I got my first guitar for my tenth birthday and have played it for forty-five years now. Thirty-five years later I got a plectrum banjo and have played it for ten years now. When I was twenty-five I took violin lessons for eight months. In all of the time I played those instruments - the violin is the one that advanced me the most. I am going to attempt to come up with a reason why...
I learned to play lots of major and minor chords on the guitar and coordinate left and right hands. The same with the plectrum banjo, along with sevenths, diminished and augmented chords at different inversions. Both instruments reflected around playing harmonies with just the banjo being the instrument to combine melody and harmony. But with neither instrument could I play the melody on multiple strings. I just never was given lessons (in the case of the banjo) or discovered on my own how to do so. So playing by ear has alluded me on both instruments. The guitar is tuned in fourths and the plectrum banjo has that second string that throws off a single-string player. On the other hand the violin is tuned in fifths and when I started playing Irish traditional music (all melody-driven) it turned out that it made most sense to tune the instruments that way.
In the eight months I played violin I was reading music. I was also playing melody notes singularly on multiple strings. In almost thirty years since I played this instrument my mind must have kept this information. I gave up classical violin lessons because it was hard and I had no goals. I decided that I would go back to playing one if I could set goals. I was no longer into classical music and I didn't listen to fiddle music at all. I eventually sold the violin. Then 2013 comes around. Last summer when I was taking bodhran lessons my teacher lent me her husband's tenor banjo. In Irish music the banjo is tuned GDAE - just like a violin but an octive lower. I started learning some tunes based on reading the sheet music. I already was learning sight reading on the tin whistle and Irish flute so I knew what notes were what and I was familiar with playing some tunes slowly. Almost instantly I could read and play the music. It must be from pulling from my memory. It made sense. I hardly had to think about it. I could rattle off Irish tunes on the tenor banjo! Since then I got a violin, mandolin and a baritone ukulele that I tuned GDAE so I have four instruments all tuned that way.
To remain in the Irish music (my music love) I play the banjo, mandolin and uke. But for the fiddle I've taken to the style of Cape Breton like the works of Buddy and Natalie MacMaster. The fiddle will take me a while so I will learn how to play Scottish reels, jigs and strathspeys and occasionally learn Irish tunes as well. My goal in December was to play ten Irish tunes by May. I did it by February. So I will learn ten more by May and if that happens earlier than expected I will set a goal for 100 tunes by the end of the year. I hope to get to the point where I can play what I can sing (referencing tune familiarity - I can't really sing.) That would give me unlimited playability. When I reach that goal I'll work on adding the harmony by ear. That will bring me back to the guitar and plectrum banjo with a familiarity that I couldn't achieve with just those two instruments.
I feel like a burden has been lifted. I've decided to avoid jazz banjo fests this year and come back in the next year or two with a real ability to perform as a musician. No memorizing numbers. Just play by ear. Then I can work on improving left and right hand techniques. I also hope to play the GDAE instruments at full speed Irish sessions - all by ear. These goals are more realistic now than in my past.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Fiddle Blog #1
I'm in my fifties. When I was 26 I decided to take up classical violin. I got a Glaesel student violin and took lessons for eight months. Interestingly, while I practiced hard I had no real goal, a must for success. I always liked my violin and since I had no violin to compare it to, I thought no wrong with it. But after twenty years I decided to sell it. I wasn't playing it and had no reason to play it.
With my interest in Irish music, a GDAE-tuned Irish tenor banjo was lent to me. I had gotten Enda Scahill's wonderful books last Christmas and now I could explore the instrument. I was surprised at how easy a fifths-tuned instrument came to me, perhaps from the lessons on the violin all those years ago. It dawned on me that I now had a reason and a goal that I could persue on the violin, so of course, I needed instant gratification. So I was telling Rick Galloway, a local singer-songwriter and former music store owner that I was interested in playing the fiddle. Rick had an old fiddle that he didn't want and gave it to me.
