Last Viewed Music Blogs (1,259)

My ex-wife wanted to get her niece interested in music, so she bought her a cheap violin and paid for lessons. I contributed a music book and a folding music stand. The whole episode only lasted a few weeks before everyone realized she had no musical talent. The lessons stopped and violin was put to the side. At the beginning of this musical venture, my ex bought herself a cello thinking there would be a musical duet in the making. It was a really cheap one... looked real, but the tuning pegs wouldn't stay tight. I tried some liquid specifically designed to make the pegs hold... failure.

Both instruments came under my roof and were stored in a closet.

When I got around to preparing my house for sale, I had to unload these instruments. Before that, I thought I'd give them a try. I'm left-handed and they were right handed. Shouldn't be a problem... The violin was horrible. I couldn't get a clear tone from it... that's probably why my niece lost interest. It created scratchy tones that made my neighbor's dog howl!

Okay.. back in the case you go.

The cello was unplayable. My daughter listed both instruments on Craigslist and away they went.

There was an Asian market near me that sold clothing, beauty aids, books and medicines. The TV in the front was always playing a video of the 12 girls band. They are a musical group playing Western music with traditional Chinese instruments. The 2-string Chinese fiddle called Erhu caught my attention. On my travels to China 10 years ago, I visited a music store to get to see an Erhu, close up. With the rate of exchange, about $100US could get a student instrument, but I'd have to bring it back through the airport and most likely have to check it as baggage. I found an online seller based in the US who could ship to my door, but a few YouTube videos revealed, the sound they make in a beginner's hands to be 10 times worse than than a violin.

Currently, I've got a collection of guitars I don't play and think if I purchased an ERHU, there would be a 99% chance it would be in a case brought out only on holidays to show friends and family.

I AM WHAT I AM

The Guzheng is a multi-stringed instrument from China that dates back more than a thousand years. Moyun is a young woman who plays pop songs on the Guzheng and posts videos on Youtube and the Chinese equivalent site Bilibili.

Guzhengs come in several sizes, vary in the number of strings and depending on the sound desired can be metal or nylon strings. Plucked with finger picks similar to a Western Zither, the Guzheng has a series of bridges dividing the strings with high notes on a short side and low notes on a long side. This allows for more resonance in the sound and gives the player a full range of high and low notes. Typical of the style, pressing one string on the long side gives a vibrato or pitch bend sound typical of Chinese music.



Here is a short introduction of Moyun and her Guzheng:

Alone

I bet ya can't keep up with this chap......





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It's the end of the year and I'm calling around to Medicare, Social Security, insurance companies, banks, mortgage company to do updates. Social Security is open all night and for some odd reason the recorded message says there is a long wait time as they are receiving an extremely a high call volume.
WTF... it's 2am.
So 55 minutes of waiting on hold and one song playing in a loop was enough to memorize. Too bad I wasn't near a guitar or piano as I could have figured out the tune.

The Heart That You Own

Marchita El Alma

So because I don't make videos on youtube, seems I can't post a vlog instantly available for everyone to see......not to mention, I'm a horrible conversationalist when the conversation is onesided with no response....I'd feel like a narrator in one of those nature shows on the Discovery Channel. So because it is now 6:40 in the morning and too early to express any notion of imagination without my morning coffee, I've decided to throw in my own vlog/music video (or link, because I'm not cool enough for youtube lol)...it can also be found on my profile. But eh.....just because...well, good morning everyone