What Are You Practising / Composing Now?

[RichardB]

Coming along strongly there JK. I think the world of Bach seems to suit your current musical direction more than jazz. But returning to playing changes after going through the prism of Bach and using that experience to free yourself, if that makes sense, may produce some beautiful results. I don't think many jazz guitar players play as if they have Bach in their systems.

Some news regarding my involvement with the writings of our late friend Simon Howard: today I finished the ninth of sixteen pieces based on the cycle he wrote for me shortly before his death in 2013. I think Simon may have been a bit shocked at how long this project is taking and how much it has grown from the idea we started with back then. The sixteen pieces are divided into four "acts", and Act 1 is a commission from the Fonema Consort, an ensemble based in Chicago. The first component of Act 1 to be finished is a trio for soprano, flute and clarinet entitled until you are that ghost, which will be premiered in Brazil later this summer.

[Joseph K]

Coming along strongly there JK. I think the world of Bach seems to suit your current musical direction more than jazz. But returning to playing changes after going through the prism of Bach and using that experience to free yourself, if that makes sense, may produce some beautiful results. I don't think many jazz guitar players play as if they have Bach in their systems.

Thank you, Richard. Yes, I think a large part of abandoning jazz was the technique of using a plectrum. Once my right-hand fingerstyle chops become sufficiently good I may well dip my toe into playing jazz again.

In the mean time, I am going to take lessons with yet another person - the very formidable Rosie Bennet. She's quite a bit younger than me but I have been won over by her playing BWV 998, the Allegro of which you can see hear here:

... I am looking forward to lessons with her.

Some news regarding my involvement with the writings of our late friend Simon Howard: today I finished the ninth of sixteen pieces based on the cycle he wrote for me shortly before his death in 2013. I think Simon may have been a bit shocked at how long this project is taking and how much it has grown from the idea we started with back then. The sixteen pieces are divided into four "acts", and Act 1 is a commission from the Fonema Consort, an ensemble based in Chicago. The first component of Act 1 to be finished is a trio for soprano, flute and clarinet entitled until you are that ghost, which will be premiered in Brazil later this summer.

Great news.

[Dave2002]

Thank you, Richard. Yes, I think a large part of abandoning jazz was the technique of using a plectrum. Once my right-hand fingerstyle chops become sufficiently good I may well dip my toe into playing jazz again.

In the mean time, I am going to take lessons with yet another person - the very formidable Rosie Bennet. She's quite a bit younger than me but I have been won over by her playing BWV 998, the Allegro of which you can see hear here:

... I am looking forward to lessons with her.

Seems to be a good idea to have lessons - good luck.

At one time I thought your leanings were more towards jazz than Bach, but I guess I was wrong.

My own plans have faltered slightly - now trying to pull out of Covid - but slowly. That'll "learn" us for trying to take foreign holidays, going on a cruise ship, travelling by air, and passing through LHR too many times.

I've also been somewhat irritated by YouTube, which seems to be running an automatic profiler on a film with a sound track I put up. It was a short example of Der Fluyten Lust Hof played by me on a red plastic Adri's dream recorder, recorded directly into my computer - no fancy microphone - then processed a bit in Logic.
The claim is that I don't have copyright. What part of the profiler doesn't understand that (a) the original composer died over 350 years ago, (b) it really was me playing - the mistakes may be obvious etc. I lose patience with Google and its tracking etc.

To me this is just an insult, with a couple of organisations claiming a right to this - though as it says in the warning "This is not a strike out ..." So what - it really bugs me as I wanted to use the audio to synchronise with a score - and now it seems the audio in my uploaded video is muted. What a pain.

[french frank]

I am looking forward to lessons with her.

Thank you for posting that, JK. She has an amazingly clean sound - none of those small buzzes or squeaks as she moves over the fingerboard. Good luck.

[Joseph K]

Seems to be a good idea to have lessons - good luck.

At one time I thought your leanings were more towards jazz than Bach, but I guess I was wrong.

Hi Dave - sorry to hear you have covid.

