I don’t really know what “The Consonance of The Fifth” means; I’m working on it.  I realized yesterday that I know very little about why the Western seven-note scale exists, so I started to explore it via Wikipedia and other online sources, and learned that fifths and eighths – the octave – are especially consonant, or “sweet.”  I’m not ready to write much yet, but I’m having fun learning about it.  The short answer is that it’s about the ratios of the sound frequencies to each other – when you start to unpack it you find your old friend from geometry, Pythagoras, lurking just under the surface.  I will keep up my reading and keep you posted as I learn.

On an unrelated matter, I’m having trouble with the first finger on the A string – AKA “B.”  More than the other notes I’m playing, it’s the note with which I’m most frequently and most severely out of tune.  I have much less trouble with F#, which is played with the same finger on the E string.  For some reason, when I move it to the A string it won’t stay as upright; my problem is a difficulty with keeping just the tip of my finger in contact with the string – I keep spreading out the whole pad of my finger.  So in addition to holding the bow and violin, I’m now working on my first finger position.  As far as things to drill down and improve upon, my first finger positioning seems like a decent place to start.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan