Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Prelude 4 almost done. A few spots just need worked up to speed.

Transcribing: Just figured out one tiny part of Real Life's rhythm.

Also, I have blisters.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Prelude 3 - Everything except trouble spots easily up to 200. However, thumb joint started hurting and swelling while working on chords, so will work on Prelude 4 for a while.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Prelude 4 - chords - work at ♪=40?  So chords in 3rd and 4ths split in half.

Prelude 3 - Once I was able to get page 3 closer to speed, it started making more sense - the rhythm is like how I used to play the piano before I could play.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Sometimes stretching makes me feel euphoric, sometimes not. Today was a sometimes not day. Just couldn't muster the concentration needed. And my finger is still tender.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

More work on Prelude 4. Middle section is up to ♩=56, but will need work on smoothness and dynamics.

Prelude 3 2nd page is still not sticking in my brain. As soon as I try to play the whole thing through, it's like I've never seen the page before. 3rd page need to work up to 200.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

I *do* have a blister.

Prelude 4 2nd page worked more measures to 56.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Either poked a hole in my finger while rewiring a lamp, or gave myself a blister while practicing - couldn't play Prelude 3, worked on Prelude 4. Still in learning stages.

Monday, June 4, 2012

I think it's working - I successfully played the stuff I worked up to 200 two days ago at 200 consistently.  The newer stuff, however, not so much. Maybe it will sink in in a couple days.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Apparently speeding things up and forcing myself to play faster works. 144 seems like a snooze.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Played some Debussy - need to get decent version of Clair de Lune. Seriously, Salzedo, WTF.

Experimented playing tiny snippets up to speed in order to get past 144. It seemed to work - playing subsequently more slowly was easier. Right hand thumb is still throwing a wrench in the works. I'm over compensating by rotating my wrist to give myself leverage.  Could it be time to restart strength training on thumb? Concerned thumb joint might explode again.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Sore muscles from working out, but lots of energy from working out, but tired from working out, combined to make me not feel like concentrating on learning anything yet ended up playing for an hour.  Salzedos Preludes (not Srebotnjak!), Vers La Source, (Flight)... basically whatever was on my music stand.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Was all excited that I was doing well on Prelude 4 until I realized it's ♩=56 not ♪=56.

Prelude 3 - Have to work trouble spot thoroughly and slowly every day.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Prelude 3 - still falls apart at ♪=144. Still need to play it slowly to memorize that section.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Worked on about 2 measures of Prelude 4 before giving up from feeling cold and having a drippy nose. And sleepiness.

I did post Prelude 1 finally.  The one that made my thumb joint explode.  So it's not a great version, but it's the only one of me playing it that's ever going to be in existence.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Prelude 3 pg 2 up to ♪=144.  Need to start slow and work up again.

Prelude 1 almost done in Audacity.

Ignoring transcribing.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Page 2 up to 100, start out less tomorrow and work back up.

Dizzy interrupted practice.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Prelude 3: start speeding up - pg 1 done. Pg 2 start at 56 and work up. Remember where accents are and 3rd octave F is loud.

Prelude 4: start at ♪=50 after tempo change and work up.

Transcribing: Entered what I could in Finale.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Today was one of those days where I don't feel like tuning.  Or concentrating.

However.

Prelude 4 opening triplets up to ♪=132. Will be better with concentrating. Prelude 3 run through was... not bad.  Need to work on trouble transitions. And the 16th notes.

Website only has 50M, not 50G, so need to take things down.  And slow loading times for songs. Third strike?

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Recorded Prelude 3 - need to:
+ count 123-12 to get swing
+ still work on line 2 pg 2
+ practice detailed dynamics

Prelude 4: up 2 back 1 to get it under fingers.  DO THIS.

Transcribe: Real Life is unfathomable.

Using foam that I'm allergic to for pillow stuffing is not a good idea.  Wool batting, however is fine. And potentially has non-lethal vapors should there be a house fire. Not that I'm expecting one.  

Strike two for web hosting (1-2 day customer service).

Friday, May 18, 2012

Can almost play Prelude 3 at ♪=132 - that's averaging parts I can't play well with parts I can play at speed.

Started on Real Life. Thought I wasn't going to be able to figure out the chords, but I think I managed - first part is Amaj and B♭maj arpeggiated.  I does change key after the break.

Finally making a cushion for my harp bench so I can stop flattening my accent pillows.  Thankfully, I didn't get rid of the leftover foam from making my harp cover.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Come back to 2nd line after rest of piece is finished. I have about 1 more page to learn - everything else is repeats.

