Category Practice Notes

Fifths and Starts

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, […]

Pulling the Voice Box out of Storage

I used to sing.  I was never the best vocal talent, but I could carry a tune – in some ways it was what I was supposed to do, so I did.  Mostly I loved it. I sang in more church musicals than I can remember, often with a leading role.  I sang in church […]

Great Hymns of the Faith

For my undergrad degree, I needed a music class credit to fulfill a general education requirement.  I had a couple of options, but ended up in a generic music appreciation class.  I learned a lot – the teacher was charismatic and knowledgeable, and we covered some of the formal components of symphonies and concertos and […]

Don’t Tell Aunt Rhody

As I practice, beginner ditties are coming back to me.  The past two days I’ve remembered and been picking out a simple tune from one of my first music books back in elementary school – those books always featured a lot of folk music, and the one I thought I remembered was “Go Tell Aunt […]

Daily Bread

Three days in and I have a perfect track record – just over 30 minutes a day practicing.  While I didn’t ask Teacher how much to practice, nor did she say, I think that’s a fine place to start. As I stand at my huge window that looks out over Lake Michigan, playing my violin […]