Bass guitar

A few days ago I was eating lunch with friends, and my friend Ferrell asked if he could borrow my guitar—his had broken. He ended up telling me that he and the guys he was playing with were looking for a bassist—so far they were just playing Interpol covers, which doesn’t work at all without bass. 

Fortunately, I have a bass. I don’t know if I would go so far as to say that I play bass, but I have one. And I can fumble out some basslines for my own songs well enough. So, due to a lack of homework and a great deal of boredom in the last few days, I learned several Interpol songs (“Obstacle 1″, “PDA”, and “Slow Hands”, for those who wonder) and today we practiced.

I really love playing music with other people. I haven’t played with anyone since the summer (with Plasma Youth). I like playing on my own, too, but playing with other people is just more, really—more of everything. It’s definitely more gratifying, and more helpful for getting better at the instrument, but it’s also more frustrating and harder to organize. We had tried—unsuccessfully—for the last few days to find a time to practice, and today was pretty problematic; Ferrell managed to lose both his phone and his date’s purse at a formal last night, so had to spend a lot of time trying to get both back (he did, eventually, though he had to leave practice for about fifteen minutes to pick up the purse from a bus depot). In any case, we managed to get together and run through the songs several times. It actually went quite well; the songs sound much better with the bass to hold them down and push them along. I also played a lot better than I thought I would—or could, even. I had fun, danced around, and my ears are ringing now. It was good.

Next time, we get to tackle vocals. A new adventure every week.

Haven’t Quit Yet

I realize that this space has been neglected lately, but it’s far from abandoned, I swear. In the last few weeks I’ve just had to concentrate on not quitting school. 

I’ve picked up a couple more things to not quit, though. I’m now trying to be healthier with the help of the internet. Two related sites (hundredpushups.com and twohundredsitups.com) offer simple, six week workout programs that concentrate on basic fitness (namely push-ups and sit-ups). I’ve started doing the recommended three days a week, which is really not difficult at all. I’m also trying to eat healthier, which is much, much more difficult. Memphis is not exactly the best place for health food. 

I’ve probably lost some weight in the last few days, though, because I’ve come down with something like a sinus infection. I went to the doctor today, and she said it wasn’t a sinus infection, but I’m still taking three different medications for it (I think it’s just bad congestion and drainage because of the awful weather change). In any case, I haven’t had much of an appetite at all. 

This weekend, perhaps as a side-effect of feeling terrible, I recorded a song, which I’ll post here once it’s done—it’s pretty much all finished aside from vocals. If you’re remotely interested in my music, there are a few songs posted up on MySpace. Though I’ve effectively quit trying to hold a band together for any length of time, I haven’t quit making music. 

In the next week or so, I hope to make a renewed effort at learning the fiddle, with the help of an instructional book (I plan on making a trip to the illustrious Fretted Instruments this weekend). I will post more on that as soon as things get going.

Bad, bad, bad.

So I haven’t played my fiddle at all this week. I spent the weekend with my lovely girlfriend, Cate, which I think is excuse enough for not playing, but I haven’t exactly applied myself this week. I think that a lot of that might be because it’s the first real week of school (last week was just name games and syllabi). I have real homework now, and meetings. Responsibilities definitely get in the way of actual learning, sometimes.

I am taking a class, though, called “Building Music.” It’s an art studio class, taught by the sculpture professor, where we are learning how to build instruments. Today I built a wooden box. I guess that’s not much of an instrument on its own, but everyone else built a wooden box, too, and they’re all different sizes. So when we put them all together on Tuesday, it’ll be like a xylophone. Or something. In any case, I’m excited about the class. The end goal of the class is to create, build, and play a unique instrument. Which means I’ve got two instruments to learn this semester. I’m afraid the one I’m graded on might take precedence.

I think, too, that the internet alone may not be the best way to learn the fiddle. I’m going to get a book on it sometime soon, so that I have some sort of progressive learning tool rather than random videos I find online (no offense, David). I did find this website, which offers 10 free “lessons,” delivered through e-mail. I’ve subscribed, and I’m interested to see how useful the lessons are. They didn’t ask for my credit card, so I’m assuming it’s not a scam. After all, who the hell scams would-be fiddlers?

Introduction, I guess.

Given my learning-the-fiddle focus for this blog, it would seem logical—even imperative—that I start out with a picture of the fiddle itself:

Just for good measure, here’s a picture of one of my cats, displaying her love for the arts:

I decided that I wanted to learn how to play the fiddle (not violin—I’ll get to that later) when I attended a party at some friends’ house. There were some instruments around—a guitar, a banjo, a mandolin—and so a folk jam broke out. One guy that I had never met (he wasn’t a Rhodes student, just a friend of a friend, I think), brought out his fiddle and played along to the rest of us. The whole night was a lot of fun. I really enjoy playing music with people, and it’s a shame that I don’t get to do it more often. In any case, I was really taken by the fiddle playing; it added a lot to the musical atmosphere. So I decided to learn, telling my parents that I wanted one for Christmas.

My parents love folk music, so they were pretty excited. They both play guitar and sing. My dad has been talking for a while about learning the banjo, and my younger sister got her own guitar for Christmas. My grandfather, who passed away recently, had played the fiddle and harmonica for most of his life. 

My grandfather lived in Pensacola, Florida until Hurrican Ivan destroyed his house. Though we managed to salvage a lot from the house, we never found Grandaddy’s violin, which had belonged to his father. We moved him up to an assisted living facility in Nashville, and at some point my uncle and aunt bought him a refurbished violin so he could play some. His eyesight and hearing were both going at that point, so I’m not sure that he really got to play much; his much-loved harmonicas were easier to handle. So I got my grandfather’s fiddle for Christmas. It’s pretty new, but broken-in—the finish on the neck is mostly rubbed off. I think it’s great. 

Now I’m teaching myself how to play, using the internet as a resource. There’s a website that I found called Expert Village where learned folks can pass on their knowledge using video as a medium. David Kaynor has tons of videos about playing folk music, and they’ve been incredibly helpful. For instance, I found out that I had all the strings tuned an octave down, which basically just makes them sound flabby and awful. I’ve learned how to hold the bow correctly, and I’ve taught myself two songs by ear: “Twinkle Twinkle” and “Old MacDonald.” It doesn’t sound great, but I’m learning.

I don’t know how long it takes to be good enough to play with other people. I know I’m a ways off. Having a background in guitar has helped, but it takes a different set of muscles to play this thing. Hopefully, though, having this blog as a sort of obligation with keep me practicing.

Starting Over

Last year I attempted to maintain a blog (using Tumblr) called FiveThings (an “experiment in blogging by a guy who is no good at blogging”), with the idea that I could get into the mode of writing regularly if I cobbled together five things to post every couple of days. It didn’t really work that well because I’d end up just writing essay-type posts and just numbering the paragraphs. Tumblr also really isn’t set up to do much more than really short posts and it doesn’t show up on search engines. Over the winter break, I stopped posting completely.

I have a habit of starting things and not finishing them. I’ve started multiple blogs and only posted a few times. I’ve resolved to start working out more times than I can count, and I can probably count the number of times I actually have worked out on my fingers and toes. 

When I decided to learn how to play the fiddle, I realized that this could be one of those things that I quit. But actually owning a violin is an impetus (they’re not exactly cheap, even the cheap ones), and hopefully blogging will be another one. So the point of this new blog is not quitting in general. I suppose that it’s appropriate that I’m starting it in the new year. I hadn’t really thought about all this stuff in terms of resolutions, but that’s what it is. It’s worth a shot, in any case.