Finished Movement of Fear. Slightly more interesting chords than Christian Says. In E minor and possibly B harmonic minor in some spots.

Stuck on one spot in Audacity.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Augh! This piece is killing me!

Enjoy the last + in the measures in Zarabanda.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

My thumb base joint started hurting and got worse as I played, so I cut it short after .... hey 1.25 hours! Go me. Anyway, I cut it short, but not before getting the 2nd line pg 3 up to 160 comfortably (not including thumb pain).

Prelude 4 started, and sounds like it's going to be really interesting. And easier. The opening glisses are in a weird tempo and I need to remember to count.

Wish I could play more today!


Thursday, May 10, 2012

Audacity: Got one whole pass in order. Got stuck on finding an error-free passage on pg 3, so working on it later.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Slept most of the afternoon away, so had energy to just play - lots of Salzedo in 5/4.

Monday, May 7, 2012

So tired - just played a few Etudes.

Audacity - organized and labeled all tracks.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

I was smart today and practiced before playing Terminator Salvation.  I had to ice my hand when I got home. *giggle*

Playing line 2 and 3 takes immense concentration. It will take a lot more work. Got it up to about 100 and still sounding good. So maybe goal for tomorrow is 120.

Was going to work with Audacity today but can't stop listening to B-Boys.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Practice: Started over and started slowly. Now have 2nd line pg 2 to 80 satisfactorily. Now I can start speeding it up.

RIP Adam Yauch. *sigh*

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Practice: Worked up to 160. Need to work very slowly instead, over and over, maybe about 80 or less.

Transcribe: Need to listen to some things in phrygian mode.  Also, relisten to phrygian guitar mode.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Workout + work on tough lines = sore arms.

Finished transcribing Christian Says to the best of my abilities.  It sounds hilarious in Finale with the instruments I picked.

Monday, April 30, 2012

I'm taking this week to do some more digging on HMLKKBCJ - Hattie Mabelle Lynn Knapping Kittridge Barker Childs Jacobs.

I found another directory listing from 1897 in Worcester Mass for her as Mabelle Lynn, Mrs., a music teacher, at 345 Park Av. "h. do." What does that stand for?  In the abbreviation index it says h. = house and do. = ditto.  Ditto what? She lived and taught at home?

She's also listed in 1898 at the same address.  In 1899, she moved to 11 Murray Ave.

In 1906, she and Henry Jacobs are listed in the real estate record section of the Worcester City directory as follows:
Jacobs Henry L & Mabelle L. Childs, 5 Benefit, blds $5100; 4320 ft. $2800.
I'm going to assume she did NOT own a building with Henry and have that info published in a city directory while she was married to Harry. But hey, you never know.

The contents page says "Real Estate Record: A complete transcript of the city assessors' books relating to real estate, showing name of owner, size of lot, and valuation of every estate in Worcester." Why are there two prices? Does that mean they bought the building together before they were married?

She is listed in 1898 city directory as Alhambra Mandolin, Guitar and Harp Club Director, and in 1899 and 1900 as Alhambra Mandolin, Violin, and Harp Club Director.  She was also listed under orchestras as the Director of the Alhambra String Quartette.

I am trying to find any ancestors, and it seems that her cousin May Belle Grace Dadnum (1876-1941) married Henry Irving Everett (1877-1921), and they had a son Dana Whiton Everett(1915-1985). He married Doris Emily Jenner (1916-2000) and they had a daughter Dorothy L Everett who died in 1978 at the age of 40.  But she apparently had children, and so far that seems the only possible connection to Mabelle.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Practice: 2nd page 2nd and 3rd line need to memorize. Need to learn entire piece then polish.

Transcribe: Got a lot further. My big problem is still rhythm, but it is getting easier. And I can recognize a fifth without having to sound it out.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Good practice - stretched and ate vegetables before. Makes a difference?  Need to buckle down and power through trouble spot w/16th notes on 2nd page.

Got printer ink so I can print out music I finally got spaced right in Finale.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Domain transfer failed again, so website is still not up. So far, everything is going as I expected. :/

Continuing Audacity work.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

It took over 20 minutes to get music spaced properly in Finale. It was a case of "select this before you perform this action, but we're not going to tell you what you have selected".

Lower goal tempo for P3 to something like 152.

