The READIN Family Album
(March 2005)

READIN

Jeremy's journal

The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

John Stuart Mill


(This is a page from my archives)
Front page
More recent posts
Older posts

Archives index
Subscribe to RSS

This page renders best in Firefox (or Safari, or Chrome)

Thursday, December 19th, 2019

🦋 Viola da wok

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

Sunday, December 15th, 2019

🦋 a quick couplet

I decay; idk
wtfruok?

posted evening of December 15th, 2019: Respond
➳ More posts about Poetry

🦋 Happy Ragtime Xmas!

Happy holidays all! A new take on an old carol.

The "angels we have heard on high" rag for tin-can cello:



the "silent night/joy to the world" rag for #tincancello:



the "god rest ye merry" rag for strings + tin-can cello:



the "herald angels" rag for strings + tin-can cello:

posted morning of December 15th, 2019: 3 responses
➳ More posts about The Tin-can Cello

Monday, December second, 2019

🦋 Labyrinth

posted evening of December second, 2019: 1 response
➳ More posts about Pretty Pictures

Tuesday, November 26th, 2019

🦋 Gluing up

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.

posted evening of November 26th, 2019: 1 response
➳ More posts about Woodworking

Sunday, November 24th, 2019

🦋 Two Birds

Atman does not call himself "I"; Jiva does.
Jiva also calls himself "you," believing
that he is speaking to Atman.

posted afternoon of November 24th, 2019: Respond
➳ More posts about Songwriting

Saturday, November 23rd, 2019

🦋 Cover band

Introducing The Modesto Kid and his Imaginary String Band:



(Imaginary String Band appearing courtesy of @Noteflight)
Outlaw Blues score

(update, now they're working on a Xmas record as well...)

posted morning of November 23rd, 2019: Respond
➳ More posts about Cover Versions

Friday, November 22nd, 2019

🦋 Bad faith

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.

posted morning of November 22nd, 2019: Respond

Sunday, November 17th, 2019

🦋 The form

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.

See Counterpoint rag for examples.

posted morning of November 17th, 2019: Respond
➳ More posts about Writing Projects

Saturday, November 16th, 2019

🦋 Counterpoint rag (demo ep)

Here is a form:



My Imaginary String Band performs 7 new songs that I've composed at Noteflight, links are to the individual scores --

(notes on the form here.)

posted afternoon of November 16th, 2019: Respond
➳ More posts about Projects

Previous posts
Archives

Drop me a line! or, sign my Guestbook.
    •
Check out Ellen's writing at Patch.com.

Where to go from here...

Friends and Family
Programming
Texts
Music
Woodworking
Comix
Blogs
South Orange