The violin was really a VSO (violin-shaped object) and it was 3/4 size (the size usually for ten year olds.) I played it for a month and realized that I was adjusting the muscle memory of my fingers to play in pitch (muscle memory is important when there are no frets to guide your fingers.) The small neck was also hurting my big hands. This violin is proof that if you want to see if your kid will want to play a violin, rent a higher quality one. If your kid has a desire and you don't want them to play a violin, get this one!
With my wife's blessing I rented an Eastman VL80 from my local music store chain. Buying one over the Internet is cheap and easy, but supporting local stores and getting the hands-on service is a far better option. Violins are the exception to the addage "You get what you pay for." They can be as low as $49 and as high as in the millions of dollars. University scholarships demand that your violin cannot cost less than $7,000 whether or not it sounds good. Symphonies the same except the minimum is $15,000. One violinist said that he's played an $800 violin that sounded better than many Stradivaris. Factors that determine the value of a violin are not solely based on the sound.
There is a reason a violin is classified a "student model." It has to do with response. A violin that responds to the player's intent is far harder for a beginner to control. With that said, a violin that costs between $250 and $2,500 is likely to completely satisfy the common musician, especially if it's the fiddle and not a Paganini concerto that is in interest. The term VSO stems from the very cheap instruments that are hard to tune and keep tuned and have no response to a setup. Setups can cost $200 and if the instrument is less than that, it's not worth the attempt.
On to the Eastman. The VL80 is the lowest in the Eastman line but there is little to complain about. The top is made of spruce and the ribs and back are made from quilted maple. The violin was hand crafted and the finish is in spirit varnish. The fittings are all ebony. It comes with a K. Holtz fiberglass bow and a case made for destructive kids. It also came with Eastman rosin but I decided to use my Hill dark rosin instead.
Those are what I found out from ads; now here's what I noticed: The fingerboard is scooped nicely. The pegs really tune and hold the tune. There are four fine tuners but only the E string is necessary, like finer violins. The Depiau Supereur bridge, although the D-grade model, is nicely trimmed and has the music store name stamped on it. It came with Thomastik Dominant strings. The violin is very light, a true sign of quality. These things tell me I made a good choice. This violin is better than the Glasel I once owned. Not bad for a violin made in China! The setup is as good as it gets.
The only things I didn't like as much were the strings and the finish. Dominant strings are the most common string used. They sound good, but usually when the E string is substituted with a better string. The E string on this instrument needs to be better. It's not that the strings are bad, though. The overall brightness of the violin just makes these the wrong strings. Either steel or gut strings would definitely darken the sound, but synthetic strings will always last longer so I will get a set of Pirastro Obligatos for Christmas. (Edit: since it's been a few weeks since I wrote this, the Dominants have mellowed nicely. I put a different E string so now, no strings for Christmas.) The varnish finish reminds me of nitrocellulose laquer. Nitro laquer is great for guitars but not for violins. This is not laquer but I think a thinner coating would have been better.
More to come after I've played it for a while...
With my interest in Irish music, a GDAE-tuned Irish tenor banjo was lent to me. I had gotten Enda Scahill's wonderful books last Christmas and now I could explore the instrument. I was surprised at how easy a fifths-tuned instrument came to me, perhaps from the lessons on the violin all those years ago. It dawned on me that I now had a reason and a goal that I could persue on the violin, so of course, I needed instant gratification. So I was telling Rick Galloway, a local singer-songwriter and former music store owner that I was interested in playing the fiddle. Rick had an old fiddle that he didn't want and gave it to me.
The violin was really a VSO (violin-shaped object) and it was 3/4 size (the size usually for ten year olds.) I played it for a month and realized that I was adjusting the muscle memory of my fingers to play in pitch (muscle memory is important when there are no frets to guide your fingers.) The small neck was also hurting my big hands. This violin is proof that if you want to see if your kid will want to play a violin, rent a higher quality one. If your kid has a desire and you don't want them to play a violin, get this one!