Worked on p2 of P1 in Audacity.  I may have some useable portions, but that opinion changes every time I listen to it.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Practice - Groggy from allergy meds. Skipped the 2nd line and tried the 3rd. Feel like it's doable now - hands not so stiff as previous few days.

Trans -

Monday, April 23, 2012

Practice: Another flubby finger day.  I feel like maybe I need a "pre-workout shake" before I practice on days I'm tired. 2nd line was impossible hand apart and together today.

I heard a few more notes in transcribing, but only could be sure of 2.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Tendons and joints stiff and swollen, possibly due to allergies, possibly due to getting woken up at 3am by neighbors. Practiced a little hands apart on Prelude 3 and got nowhere.  Or maybe I did - I'll see tomorrow.

Transcribing later.  ETA: Got a large part into Finale, and that seemed to make things make even more sense.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Friday, April 20, 2012

Practice: Hands apart works really well - when I learn pg 2 line 2 that way I can keep them separate and discrete in my brain as opposed to "AAAAAHHH! EVERYTHING'S HAPPENING AT ONCE!"

Transcribe: I can't hear worth S**T.

My website is down and will be until one of the two companies I'm switching between figures out what's going on.  Which means probably forever.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Practicing: 2nd line on 2nd page needs to be learned and practiced hands apart, otherwise it sounds like a complete mess, in addition to being "modern".

Transcribing: Decided to block out entire song, ie A - verse, B - chorus , C - interlude.  Everything is 4 measures, except one verse is 6, there's one inexplicable key change. Having it blocked out may help to write down what I'm hearing as I'm listening to it.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Out with a cold/allergies/whatever. Played a little to keep limber.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Practicing: Played 1 hr? Got 1st page Prelude 3 up to speed, and beyond, sort of.  I need to remember it's not as fast as I originally thought. ETA Oh, right. Forgot I recorded to see how I'm doing -
Right hand is louder, even at pp. Try to make it less plinky. Let left hand come out for once!
Transitions in 3rd line (again) and chords in 2nd to last line.

Transcribing: I realized I've been fantasizing about getting really good at transcribing and adding it as a separate component to practicing. So now I'm trying to start the habit of doing that. Will go do that after break.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Only played 15 min. Hard to play longer when tired.  Did work through a problem spot in 3rd line.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Difficult to stay within 1/2 hour. 

Another thing that helps with practicing - taking frequent breaks. Like, really frequent - every 10 minutes.

Thumb swelling a little more, but not in joint, so that's good?

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

1/2 hour - Worked on Prelude 3. Getting speed up to ♪=200 line by line.  Thumb still appears ok.

Monday, April 9, 2012

1/2 hour - muscles and finger pads hurt, but not joints - thumb joint still seems unswollen.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Tried playing for 1/2 hour. With all the arranging and tuning, ended up being 10 minutes.  My thumb joint initially hurt when I bent it after plucking a string.  However, that went away about 5 minutes into playing. However, however, that could be due to my usual "pain in hands goes away when I play". 

I tried closing my thumb more like the left one, ie not aiming the tip of my thumb at the 1st finger knuckle, but the thumb knuckle to 1st finger 1st phalanx/knuckle area.  Kind of like when you make a fist puppet.

I am hoping that I am not just paranoid and that the cyst does not look bigger after playing.

So my goal is to play 1/2 hour every day for a week then bump that up gradually as I get back into shape. I will not be playing Prelude 1 again, though, that's for sure.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Thanks to Ed Galchick, I now have non-hopping pedals!

Now if this stupid cyst would just go away...

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Getting my harp looked at (again) tomorrow and hopefully getting my pedals back in perfect working order.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Playing aggravates the cyst in my thumb, so I'm taking another unwanted vacation from playing.  Awesome.

Listening to Prelude 1 I need to fix the following things:
+Faster sounds better
+Arhythmic section in tempo
+1st gliss smoother

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

I read the surprising news on a medical website that smashing a cyst with a heavy book "could, in fact, cause further injury."

Not playing today, just continuing to listen to the multiple recordings. So far, faster sounds better.

Monday, March 12, 2012

So far, not so much useable recordings. There's bits and pieces, though.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

The cyst does weird things to the feeling in my thumb - kind of painful but kind of numb at the same time, and it's translated to a different place than the actual cyst.  But despite that, I recorded again hoping to get something useful this time.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

My body decided it needed an extra challenge in learning the new way to play Prelude 1 and I now have a ganglion cyst in my right thumb joint. Yeehaw.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

All signs point to my harp actually having less tension on it.  Whew.

