Fiddlin’

Posted on March 30, 2009

I love the fiddle, always have,  and I’ve wanted a fiddler in Beltaine’s Fire from day 1.  unfortunately, we’ve never been able to find a good one that has a solid attitude and can deal with the fact that we don’t get paid reliably because we’re a local independent band.  so i’ve decided to learn myself.   which i guess means my slow but steady transformation into a bonified folk musician is destined to continue.  i don’t know if the world is ready for a rapping fiddler or a fiddling rapper, but that’s never really stopped me before.

anyway.

so far it’s a lot of fun and a *lot* of work.  kind of expensive too, so far I’m in about $300 for the violin itself, new strings, a new bow, and a few other odds and ends,  plus $50 a week for lessons.

my teacher (Michael Mullen – one of my favorite celtic fiddlers on the west coast and someone you may recognize from his guest appearances on my band’s first album) assures me it’ll be at least 5 years, probably closer to 10, of intense study before I should even think about bringing my instrument on stage.  which kind of defeats the reason I wanted to pick it up in the first place.  except that I’m just stubborn enough to think I can probably do it sooner if I’m as obsessive compulsive about this as I am about most other things in my life. we’ll see.  I’ve got a bad history of getting really excited about instruments, playing for a while, then getting bored and moving on to something else, but I think that’s partly because I’ve been so broke for so long I haven’t been able to afford lessons and there’s only so far you can get being self-taught.  now though I’ve got at least a little bit of financial security and can afford lessons so no excuses – I’m going to need to put some serious work in.

anyway, that’s all my news.  hope ya’ll are enjoying the sunshine.  it’s a beautiful day here in oakland and I’m gonna go spend some time outside before it gets dark.

Less the Relevance

Posted on October 7, 2008

Just a quick post today to let ya’ll know that my partner, the lovely and supremely talented Laura Noel, has just made her first album available on Jamendo.com as a free download.  check it out:

As Old as Song

Posted on July 9, 2008

Saw this article and thought it was pretty cool.  check it out.

Ancient hunters painted the sections of their cave dwellings where singing, humming and music sounded best, a new study suggests.

Analyzing the famous, ochre-splashed cave walls of France, the most densely painted areas were also those with the best acoustics, the scientists found. Humming into some bends in the wall even produced sounds mimicking the animals painted there.

…

Because Paleolithic humans had a deep connection with the melodic properties that helped them navigate in a cave, they likely celebrated the unique acoustics by singing in conjunction with their painting sessions.

“Why would the Paleolithic tribes choose preferably resonant locations for painting,” he said, “if it were not for making sounds and singing in some kind of ritual celebrations related with the pictures?”

The phenomenon isn’t limited to the interior of caves, etiher. Studies have been done at some outdoor Paleolithic sites in France and Finland, and the sound-painting connection is also strong, Reznikoff said.

Full article at LiveScience.

Now that’s cool.