With my wife's blessing I rented an Eastman VL80 from my local music store chain. Buying one over the Internet is cheap and easy, but supporting local stores and getting the hands-on service is a far better option. Violins are the exception to the addage "You get what you pay for." They can be as low as $49 and as high as in the millions of dollars. University scholarships demand that your violin cannot cost less than $7,000 whether or not it sounds good. Symphonies the same except the minimum is $15,000. One violinist said that he's played an $800 violin that sounded better than many Stradivaris. Factors that determine the value of a violin are not solely based on the sound.
There is a reason a violin is classified a "student model." It has to do with response. A violin that responds to the player's intent is far harder for a beginner to control. With that said, a violin that costs between $250 and $2,500 is likely to completely satisfy the common musician, especially if it's the fiddle and not a Paganini concerto that is in interest. The term VSO stems from the very cheap instruments that are hard to tune and keep tuned and have no response to a setup. Setups can cost $200 and if the instrument is less than that, it's not worth the attempt.
On to the Eastman. The VL80 is the lowest in the Eastman line but there is little to complain about. The top is made of spruce and the ribs and back are made from quilted maple. The violin was hand crafted and the finish is in spirit varnish. The fittings are all ebony. It comes with a K. Holtz fiberglass bow and a case made for destructive kids. It also came with Eastman rosin but I decided to use my Hill dark rosin instead.
Those are what I found out from ads; now here's what I noticed: The fingerboard is scooped nicely. The pegs really tune and hold the tune. There are four fine tuners but only the E string is necessary, like finer violins. The Depiau Supereur bridge, although the D-grade model, is nicely trimmed and has the music store name stamped on it. It came with Thomastik Dominant strings. The violin is very light, a true sign of quality. These things tell me I made a good choice. This violin is better than the Glasel I once owned. Not bad for a violin made in China! The setup is as good as it gets.
The only things I didn't like as much were the strings and the finish. Dominant strings are the most common string used. They sound good, but usually when the E string is substituted with a better string. The E string on this instrument needs to be better. It's not that the strings are bad, though. The overall brightness of the violin just makes these the wrong strings. Either steel or gut strings would definitely darken the sound, but synthetic strings will always last longer so I will get a set of Pirastro Obligatos for Christmas. (Edit: since it's been a few weeks since I wrote this, the Dominants have mellowed nicely. I put a different E string so now, no strings for Christmas.) The varnish finish reminds me of nitrocellulose laquer. Nitro laquer is great for guitars but not for violins. This is not laquer but I think a thinner coating would have been better.
More to come after I've played it for a while...
Sunday, November 17, 2013
A Quick Note...
I still exist. March to November has brought about many changes to my musical goals. But the basic goal is still the same: Irish Traditional Music. Since March I've been taking bodhran lessons with a local teacher, and have started playing Irish tenor banjo and fiddle. My right index finger has joint pain issues that affect my flute playing, so I have suspended my goals for that instrument. The tin whistle is still being played and I'm on my way to playing ten tunes, which I'll record in the near future.
My violin rental is being journaled. I have written a piece for the blog and I'll post it next.
My violin rental is being journaled. I have written a piece for the blog and I'll post it next.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Musical Goals for 2013
It's been way too long since I last posted here. Here are random snippets of my current status:
I've been trying to focus on where I want to direct my music. I've improved upon my tin whistle skills and am working on ornamentation. I'm also focusing on common note patterns in Irish music that is slowing me down from playing at session speed.
I got a mountain dulcimer for Christmas and have learned some key chords at different inversions for at least playing tunes in D or G. My goal is to play counter-melodies against a whistle or a flute.
I plan to start learning the Irish tunes I choose on the flute, tin whistle, plectrum banjo, mountain dulcimer and guitar. I have tin whistles in different keys for playing tunes outside of D and G but the guitar and banjo are the only two chromatic instruments I play.
The Irish sessions I play in are run by a banjo player who plays Irish dances and they require playing in all keys. The guitar will be the primary instrument for playing in the sessions, but I'm leaning some of the tune sets on the whistle and as I improve on my embouchure and speed on the flute, I will adapt it too.
