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READIN
READIN started out as a place for me
to keep track of what I am reading, and to learn (slowly, slowly)
how to design a web site.
There has been some mission drift
here and there, but in general that's still what it is. Some of
the main things I write about here are
reading books,
listening to (and playing) music, and
watching the movies. Also I write about the
work I do with my hands and with my head; and of course about bringing up Sylvia.
The site is a bit of a work in progress. New features will come on-line now and then; and you will occasionally get error messages in place of the blog, for the forseeable future. Cut me some slack, I'm just doing it for fun! And if you see an error message you think I should know about, please drop me a line. READIN source code is PHP and CSS, and available on request, in case you want to see how it works.
See my reading list for what I'm interested in this year.
READIN has been visited approximately 236,737 times since October, 2007.
Yesterday I ordered a wok. I'm starting my next metal soundboard instrument, a da gamba tenor violin with carbon steel soundboard1. A rough sketch of the design:
parts:
wok (14" diameter)
neck + dowel (I'm thinking I will use cherry)
dowel stop (a small piece of wood that will ride on the bottom of the dowel, as a spacer for the tailpiece)
back -- arched maple. Thinking I will use some very pretty wormy maple that I've had in my shop for years and years. It is flatsawn but I think it would resonate. Back will be attached with a kerfed lining which I'll need to make. Soundholes will be on the sides of the back.
tailpiece -- likely will use a 1/4 size cello tailpiece. May need a cork spacer to raise the angle of the tailpiece.
bridge -- maybe a viola da gamba bridge? or a fractional cello bridge? or a viola bridge?
strings (steel) -- the tones I am thinking of are G2, D3, A3, E4 (and possibly B4). Maybe use 1/4 cello strings? The scale length will be something like 20". Or another possibility, tune in fourths E2, A2, D3, G3, B3.
fingerboard
pegs
posted morning of December 19th, 2019: 1 response ➳ More posts about Luthery
For a while I have had in mind making a viola da gamba type of instrument with a steel wok as its soundboard and an arched maple back. An interesting question is how do you attach the wood to the metal -- I have had in mind screwing it together. Just now I had the thought that a thin wooden lining could be glued to the metal (I guess with Gorilla Glue?) and then attach the back with hide glue.
This way I can make the back much thinner, like a violin back, and not need thickness to screw into. No need to drill holes in the metal -- much better.
Never believe that Republicans are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The Republicans have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.
So here is how I write the song form that I'm calling "rag" (hopefully making reference to that weird and intoxicating effect that Joplin attributes to "ragtime", and maybe to "raga" as well but who knows)
Start with: an earworm melody. Your own or somebody else's, or traditional. Fuck with the rhythm of it by lengthening some beats and shortening others -- get a melody with similar sequence of notes to the source but a drunken/stuttering sound. Notate this melody in Noteflight or similar software. (I am always using cello to notate this first step.) When you play it back it should be clear what song you are hearing and also clearly something funny about it.
Add parts. Usually I am adding a bass part first and then a treble or even two treble parts. Sometimes just a bass part or just a treble. I am generally using violin family instruments for my parts but that is just what I'm familiar with.
Bass part: generally quarter notes, sometimes eigth notes. I'm not using syncopation at all in the bass parts, for now. It seems pretty easy and natural to find a plunky bass pattern that fits the main melody, I'm not sure what technique is going into this. If there is a bass part, then make it pretty constant throughout the song, not coming in and out.
Treble part: listen to the main cello part over and over, with and without bass, until you start hearing ghost melodies that fit with it. Start notating them. The treble parts can rest a lot, they don't have to (and should not) be playing all the time. The ghost melodies should reinforce the primary melody.
B section: usually modulate down a fifth or up a fourth. No technique here, just whatever sounds good(?) or so to say quirky
End result: intro + A section, repeat, B section, repeat, d.s. al coda, outro. The main melody is on the cello but the treble parts are playing their own distinct melodies which can mask the main melody. Make sure they are quiet for a couple of key measures in each section.
Yesterday I ordered a wok. I'm starting my next 
