Well I am posting the video's from Good Friday's service. I played Dark Island by GreenBlatt & Seay by myself. Then Kayla accompanied me, on the piano, for Amazing Grace. We are both a little nervious, the church was full tonight.
I ended up using my old bow for the performance. I am not able to control the new bow on one string yet. the weight of it is a bit different than I am used to. I need to practice much more with the new bow before going public with it.
Of course the two videos are not as good as I thought they should be. The sound is not what I hear when I am playing at home. If it sounds this way to the cats, no wonder they try to stop me from playing :) Let me know what you all think, and be honest.
7 comments:
Hi Jacque, I applaud your courage and dedication. I really enjoyed your YorTube recording of "Dark Island" however the YouTube recording of "Amazing Grace" did not seem to have the same sound quality.
Speaking of cats, I have one who is deaf, she sleeps through my practice sessions, and one who comes to me when I start practicing. He rubs my leg while I am playing. Have not decided if it hurts his ears and he wants me to stop or if he thinks I am in extreme pain. We try to compromise over my practice.
Your tone has improved a lot since last summer.p[;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; (That was Sweetie's comment.) I'm impressed. (That was my comment.) That's a good-sounding viola, too.
But I have to ask... were you guys playing Amazing Grace in the same key?
The Amazing Grace was done in the same key, however the piano is in need of major tuning. We sounded much better at the other church where we practice. And with the keyboard, which had not been set up for this service. I guess we will know to have the keyboard next time.
Ah... that explains much.
A good trick for tuning the viola with the piano is to take the A from the piano and tune as you would normally, with 5ths or harmonics. Then have the pianist play the minor chord for each string - a minor, d minor, etc. while you make fine adjustments to the tuning to match the chord.
I hesitate to ask, but you don't tune with a tuner, then play with the keyboard, do you? You can never trust those keyboards, and unfortunately they can't change their tuning, so all the compromise has to be on your side.
BTW, if the piano is really out of tune and you have to adjust a lot, this can take some time. Plus you want to give the viola time to settle in at the new pitch. So my second hint is to get to where you are playing early enough to spend plenty of time tuning.
That shows you how green I am, I thought that all instruments would be tuned to A40 (the tuner). The keyboard must be pretty close since the Christmas song went allot better. Does anyone know how to transpose an mp2 into an mp3? If so I would be able to post the version of silent night for you all to see also.
My first attempt to leave a comment didn't work; maybe this will. Your sister was right: tune to the piano. As a seasoned Summerkeys accompanist, I pass on this wisdom: THE PIANO IS ALWAYS RIGHT. This is why I have buttons printed up with this motto. I'll award you one this summer. I'm sure you understand that "the Piano is always Right" refers NOT to the way I play it, but simply to the fact that it cannot get in tune with YOU; you have to tune to it... or pay someone $100 to tune the piano!
So... let me underline again, that YOUR playing was fine, OK? And I think your piano buddy there can do very well too, so stick with her; she's a treasure. That I say because as a Pooh-Bear violist, no decent pianist around here will accompany me. Evil snobby elitist Connecticut people. Brrrrrrrr!!!
I'm now inspired to make a YouTube myself, as soon as I can think of something silly enough.
Bump
As to mp2 to mp3, see if any of this advice is useful.
As to Bump, how hard do you need to think to come up with silly? I'm disappointed!
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