My wife got me great books for Christmas. The Grey Larsen books are the most valuable for learning. His and Enda Scahill's banjo books are the best for understanding ornamentations for all of my instruments. Lesl Harker's books of Mike Rafferty tunes are a great reference to a great flutist. Hammy Hamilton is such a good flute maker, player and writer that his book "The Irish Flute Player's Handbook" is a valuable addition. I have the books that will take me where I want to go. In fact, I
dropped membership from Blayne Chastain's great flute and whistle tutorial website because between these books and the book of sessions tunes, I have enough to progress at a good pace.
For melodic playing - Tin Whistle, Flute, Banjo
For counter-melodies - Mountain Dulcimer
For rhythm playing - Guitar, Bodhran (asked for one for my birthday.)
For counter-melodies - Mountain Dulcimer
For rhythm playing - Guitar, Bodhran (asked for one for my birthday.)
I have plans to write songs and place Irish tunes into them. This will allow me to bring the electric guitar and bass into the mix. I've started to work with Garage Band on my Mac and iPad to record my music.
2013 Goals:
1. Successfully integrate Irish traditional music into a more rock-like format (without sounding like the popular Irish-punk sound.)
2. Produce at least one YouTube video of the result.
3. Work out a Christmas set for doing shows with a local singer/songwriter.
The Clubsiders exist (still) but the band will be lower on my priority list. Let's see if the band exists by year's end.
Welcome to 2013.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Musical Goals
As is usually the case, I haven't been thinking about posting on my
blog. I should create a weekly reminder. But to be honest, I haven't had
anything to talk about, at least until I reach some of my short-term
goals. So this post will hopefully be a start to a trend. My biggest
interest is in music and it is that that I will try to write about on a
regular basis.
In 2004 I created a website that time-lined my progress at playing the plectrum banjo. It expressed my enthusiasm towards going to my weekly lessons and it highlighted my favorite banjo players. Slowly, I started to lose interest in updating the site. Then I thought to use some available software to create a new site. The amount of work necessary to update it made it worse for the first site. Then spammers were using it to spam. I put the old site back up and it remained static until the information was so old I had to shut it down.
My love for the plectrum banjo has waned somewhat because the style didn't fit well with music and musicians around me. This year I changed to playing the tin whistle and flute, and started playing Irish traditional music. Now I'm putting my feet into the fire and playing in sessions. I'm cramming the tin whistle practice and fast forwarding my skills, hopefully without crashing. My flute progress is slower but I'm building my lungs and focusing on good tone. The whistle is my head start and my current goal is to play the flute full time in one year. The whistle is my head start program.
Between 2007 and 2008 I became musically depressed. I almost gave up the banjo. I took my annual trek to the BBA St. Valentines Day Banjo Fest and Massacre, but had no interest in participating in the events. Somehow, I felt obligated to go, perhaps because I spent the past four years seriously pursuing the craft. Later in 2008 I participated in a variety show in my community and joined the Clubsiders. This kept me going, but just on a steady course with no goals or desires to further my musical skills. This year the Clubsiders broke up.
2012 is a good year, musically speaking. I wanted to learn how to play a flute, in particular because I was enjoying the music of Jethro Tull and in particular, Ian Anderson's flute. I bought a student flute and spent every day practicing to reach a point where I didn't sound like a student. It was enthusiasm that blocked me from realizing that I was not progressing. For me, lifting my left thumb and using my right pinky insured a shift in the flute's position, losing my embouchure position. I figured in time it would go away but it hindered me from progressing anywhere else.
In the meantime I would listen to a Jethro Tull song called "The Whistler." I thought the instrument he was playing was a fife. That is until I saw the video. "What is that?", I thought as a witnessed an instrument I never noticed before. It was a tin whistle, also known as a pennywhistle. I ordered a Clarke Original (really made out of tin) from Amazon and got several more that month. I discovered a website called Chiff and Fipple and like my old website, the creator hadn't maintained it. It is still a treasure trove of information though, and the forums are the best on the Internet.
