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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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?

Noisy construction work!

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

Improv to Colin Stetson.

"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.

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.

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...

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.