It's been some time since my last post, has it not? Almost a month! In fact, if I'd waited 'til tomorrow, it would have been exactly one month since my last entry! Incidentally, tomorrow is 11 November 2011. Abbreviate it and you've got 11/11/11. Ah, triple numbers! This is the second-to-last time we'll have triple numbers in the 21st century, you know! But, this isn't a math blog. Onward to other things!
Right. So, a few months ago, much to my dismay, I discovered I had all but forgotten how to play the violin. I'd been spending so much time on the piano keyboard, I had neglected my formal training and, as a result, sounded like a first-year violin student when I got back to it.
But, as I seem to have an unusual quantity of free time, considering where I am right now, I've decided to get back to the violin. Especially as I didn't have access to a piano or synthesiser for the first couple of months, I rather needed something to play.
At this point, I think I've returned to the experience level I had when I quit the instrument in 2007. In fact, I may have surpassed it slightly -- back then, I couldn't do fourth-position (moving your first finger up to the fourth note position on a string - this is usually done on the highest string to reach notes above the normal playing range), but now I use it routinely. Mostly just as a substitute for playing an open string (playing the fourth note position on any string produces the same tone as the open string above it).
I've learnt the value of playing the fourth position, inasmuch as it allows you to play vibrato, which you can't do on an open string; and that playing an open string will quickly betray the fact that your violin may not be precisely in tune, especially when playing with accompaniment whose instruments are in tune (like a computer or synthesiser).
Anyway, enough violin technique lecture. The real reason I'm writing this is because I've learnt a few new songs. Familiar songs that the other students here would recognise. The one I'm most keen on at the moment is Green Day's Good Riddance (subtitle, "Time of Your Life"). It was composed when Super Mario 64 was new (1996), but it still gets a decent amount of use, on the radio and in corporate playlists for department stores mostly. You'll hear it as underscore to a television programme every now and then, too.
Good Riddance, for me anyway, is a jolly nice "cheat" song. That is, it's written in an easy violin key, so it makes me sound better than I actually am.
Even though YouTube is replete with footage of people covering this and other songs on their violins and guitars and things, I might practise a bit more and add my own contribution to the pile.
All of these new songs I'm learning is opening up new avenues for new age covers. I've got a decent handle on Devo's Whip It on the keyboard, as well as Diane Warren's Faith of the Heart (the Enterprise cover, that is) and a couple of other ones. If nothing else, school has taught me new music that I can use in a cover album.