The tin whistle was my escape to something new. It was like starting over again. This time I focused on diatonic and modal scales. No chromatic scales to learn. No fingering variations for each key beyond the single flattened note that separates the primary key, in this case D and the secondary key, the G. The G is up one counter-clockwise on the circle of fifths and in the key signature, the C# is flattened to a C, the difference between the key of D and the key of G. As long as I can transpose a song to D or G (with exceptions) I can use the same fingering on whistles in other keys.
In May I started to play the whistle and learn about Irish traditional music. Naturally, the flute was still in consideration and I noticed that a keyless flute allowed for my left thumb and right pinky to remain in place. I made a PVC pipe flute to test out playing one. The decision to switch was almost instant and in August I got a delrin keyless flute made by Walt Sweet called "Shannon."
Two weeks ago I attended my first Irish "session" and am preparing to play the tin whistle in a "set" of jigs. That is jumping into the fire, but if the others are receptive to it, this will take me where I couldn't go on the banjo. If I could have played in weekly four-string banjo sessions, I would have been able to avoid the funk of 2007-2008. I have the enthusiasm to start a new website but this time it will be a static archive. All updates will remain on the blog.
More to come...
In 2004 I created a website that time-lined my progress at playing the plectrum banjo. It expressed my enthusiasm towards going to my weekly lessons and it highlighted my favorite banjo players. Slowly, I started to lose interest in updating the site. Then I thought to use some available software to create a new site. The amount of work necessary to update it made it worse for the first site. Then spammers were using it to spam. I put the old site back up and it remained static until the information was so old I had to shut it down.
My love for the plectrum banjo has waned somewhat because the style didn't fit well with music and musicians around me. This year I changed to playing the tin whistle and flute, and started playing Irish traditional music. Now I'm putting my feet into the fire and playing in sessions. I'm cramming the tin whistle practice and fast forwarding my skills, hopefully without crashing. My flute progress is slower but I'm building my lungs and focusing on good tone. The whistle is my head start and my current goal is to play the flute full time in one year. The whistle is my head start program.
Between 2007 and 2008 I became musically depressed. I almost gave up the banjo. I took my annual trek to the BBA St. Valentines Day Banjo Fest and Massacre, but had no interest in participating in the events. Somehow, I felt obligated to go, perhaps because I spent the past four years seriously pursuing the craft. Later in 2008 I participated in a variety show in my community and joined the Clubsiders. This kept me going, but just on a steady course with no goals or desires to further my musical skills. This year the Clubsiders broke up.
2012 is a good year, musically speaking. I wanted to learn how to play a flute, in particular because I was enjoying the music of Jethro Tull and in particular, Ian Anderson's flute. I bought a student flute and spent every day practicing to reach a point where I didn't sound like a student. It was enthusiasm that blocked me from realizing that I was not progressing. For me, lifting my left thumb and using my right pinky insured a shift in the flute's position, losing my embouchure position. I figured in time it would go away but it hindered me from progressing anywhere else.
In the meantime I would listen to a Jethro Tull song called "The Whistler." I thought the instrument he was playing was a fife. That is until I saw the video. "What is that?", I thought as a witnessed an instrument I never noticed before. It was a tin whistle, also known as a pennywhistle. I ordered a Clarke Original (really made out of tin) from Amazon and got several more that month. I discovered a website called Chiff and Fipple and like my old website, the creator hadn't maintained it. It is still a treasure trove of information though, and the forums are the best on the Internet.
The tin whistle was my escape to something new. It was like starting over again. This time I focused on diatonic and modal scales. No chromatic scales to learn. No fingering variations for each key beyond the single flattened note that separates the primary key, in this case D and the secondary key, the G. The G is up one counter-clockwise on the circle of fifths and in the key signature, the C# is flattened to a C, the difference between the key of D and the key of G. As long as I can transpose a song to D or G (with exceptions) I can use the same fingering on whistles in other keys.