Actually, while my leanings may have been towards jazz, I almost always played some Bach anyway, alongside the jazz. But you weren't wrong because at one time it was the case that jazz was my main focus. My main reason for abandoning jazz were my lack of aptitude for using a plectrum, and disliking my own improvisations - and these two things were interlinked - i.e. I disliked my improv because I hadn't/couldn't solve the plectrum problem. But once I have some real right-hand technique i.e. fingerstyle, I will start playing jazz again I think... because even though it is a very tall order playing jazz well, I don't think I entirely lacked at least some talent in that area.

Thank you for posting that, JK. She has an amazingly clean sound - none of those small buzzes or squeaks as she moves over the fingerboard. Good luck.

Thanks. And yes - I do detect the odd squeak but it's not overly noticeable, it's about as squeak-less as you're likely to encounter. But yes, it's a great performance, I really appreciate the rhythmic subtleties especially. The whole suite is on youtube if you're interested.

[ahinton]

In the mean time, I am going to take lessons with yet another person - the very formidable Rosie Bennet. She's quite a bit younger than me but I have been won over by her playing BWV 998, the Allegro of which you can see hear here:

... I am looking forward to lessons with her.

Remarkably fine and clean playing; I am certain that your lessons with her will be most rewarding!

[Dave2002]

I found this:

Comparing guitars at different price levels.

Yep - I think I can tell the difference between the cheapest one - $200 - and the next one up. Less sure about the higher priced models - but then I'm not a guitar player.
There could be other factors, such as how easy any player finds a particular instrument to play. My guess is that a pro would like the $20k model - not sure if it would be worth spending ten times that.

[Joseph K]

Remarkably fine and clean playing; I am certain that your lessons with her will be most rewarding!

I hope so.

[RichardB]

My guess is that a pro would like the $20k model - not sure if it would be worth spending ten times that.

Of course the more accomplished a player one is, the more fine the details of technique one is sensitive to and able to bring consciously into play, and this is when the difference between the last two instruments (whatever their price, which isn't really relevant) comes into view. To me they would all feel more or less the same to play because my technique is so rudimentary. But there are reasons why people spend their lives crafting the finest instruments for the best players to work with. I had the occasion a few years ago to accompany my OH when her orchestra was buying a new instrument and she had to choose between three different ones (all costing a high five-figure sum if you're interested). I thought they'd all sound the same to a non-expert like me, but actually, in the hands of an expert player, their relative strengths and shortcomings came quite sharply into focus, and the choice was fairly clear.

[Dave Payn]

The first few pages of the Arban Cornet Method, having been laid low with Covid two weeks and only now able to play for about 20 minutes at a time.

[Dave2002]

The first few pages of the Arban Cornet Method, having been laid low with Covid two weeks and only now able to play for about 20 minutes at a time.

20 minutes doesn't sound too bad. I sympathise though - as we've had Covid for at least a week now, and it really isn't very nice. I was hoping it would go away - but it's taking its time. Good luck with the playing.

[Dave Payn]

Thank you. I should have said 20 minutes even with breaks but I managed some more this morning and it's getting easier.

[Dave2002]

I am now wondering whether playing a wind instrument actually helps - though of course if one still has a viral load not good to spread it around if others are nearby. Deep breaths do seem to help. Build up slowly and carefully I think.

[Joseph K]

This -

... which is something I haven't played in quite some time, but started practising again yesterday. I decided while it's great practising Bach, Bach is also really quite challenging, so I wanted something that was more idiomatic and relatively simple so I can work on basics like tone and refining my right-hand technique (by comparison my left-hand is pretty secure). In the above video this etude is played fairly slowly, but in my edition it's crotchet = 110 and I can't quite comfortably play it at that tempo yet; I want to be able to play this simple thing very well so I have experience doing that where I have room so to speak for interpretation, rather than just about managing something more complex from a technical standpoint like Bach.

[Camp]

I've started practicing to play flute. I really like it. I never thought it is one of the most diverse instruments. Learning it means learning how to take care of your body. Playing a good flute means to give both your body and brain a workout So, I'm totally into the flute for the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlsNNu4VXF0&ab_channel=TheFluteChannel