I'm Bach.

 Okay, three famous action stars were asked to be in a movie about famous composers. Clint Eastwood said, "I want to play Mozart." Sylvester Stallone said that his preference was to play Beethoven.

What did Arnold Schwarzenegger say?

Okay, it's obvious that our little blogging community is going through hard times, what with Rob often deleting his blog and Peter often being away. 

No need to worry!

Richard's Bass Bag 2 and Richard's Bass Bag 3 are back in action!

For your reading pleasure.

Your worries are over!

Keep an eye out for more posts.

You can find us on Richard's Bass Bag* - just use the LINKS service.

Don't forget that you've got three blogs to check now!

* the original bass bagging site

What are those blogging boys up to?

 Peter (that very old guy who calls himself The Curmudgeon) got up through the night to watch a football final. I don't expect we'll be hearing much from him today. I think he's trying to relive the days when he played for a crack cracked football team at school. In those days, at Catholic schools in this country, you were expected to play rugby and you needed a medical certificate to play 'soccer'. Okay, Peter was half blind, but I think he was the only kid in the team with two working legs and arms who didn't have an extreme weight problem. He was the star of the team.

He was also quite a cyclist.

Robert the quite a few different things has been practising improvising over on his blog (you can use the LINKS service over on Richard's Bass Bag* to find the blogs of Robert and The Curmudgeon, if you're really bored). He likes to call it 'making up shit'. The next step for him is to move to 'making up nice stuff'.

Robert the quite a few different things

His next step is to think about phrasing and the use of harmonic approximation. What is harmonic approximation, I hear you say? Well, let's say the piece you are playing is in C major. You use the notes from the C major scale to play over all the chords in the piece. If a 'funny' chord pops up, you might get some interesting sounds but just move to the next note. You might want to try adding other notes that are not in the scale. This might sound good, or not so good. Hey, but you have to take a few risks. Remember that good phrasing will be your friend in this type of improvising. Try using the rhythm from the tune, or another similar tune. Buona fortuna Rob.

To finish here's an interesting little blast from the past.

Have a good week.

* the original bass bagging site

Home is the sailor...

 We've returned to Nuova Lazio.

Though it was nice to spend a night in Wellington.

It's good to see Peter and Robert (two little known bloggers) enjoying this blog in my absence.

Yesterday I watched a couple of videos about playing the violin without a shoulder rest. The first featured Yehudi Menuhin and the other featured another much younger bloke. 

There are lots of different views on how to approach the violin. There are those who hold it up with the thumb and those who use a shoulder rest and hold it with the chin. There is also the problem of which way the violin should point. I've decided to stay with the approach I have been using - no shoulder rest and violin basically facing straight ahead.

There are also violinists who spend their lives playing music written by other people and playing it virtually note for note. The other group of violinists like to make shit up.

Of course, the people who like to make shit up often use the tunes that other people have written. These violinists might be folk musicians, or bluegrass musicians, or rock musicians, or musicians from another culture or jazz musicians. Their 'rules' for making shit up might differ considerably between different groups. A lot of folk musicians like to use what Jerry Coker called Harmonic Approximation. Jazz musicians, on the other hand, explore lots of different note combinations - for example, the #11 is a very popular note. Though obviously there is a lot more to it than that. Bluegrass musicians have developed some unique ways of playing and some neat bowing styles - Hokum bowing and the Nashville shuffle are two.

Well, that's enough for today. I'll pop across and see if The Music Curmudgeon has written anything*.

Bye.

* Spoiler Alert: I've already looked.

A long time between posts.

 You'll all be pleased to hear that both RBB2 and RBB3 are now back in action.

Christmas is just around the corner.

Christmas gets celebrated for different reasons. For some it's a time to get family together, for others it's a big piss up with lots of food. Christians will celebrate the 2022nd birthday of Jesus. Hey, that's old! 

"I don't like Christmas."

Well, it's great to be back posting on this blog. Don't forget to pop over to RBB3.

Christmas Approaches.

Firstly, sorry for the quiet over the last year, but we're back for your reading pleasure.

Christmas, what does it mean for you?

In this country we like to do things with snow.

That's a little bit weird because I can't remember it ever snowing here at Christmas.
It doesn't snow in Australia either at Christmas time.

Australia

I don't think it snowed at the manger either on that supposed birth 2019 years ago.

Is the guy in the middle holding a 

soprano saxophone or a cornet?

In actual fact, at Christmas there are probably more places where is doesn't snow than there are places where it does.

Maybe we should live up to what we know was probably in the manger on that day and start celebrating soprano saxophones.

Unless, of course, it was actually a cornet that the guy in the manger was holding.

Whatever he was holding, it was actually a silver one so sorry for the inaccurate pictures.

Hey, it's good to be back blogging and bringing you the important issues.

Gig coming up!

Jonathon Harper is a very respected classical guitarist who has spent much of his life playing (and singing) Spanish influenced music with a pacific flavour. He speaks fluent Spanish and a bit of Italian. When he emails me, he uses a combination of these two languages. Sometimes a bit of deduction is needed to see when and where the next practice is. I'll be playing double bass, violin and a bit of guitar. It should be fun. Jonathon is a guy with a unique style - this gig promises to be fun. 

Christmas approaches.

It'll be a small affair this year.
Both kids have stuff on, so it'll be Uncle Steve, Uncle Rod, Annie and Shelley and me.
Makes cooking easier.
I won't go to church. Robert will take care of that for us.
The Curmudgeon will carefully pick his music but me and Rod will probably have a jam.

Not this sort of jam.

I wonder what the guys over at RBB3 have planned?