In May I started to play the whistle and learn about Irish traditional music. Naturally, the flute was still in consideration and I noticed that a keyless flute allowed for my left thumb and right pinky to remain in place. I made a PVC pipe flute to test out playing one. The decision to switch was almost instant and in August I got a delrin keyless flute made by Walt Sweet called "Shannon."
Two weeks ago I attended my first Irish "session" and am preparing to play the tin whistle in a "set" of jigs. That is jumping into the fire, but if the others are receptive to it, this will take me where I couldn't go on the banjo. If I could have played in weekly four-string banjo sessions, I would have been able to avoid the funk of 2007-2008. I have the enthusiasm to start a new website but this time it will be a static archive. All updates will remain on the blog.
More to come...
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Musical Blues
So I walk into a music store that prides itself in buying your used
musical instruments. I show them my mint condition Gemeinhardt 2SP
flute. The owner (actually the son of the owner) comes over and looks at
the flute. He then says that I have a beautiful "student" flute and he
hasn't bought any "student" flutes in a year. I wasn't miffed and to be
honest I wasn't surprised. This is my life in the world of low-cost
musical instruments.
Right now I own too many guitars. I have a plectrum banjo I love and a cheap banjo I keep at a bandmate's house where we practice. I have a ukulele I love and another ukulele with a modified string set. I have one flute and ten tin whistles. I love six of the whistles because they are a set of Generation brass whistles that were tweaked by a professional tweaker. Those instruments I love are the ones that I have no intention of ever selling. I don't have the dreaded acquisition syndrome that wants me to keep buying and buying. I have extra whistles because these are the inexpensive kind (whistles can go for up to over $1k) and I am experimenting with my own tweaking.
So I have the right banjo, ukulele and tin whistles. The same can't be said about the guitars or the flute. Now these cannot be compared. The student flute is designed so that parents can buy a flute for their kids without breaking the bank before they know whether or not the kids will stick to it. A good flute costs over $1,250 and the low end of that price range is still compromising the quality but with the ability to improve the existing flute for only over another $1,000. On the other hand the market is flooded with cheap guitars to fill the demand of kids who want to be rock stars some day. Finding a low end guitar that a musician can love is purely a matter of luck. And that only applies to electric guitars. Now, I'm content with my electric guitars because I've finally decided that rock music is not my musical destination in life. The Epiphone Les Paul I own is modified for the alternate tuning I play and the neck is stable. The two other guitars have unstable necks.
My acoustic guitars, on the other hand, are okay at best, but not performance-level. Acoustic guitars on the low end aren't loveable as a matter of luck. They just aren't capable of sounding like the better guitars. I hear good thinks about Godin's Seagull guitars but I have never heard their tones come from the audio tracks of noted acoustic players. My Korean-built Songbird guitar sound nice, but I can't play it with the other acoustic players I know (one has a Martin HD-28.)
The music store incident is indicative of the low-cost instrument dilemma. A good musical instrument, especially acoustic, will retain their value after the initial sell. The others won't. A good acoustic instrument will sound better with time. The others won't. Good acoustic instruments can be passed down from generation to generation. The others can't. I may never get a better guitar now that I'm getting away from them. I'll use what I have to make recordings that other instruments will be focused over and will continue to pursue the whistle and flute.
The reason I wanted to sell the flute was to get away from the Boehm-style metal concert flute to play an Irish flute. The fingering of the Irish flute is similar to the tin whistle and I can already play my whistles better than my flute. I wanted the money to get the entry-level flute and if I liked playing it, get a pro-level one for Christmas. A good keyless Irish flute costs less than the concert flutes and acoustic guitars of the same quality. Note I said keyless. Eight-key Irish flutes cost between $3,000 and $5,000. I don't see a need for a keyed flute as long as the songs are in D or G (I can expand using cross-fingering to produce some extra accidentals, thereby playing in more keys.)
I have improved on my attitude over this issue and writing this has helped more. I am making a flute out of PVC to try my hand at making a musical instrument as well as having a flute to try.
