Food Safari: Lao

http://www.sbs.com.au/food/video/21023811760/Food-Safari-S4-Ep41-Lao

My friend-in-food, and painter of a gorgeous hibiscus on my head at one NextGen Christmas Party, Teena, told me about this episode as it featured a friend of hers. I streamed it just now and really enjoyed watching it. They had some great recipes, and one I really wanted to taste was the Barbecued Ox Tongue. I know, it's an animal product, but it looked so good.

Thank-you Teena for the heads up.

Violin Lesson #16

This lesson was going to be tough because I feel I did not practice enough this week. My freelance work is getting close to delivery, so I am spending a lot of time with it. This is necessary because the funds from this work will, I hope, pay for two things: a new Lenovo laptop for more freelance work, and my own violin.

During the week there was a very odd violin on gumtree.

"Beautiful Professional Violin with only one owner. MAde in 1940. Has been kept as a prize possession and is in as new condition but of course its tone is very mature and beautiful. Has been played in top Orchestras and movie soundtracks in NZ and now features in String Quartets and Orchestras in Australia. Owner is also a solo performer. Violin deserves an owner who wants something special. They will be 2nd only owner.
Seller is ready to negotiate a price."

Oh, and it cost $21,000. Laura said she would look into it. I know she has played professionally in New Zealand and Tasmania. How lucky am I that she is teaching me here and now. Laura said she would try and find some information about this seller but she thought it was suspicious. She had nothing for me at the lesson.

Also during the week I finally bought a Willy Wolf shoulder rest. It is the same type that Laura uses. Her shoulder rest has been comfortable for me before, so I held high hopes for my own. During the lesson, my violin still felt like it was slipping at times. Perhaps this is more to do with my posture and getting my jaw on the chin rest correctly than with the shoulder rest.

And I composed a second piece during the week. I don't recall exactly where the tune came from but I had been hearing it in my head for a while. The piece I wrote last week started off like Twinkle Twinkle =) This one I annotated in Noteflight and printed a copy to take to class. Laura was very happy with it, and so was I when I heard her play it. It sounded really good. She said I could learn to play this with slurred notes. That's good, I thought, because I can barely play this at all. In any case, it will become part of my repertoire.

I was not happy with the way I played my pieces. I need to use more bow, and thus to practice with more bow. To me, though, it seems like that means louder, and subconsciously I worry about disturbing the rest of the family. I'm going to have to get over that though because I really want to learn to play properly, and if Laura wants more bow, you can bet I am going to use more bow.

I have plenty to practice for next week, and my lesson is a day earlier since next Friday is Good Friday. I'll try really hard to make more time even though I have this freelance work going on. Perhaps next time I will schedule the freelance work a little better.
 

Violin Lesson #15

It was interesting for sure.

For a start it was on Thursday evening because Mrs Sage is working the late shift and I have to collect Prince and Princess Sage on Friday. Fortunately Laura offered me the Thursday spot. That was good because my parents had Prince and the neighbour took Princess to her dance class.

I started by showing Laura my composition. She liked it. I had used plenty of what I had learned and had written it well. I have been playing  and reading music for a while so I was confident I could write down the music accurately. She urged me to keep writing because (a) it is a good skill to have and (b) it will make learning new pieces easier. This was also an opportunity for Laura to teach me about sound dynamics. I remembered some of this from accordion days. It was good to review it again.

This week my playing was better. I tried hard to remember everything she had been teaching me. I think part of the problem is the shoulder rest. It is not supportive enough, so I feel like I need to hold it more with my jaw / chin and left hand. 'The Kettle Tune' was good enough to get a stamp (okay, no stamp, but Laura drew a smiling face) today.

I played some of the 'Slur And Stomp Song'. And this is where Laura told me about harmonics. If I play a string and ever-so-lightly touch it in the right spot, I make a sound that is known as a harmonic. The place I have to touch is far along the neck of the violin toward my shoulder. It was actually pretty cool. So the song requires harmonics (with the fourth finger) as well as stomping. Who doesn't like a good stomp, eh?

And there is a new song. I can't play the first line. I see flats and naturals so I will be learning more things soon. The remaining two lines contain harmonics again but no stomps.

I look forward to composing some more. It was good fun. Learning the violin has been a wonderful experience so far

Violin Lessons #13,#14

These two lessons were all about consolidating what I have learned. I know how to play the four notes with the first finger. What needs to happen now is to get good technique in playing those notes. I need to form good habits here before I carry on.

In lesson 13 I struggled with 'My First Waltz'. I found it very hard to get good sound consistently, especially from the E-string. Surprisingly, 'The Kettle Tune' was much better. It seems I find it easier to play on the lower strings than the higher strings. At the end of lesson 13 Laura showed me Slur and Stomp Song. I am allowed to play the first, third and fifth lines.

The week between lesson 13 and 14 was good for violin. Laura suggested I buy a few things: a Willy Wolf shoulder rest (one like hers), a corn pad, a metronome from Aldi and a full-length mirror. The corn pad was easy to get. This is to help train my left thumb to stop sliding along the neck of the violin. For some reason I seem to want to pull that hand in towards me. This may be from the tension I mentioned last week. The mirror we bought too. It's currently in the play room where I practice, but I think a sweetener was that we can use that mirror in the spare room upstairs when we need it. The metronome I could not find but Laura found one for me. She rocks. I paid her for it the next week and bought a Kit Kat to say thank-you. The Willy Wold shoulder rest can't come from America because they are not allowed to ship it here. This means I have to buy it from here, and since Simply For Strings is 25% cheaper than Animato, I'll be getting it from them some time next week.

Lesson 14 was good. Apart from getting the metronome, we placed the corn pad on the neck and that seemed to help the thumb. Unfortunately, my finger placement was not the best so I was still getting wrong notes. On top of that I now have to be aware of my back posture and head / neck posture. And my shoulders were still carrying tension. I'm going to have to review all that every time I start to play a piece to eventually start to do it automatically. One the plus side, I earned a stamp for 'My First Waltz'. Practice for that song had paid off. 'The Kettle Tune', which was good last week, was not so good this week.

The lesson went a little longer because the next student had cancelled so I had some extra time. At the end of the lesson was another surprise for me. Laura wants me to compose a piece. Me? Compose? Apparently so. I have learned eight notes and a handful of types of notes (cow, monkey, bumblebee) and rests as well as accents (>) and short notes (.). I am to write in D Major and it is to have eight bars. I can tell from now next week's lesson will be very interesting.