Phucket to Shakespeare

A photo has arrived from Robin's trip into Phuket. Not the clearest of images, but, all I have at the moment.
Apparently the dog lying in the road is sleeping in the heat, and not, a casualty of one of the great cars!



A good time ashore was had by all, although nobody has seen the pianist, he was last spotted having an elephant ride. I hope he managed to make it back in time and isn't stuck on a rampaging elephant through Thailand.

Meanwhile here at home;

'Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like a snail unwillingly to school.'

William Shakespeare - from, 'Seven Ages of Man.'

Not the case for us this morning. Son number one had the shining face, and was rather snail like, but only because he was struggling to school carrying a huge rucksack as he heads off for cub camp!
The only whining was from me as I had to pack hat and gloves alongside sun cream and sunglasses as the weather is rather changeable!
Good job I'm an experienced packer...

Thursday - Must be Thailand

Robin is in Thailand, or rather, was. Communication has been difficult today, and that combined with a large, and ever changing, time difference, is making life difficult.
However, after a short trip into Phuket, most of his time has been spent in practice.
All the musicians I know, find practicing in a hotel or cabin, a rather self-conscious affair.
Robin is always concerned how much the sound travels, and when you play a guitar as powerful as his, then it can often be heard quite a way off. Believe me, I've walked the corridors of many hotels around the world, and reported back if it can be heard in the lifts, bar, 2nd or 5th floor.
It isn't too bad if you are running through the concert itself, but the majority of practice, is actually scales and arpeggios.
They are something that most people don't really want to listen to, especially for 2-3 hours at a time.
The solution is a pair of socks.
To mute the sound has more than one benefit.
This quote sums it up:

'For these abstract exercises I mute the violin and put a piece of tissue under the strings. I could say that to practise with a heavy mute or, as I once did, with a soaped bow, saves my ear from being dulled with a surfeit of sound, and that this self-imposed continence makes the pleasure of performing aloud all the keener. Beyond that, however, mime obliges me to internalize the music until I can 'hear' it in my digits, muscles and joints, until the body becomes a sort of aural intelligence, an instrument perfectly tuned and playing independently of me, a pure voice.'
Yehudi Menuhin

I would, however, recommend that a clean pair of socks are used...

The Guitar is a Jealous Mistress...

Robin seems to have recovered from his journey and is now enjoying warm, sunny weather, out at sea, on his way to Thailand.
There's no time to relax though.
After losing, more or less, three full days in travel, he now has plenty of practice to do, in order to limber up those fingers ready for his concert on Friday.

As Leo Brouwer once said, "The guitar is a jealous mistress, she will not love you if you don't spend the time with her."

Keep that in mind as you read the following quote:

With what attentive courtesy he bent
Over his instrument;
Not as a lordly conqueror who could
Command both wire and wood
But as a man with a loved woman might,
Inquiring with delight
What slight essential things she had to say
Before they started, he and she, to play.

Frances Cornford (1886-1960)
'The Guitarist Tunes Up'

Good job I'm not the jealous type.