffly in a permanent pointing at you position. Read on the net, it could take a week to get back to normal. Glad its not the middle finger or I wouldn't be able to go out in public.

I was really moved by the Saint Saens "Carnival of the Animals" concert we saw in Russia. So sorry that the video I took of the cellist playing "The Swan" was lost with the camera. Ah well, memories...