From http://liutaiomottola.com/formulae/tension.htm
A few things should be apparent from the formula:
1. Everything else being the same, pitch increases as tension increases;
2. Everything else being the same, tension increases as scale length increases;
3. Everything else being the same, tension increases as unit weight increases, thus a heavier gage string will be under greater tension as a lighter one of the same length tuned to the same note;

This is not tension as in how it feels to play - that is referred to as compliance of the string, and that is the subjective "these strings feel tight and are more difficult to play" feeling the musician gets.
Worked on Prelude 1. Again. The good thing is I have it completely memorized with the old finger markings, and it seems to be translating well to my new finger patterns.  I have a feeling, though, that it will be like visiting a foreign country and speaking a different language.  The first couple days it will be fine due to severe concentration on wrapping your head around a different way of communicating. But then the third day will be completely bonkers - your mind can't figure out if you're speaking the new language or your native tongue - and you end up saying things like "s'il vous пожалуйста". 

We'll see how it goes.

Also, I got a tension chart from Bow Brand and their string lengths are almost FOUR INCHES longer than mine (up to 1" in the upper registers).  I'm thinking this will have a severe effect on the amount of ft/lbs pulling on my soundboard.  As well as on my fingers!

Monday, March 5, 2012

I had a revelation tonight that Prelude 1 can be played much more easily and less buzzy using 21 in the LH and 21 in the RH, instead of 2 in the LH and 421 in the RH like it's marked.  This is astonishing and depressing at the same time: astonishing - who the heck is this fingering for and why wasn't it just written 21? depressing - I will have to relearn the entire thing.  Yes, I could just keep playing it the same way, but my brain is already saying, "Yes! This is so much easier," and I can also already play it about a squinty billion times faster.

The stuff I recorded... whenever I recorded last, is not really usable. I think if I can relearn it, I can finally get it recorded.  How many months have I been working on this?

Friday, March 2, 2012

Recorded many many takes of Prelude 1. Hopefully, there's something usable. Wasn't really in the mood to play and had a hard time getting enough focus.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

No hand cramping, yay! 

Stress makes for bad practicing.

I'm reading "Moonwalking with Einstein" by Joshua Foer in hopes of improving my memory and memorization. And maybe I'll finally memorize Zarabanda.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

I tracked down Mabelle a little further along her timeline and found that, unfortunately, she died on 14 Mar 1915 in East Providence, Providence, RI.

I do finally have a list of all of her husbands:
Married Willie E. Kittridge on 31 Dec 1884 when she was fourteen
Married Harry A. Childs on 12 Apr 1895,
and married Henry L. Jacobs sometime in the early 1900s

She doesn't appear to have had any children.

Coincidentally, her grandmother was also married three times.   Her mother was married just twice, first to Charles/Chas W. Lynn, (who may or may not have been in prison!), divorced in Windham Co, CT, then to Charles W. Barker.  Her mother's sister Julia F. (Knapping) Dadmun died in 1884 and step sister Anna (Balcom) Arbuckle died in 1871.  Julia F's husband died in 1907, but they left a child named May Belle.  May Belle was a soprano in the Boston area from at least 1899-1908. That name must have had some significance for that family! 

So Mabelle had the following last names over the course of her life: Lynn, Knapping, Barker, Kittridge, Childs, and Jacobs. Whew!


Mabelle and Henry lived in East Providence, Providence, RI, and are listed there on the 1910 census.  Interesting thing: the other members of their household are Raymond L Kirzman 28yo M from CT, and Kamichika  23yo M who emigrated from Japan in 1907.  I wonder what the story behind that is!

Now I'm curious what happened to my harp!  Was she still playing when she moved to Rhode Island? Did she sell it before then?  Did her husband Henry sell it when she died?  Did they keep it in the family? Did Kamichika take up the harp?

What happened to it?

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

It seems the modification I made to Prelude 1 fingering made a huge difference in my hand cramping up. And my hands have already seemed to memorize it, so yay! I hope to record it soon.

Monday, February 27, 2012

One of my lovely coworkers who is a little nuts (in a good way!) for genealogy found a little more information about HMLC.  On the 1880 census, she is 12 years old (which makes her born in 1868/7, which means she lied on her marriage certificate? Tsk, tsk!) and living with her parents Charles W. Barker, 42, a policeman, wife Sarah E. Barker, 33, and Mother-in-law Julie A. Balcome, 52.  Mabelle is listed as "Mabel H".