Right now I own too many guitars. I have a plectrum banjo I love and a cheap banjo I keep at a bandmate's house where we practice. I have a ukulele I love and another ukulele with a modified string set. I have one flute and ten tin whistles. I love six of the whistles because they are a set of Generation brass whistles that were tweaked by a professional tweaker. Those instruments I love are the ones that I have no intention of ever selling. I don't have the dreaded acquisition syndrome that wants me to keep buying and buying. I have extra whistles because these are the inexpensive kind (whistles can go for up to over $1k) and I am experimenting with my own tweaking.
So I have the right banjo, ukulele and tin whistles. The same can't be said about the guitars or the flute. Now these cannot be compared. The student flute is designed so that parents can buy a flute for their kids without breaking the bank before they know whether or not the kids will stick to it. A good flute costs over $1,250 and the low end of that price range is still compromising the quality but with the ability to improve the existing flute for only over another $1,000. On the other hand the market is flooded with cheap guitars to fill the demand of kids who want to be rock stars some day. Finding a low end guitar that a musician can love is purely a matter of luck. And that only applies to electric guitars. Now, I'm content with my electric guitars because I've finally decided that rock music is not my musical destination in life. The Epiphone Les Paul I own is modified for the alternate tuning I play and the neck is stable. The two other guitars have unstable necks.
My acoustic guitars, on the other hand, are okay at best, but not performance-level. Acoustic guitars on the low end aren't loveable as a matter of luck. They just aren't capable of sounding like the better guitars. I hear good thinks about Godin's Seagull guitars but I have never heard their tones come from the audio tracks of noted acoustic players. My Korean-built Songbird guitar sound nice, but I can't play it with the other acoustic players I know (one has a Martin HD-28.)
The music store incident is indicative of the low-cost instrument dilemma. A good musical instrument, especially acoustic, will retain their value after the initial sell. The others won't. A good acoustic instrument will sound better with time. The others won't. Good acoustic instruments can be passed down from generation to generation. The others can't. I may never get a better guitar now that I'm getting away from them. I'll use what I have to make recordings that other instruments will be focused over and will continue to pursue the whistle and flute.
The reason I wanted to sell the flute was to get away from the Boehm-style metal concert flute to play an Irish flute. The fingering of the Irish flute is similar to the tin whistle and I can already play my whistles better than my flute. I wanted the money to get the entry-level flute and if I liked playing it, get a pro-level one for Christmas. A good keyless Irish flute costs less than the concert flutes and acoustic guitars of the same quality. Note I said keyless. Eight-key Irish flutes cost between $3,000 and $5,000. I don't see a need for a keyed flute as long as the songs are in D or G (I can expand using cross-fingering to produce some extra accidentals, thereby playing in more keys.)
I have improved on my attitude over this issue and writing this has helped more. I am making a flute out of PVC to try my hand at making a musical instrument as well as having a flute to try.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Why Watches? Why Now?
After years of not wearing a watch, last fall I started wearing one. It
wasn't the one I stopped wearing almost ten years ago. I still have no
interest in that watch. Until this week it was a cheap Stauer
Chinese-movement automatic mechanical watch that I saw in a SkyMall
catalog while flying to Las Vegas. This week I bought an Invicta
Swiss-movement copy of a Rolex Submariner. Why did my interest in these
watches happen? Why will I not consider other watches?
It has to do with the movement in the watch. When I was a child my father bought me a Caravelle watch. It was a manual mechanical meaning I had to wind it every day. Quartz battery-powered watches were just starting to enter the market. I didn't know anything but that I liked being able to tell the time anywhere I went. I loved my watch. As time went by I bought other watches. I thought I made the big time when I bought a Seiko in the service. The only thing I disliked was the battery. I didn't think that it mattered and after I wore out the Seiko I looked at cheap Swatches, Timex and Casio LCD watches. The complexity of the features made it hard for me to make any adjustments without an instruction book. I just didn't like the watch anymore.
