Super Mario, Shame Nose Flute, Guitar Strings Revisited

It has been quiet on the blog front since Robin's return from the Amazon but be assured there has been plenty going on.
The majority of time has been spent in practice, and lots of it, for concerts that are coming up and also working on new pieces.

However, there also seems to have been a stream of guitars arriving at the house, three in total, all to be tried, tested, and enjoyed.
Although all three are lovely instruments, none have passed the Hill test and will be returned in the next few days.
I shall not only be breathing a sigh of relief, but also very pleased to reclaim the downstairs of the house.
Three guitars in large flight cases, plus three huge boxes and the accompanying packaging, all take up rather a lot of space.

While all this has been going on I have rounded up another couple of unusual Google searches for you.
They are always popular and also serve to remind me about some of the strange things I have written about over the years.

1) How to play Mario on the guitar?

As we have two young sons I am fully aware that the person making this search was far more interested in Mario and Luigi than the Mario I was discussing..., but I hope they enjoyed it anyway. Here is where they landed:
'Hill/Wiltschinsky Guitar Duo Play Mario Gangi'

2) Polynesian nose flute national instrument

The post I wrote in 2007, 'Shame (Flute) about the African Nose Trumpet', has been a surprise hit for me. This post gets so many hits, mainly from America, and I have yet to figure out why???

3) Opera tea cosy

This search landed on the post, 'Opera House Odessa, Snails and a Tea-Cosy', one you may well remember from earlier Google searches due to the tea-cosy element.

4) Recorder notes to old house

One of the more unusual requests but none the less, they found their way to, 'Notes on a Recorder to Notes on a Scandal'.

5) Bird paintings by Robin Hill

This final search left me a little baffled as the unsuspecting researcher landed on five different blog posts, none of which I can really figure out. So if any of you can offer up a theory then feel free to leave a comment!

i) 'Classical Guitar Sound Waves...'

ii) 'Monet for Nothing...'

iii) 'An Eerie Quiet in Hillhouse'

iv) 'Domenico Scarlatti and the Honky Tonk Piano - Revisited'

v) 'The Many and Varied Uses of Savarez Guitar Strings...'

'See' the Sound Waves and Improve Your Scales

Why is it that students of any musical instrument seem to dislike the idea of practising scales?
They are often viewed as a chore, and something to 'get through', before more interesting practice can be undertaken.
But all students need to understand the benefits they will gain, by dedicating a section of their daily practice routine, to this essential task.

As Andres Segovia once said:

"The practice of scales enables one to solve a greater number of technical problems in a shorter time than the study of any other exercise."

So, on the classical guitar, and any other instrument, students really need to start viewing scales as their friend rather than their foe.

I thought it may help if you could visualize a scale:



From this example, you can see how uniform the sound waves are, equally spaced, and each note separate and distinct.

Now, if you look at the next wave form you'll immediately see the difference:




This looks very different because there is an awful lot going on!
It is the wave form for a rasgueado.
The waves are larger due to the increased volume, but, you can also see that so many notes are being recorded in the same fraction of a second, that it's hard to distinguish each individual one.

Robin is an advocate of 'silent practice', and, 'hearing' the notes in one's head a split second before playing them.
Now, you can keep these sound wave images in your mind and try to 'imagine' the regular and even form that your scales should take.
Good Luck!

Classical Guitar - Sound Waves....

For the technically minded amongst you I thought you may be interested in actually seeing the sound waves from a recording of Robin playing the classical guitar.
This photograph shows the first three notes of a well known guitar piece.
Can you tell which?



No, well, it is tricky I must admit.
I'll tell you.
It's 'Un Dia de Noviembre', by Leo Brouwer.

The second photograph, actually shows two of the same notes, later on in the piece.
As you can see, the shape of the notes are very different, with the oscillation of the second note clearly visible, as Robin plays vibrato.
The notes look longer because Robin is playing tenuto, as he adds his own interpretation to the music.




The final picture shows the end of the last note, as it fades out, with a much smaller sound wave to finish off, which is a harmonic, E. You can see that this is a very different shape to all the other notes.




It's amazing what you can find to do on a wet Saturday afternoon!