So, so far, I have her with the last names of: Childs, Barker, Knapping, and Kittridge.  What did she go by after getting divorced? I wonder...  And I just noticed her marriage to Harry A. Childs was his first and her second.

And, of course, I got sucked in to looking for more info. Her mother died in 1903 at the age of 55 (Mabelle would have been either  34, 35, or 36) from interstitial nephritis, or kidney failure, and was living at 11 Murray Ave.  Sarah's maiden name was Knapping. Charles is listed on the 1910 census as widowed and living with Robert and Carrie Macmillan at 5 Benefit St, however Mabelle is not listed.  However, however, that's the same address Mabelle is listed under in the Worcester Directory in 1906 and '07. Hmm...  Did she get remarried in 1907? Did she DIE?  Augh!

Worked on Prelude 1 muscle memory.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Working on new fingerings for Prelude 1 that will help with hand-crampage.  Also working on getting new fingering memorized over old fingering.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Tried doing more string calcs today, but need either the density of material (google turned up a range of 1276-1360 kg/m3 for gut and 1000-1140 kg/m3 for nylon) or the weight in lbs/in.  I am NOT weighing all 45 of my harp strings individually with a vintage post office scale from Goodwill.  Will call Vanderbilt and/or L&H tomorrow during open hours - the left coast is so behind everyone else.

Worked more on technique today and building up muscles to record Prelude 1. Prelude 3 is equally challenging.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Insónia is up!

http://www.motorharp.com/tiago-sousa-insonia.html
Finished up Insónia today and going to post it later.  There's a lot of finger noise, but I'm pretty impressed with how well I played it.

Played more than practiced today, but did work on technique with Prelude 1 to see if I could adjust anything so my hands don't cramp up after more than one playing.  I found my right thumb needs to move differently - 2nd knuckle of thumb aimed towards 1st knuckle of 1st finger in the upper registers is the best I can describe it. This means my hand is at a different angle, too.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Recorded Insónia today on a whim.
Need to:
+ listen to all 4 or 5 takes
+ pick out best one or parts
+ stitch together (in progress)
+ make reverse intro
+ post to site
+ apply reverb and filters

ETA: + and rest delts. or stretch them or something.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Finished up the string meas, the diameter is .01" less stretched.  Made a few charts to double check my numbers were right. Next up, calculations!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

I feel like I learned nothing yesterday!  Need more work on percussion.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Still trying to record Prelude 1. It's hard to get any useful takes because my hands cramp up playing it after one time through.

Working on Prelude 3 and trying to coordinate soundboard taps. I'm definitely not a percussionist and they're easier to play faster.

Measured some string lengths, but had to stop because I was bending and craning my neck repeatedly.  String lengths may vary by up to 1/8" because I don't have sn accurate tool to measure them. What would you use?

Monday, January 30, 2012

I always forget when I'm sick how exhausting it is to hold up my arms to play.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

"When silencing parts between vocal lines, please keep in mind that a sudden drop in background ambiance can have an bad effect, so at the very least fade the area around the silenced part, to minimize that effect. Rules to start with are, fade in quickly and fade out slowly. Alternately, use the envelope tool to lower the volume in that area. That way, you can comfortably change it later." - Audacity  The envelope tool doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Yet.

"When you're satisfied, fade out the last two thirds of the overlapping upper part of the track, and fade in the first two thirds of the lower overlapping audio." - Audacity  - emphasis mine.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I've been exercising, adjusting my harp, and letting it settle.

Today, I started work on Prelude 2, and had just decided to try to record again, when it started (loudly) pouring rain.  Another day then.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Urg. This - http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/File_Management_Tips#Avoiding_loss_of_project_audio_due_to_missing_dependent_file - is what happened.  Usually, I plug the Zoom into my computer and it's no problem, but now it's saying it's plugged into F: instead of G:.  How do I fix that?  By doing the workaround found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297694. But does it work...  Yes! 

Now on to practicing...

Monday, January 16, 2012

Harp is finally restrung AND almost settled and string gauges measured.  I think I will measure the string gauges under tension, too, but after my harp has really settled. Maybe in a month? Or a couple weeks since then it will be next month.  This year is already flying by.

I exercised mostly today because Audacity was not playing my file properly so I couldn't hear what I wanted to work on.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Harp is finally restrung "properly" after having been strung "more properly" - moving the strings up one hole in the soundboard centered the strings in the discs up to 1st octave G!  I would expect harps normally only have this happen in the 7th - 4th octaves, and my soundboard is really not bowed out by much at all.

I'm also measuring string diameters as I'm cutting off the ends in prep for calculating tension/length/pitch.

This also means I could start recording again.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Worcester > City Information >Business Directory
Listed under Teachers > Music
11 Murray Ave: 1903, 1904
765 Main: 1905
5 Benefit: 1906, 1907

Listed under Orchestras
Alhambra String Quartette, Mrs. M.L. Childs, Director
11 Murray Ave: 1903, 1904, 1905

Friday, January 6, 2012

She is listed in the 1906 Cat Register book as owning a cat with one Mr. James H. Howland.  Maybe that had something to do with the divorce?

Thursday, January 5, 2012

On the 1900 census for Worcester Mass, there is a listing for Hattie M.L. Childs, musician.  It's got to be her!  She lived at 11 Murray Ave (possibly in an apartment) with her husband Harry A. who was a bookkeeper in a Printing? shop. She was born in Apr 1870, as was her husband.  They had been married 5 years and had no children.

Searching marriage records by Harry's name, I found a listing for him and Hattie M Lynn Kittridge on 12 April 1895,  so I really do think it's her. However on the marriage record, she's listed as a bookkeeper, too.  I wonder if she just up and decided to play the harp one day...

Her parents on the 1900 census are listed as: Charles W Barker,​ Sarah E Barker, on her marriage license they are: Charles W, Sarah E Knapping. ???

And sadly, Harry is listed as divorced in the 1910 census and living back at home with his mom.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

I'm continuing to cobble together different pieces of Prelude 2. 

The 2nd sequence of chords is out of tempo, even with the metronome!  And I'm not able to remove the metronome clicking because I've already deleted the sample areas I could have used.

I need to re-record the whole thing after I restring my harp.


I'm becoming more of a critical listener (I hope).

Monday, December 26, 2011

I can't really tell if the tension on my harp is less.  It sort of feels like it.  The harmonic overtones are completely different.  There are definitely different tones ringing longer.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

I experimented with shifting my strings up one soundboard hole to compensate for the amount the strings are offset from the center of the tuning discs. There are so many variables that I need to sit down and list them tomorrow.

I can feel my heartbeat all the way into my fingertips and my joints are stiff. I think my hands would be so much stronger if I did this every day.

Also started combining the good parts of Prelude 2 into one file.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Audacity only lets you add one label track? That's a little inconvenient if you're wanting to make specific notes on specific tracks and have to keep scrolling up and down.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

If you duplicate your track, then apply an effect, you can also adjust the gain (volume) of the effect. I believe the duplicated track would then be the original sound (dry signal) with effects, not just the effects. I think I could tease out different areas that need more or less work and then mix them back together! Cool stuff. Or even do a straight substitution.

"You can save a selection in a label. When you create a new label, the left selection edge determines the position of the label's flag. However, the right selection edge is also stored in the label, and when you click on it, the full original selection will be restored. " - Audacity I took a couple hours and started labeling good parts.
I worked a little Prelude 3 and my rt hand started to get shaky, so I switched to xmas carols. I get bored with those pretty quickly, though.

Monday, December 12, 2011

I recorded myself three times: the first a once-through, and other two playing Prelude 2 three times each.

Yesterday, on the first file, I played around with different Gverb settings based on the wiki page. The Quick Fix sounds ok all around, but the Small, Bright Hall makes the high plinky notes sing. It gets rid of most of the finger noise and makes my harp sound like what I think it should sound like.

Today, I went through the other two files and split out each repetition of the Prelude. As well as little bits I played here and there to try to correct dynamics, mistakes, and loud pedal changes. That took about 1.5 hours including a popcorn emergency. :)

Sunday, December 11, 2011

In Audacity, if you open a sound file and save it as a project, then move the original file (ie, disconnect your Zoom microphone from your computer), the project will have no sound when you try to play it. Momentary panic averted with google search.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

I've recorded enough stuff I think I can do something with the bits and pieces. I hope. I will be doing some audacity tutorials, that's for sure.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Took out 3rd and 4th finger slides in (Flight) since my tendons allow my fingers to just bend backwards instead of sliding. Nice.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

More exercising. Record one thing a month no matter the quality. Details close up, messy pieces further away. Try dresser.
Harold Budd: "Haru Spring" from 'In The Mist'

Friday, November 25, 2011