But that was before I realized that my nature as a curious engineer realized while reading the SkyMall ad for the Stauer Meisterzeit watch that the mechanics behind a self-winding watch is fascinating. Springs, gears, levers - I wanted a marvel of old-world technology on my wrist. And that Stauer didn't let me down. The watch has an exhibition back that shows the weighted rotor that moves 360 degrees to wind the watch anytime my arm moves. Now the ad talked about the first patent for the modern automatic in 1923 and how this watch mimicked that first automatic. I googled and wikied for all the information I could find regarding the technology. I discovered that the Chinese movement was not a replica of the bumper automatic but rather the Rolex-patented in 1930, full-rotating automatic movements that are in all automatics today. I also discovered what a hacking watch is. The $100 watch could hack - meaning the second hand stops when the crown is pulled out to adjust the time. That allows the watch to synchronize to another time source.
I didn't expect much accuracy with this watch because an electric signal from a quartz crystal is more accurate than a spring, a gear and a lever. For the first few weeks the watch was off by two minutes a week. But amazingly, it got more accurate as time went by and now it is off by a dozen seconds or so a week. Seeing the balance-wheel move through the exhibition back was another love of mine. This was brought even further by blogs displaying hand-made watches that were designed to show all of the mechanics of that watch. In particular are the Tourbillon movements. Those are found in watches that generally sell for more than $20,000.
This Stauer has a sweeping second hand. Just to show my ignorance, I was taught that a person could spot a fake Rolex watch by looking at the second hand. The fake ones I saw had the kind of second hand that clicks every second. Now I know that it has to do with quartz movements - all automatic mechanical movements have sweeping hands. The Chinese-movement in my Stauer could be in a Rolex-copy and I would be fooled. Never-the-less I still view the sweeping hand a sign of luxury - at any price.
I love the Stauer watch and recommend it to those with a low budget but I needed to move on to what I hope to be my final watch. My friend Larry wears a Rolex. It's not that he could afford one as much as it is that he always wanted one. I can't say the same so it's smart that my wife has no intention of getting me one. I would not appreciate it. But I do appreciate having a Swiss-made automatic movement on a nicer watch. I was considering getting a Hamilton watch someday. But I came across Invicta and found some really wonderful options. Invicta has a series called "Pro Diver." In the series are a half-dozen or so watches that look just like a Rolex Submariner. All of them are automatics and cost between $90 and $300.
I was opting for the Invicta model 8626 with a Japanese Miyota movement. But like my guitars, buying the inexpensive one would not satisfy me. The fact that the back display shows a plain movement and a plain rotor along with the fact that it's not a Swiss movement and it is non-hacking, with a mineral (scratchable) crystal would not have satisfied me. Fortunately I got a bonus from my boss and was able to get the $300 model 9937 with everything I want in a watch. I don't want a Rolex or anything costing close to that much. I hope that this watch will last me because the Sellita SW200 Swiss movement isn't proven yet and I'm not sure what Invicta means by calling the crystal "Flame-Fusion." I know what it means but the name is used as a trademark. Supposedly it is more durable than a straight sapphire crystal but it may only be a cost saver. Time will tell. The bottom line is that the watch looks great and already someone mistook it for a Rolex.
Why now? I don't know. Maybe I'm thinking back to when I was a kid with my Caravelle watch. Maybe it was discovering that I could afford a watch that looks like a Rolex. Maybe it's the marvel of the engineering. But I'm happy to own this watch and I will wear one from now on.
It has to do with the movement in the watch. When I was a child my father bought me a Caravelle watch. It was a manual mechanical meaning I had to wind it every day. Quartz battery-powered watches were just starting to enter the market. I didn't know anything but that I liked being able to tell the time anywhere I went. I loved my watch. As time went by I bought other watches. I thought I made the big time when I bought a Seiko in the service. The only thing I disliked was the battery. I didn't think that it mattered and after I wore out the Seiko I looked at cheap Swatches, Timex and Casio LCD watches. The complexity of the features made it hard for me to make any adjustments without an instruction book. I just didn't like the watch anymore.
But that was before I realized that my nature as a curious engineer realized while reading the SkyMall ad for the Stauer Meisterzeit watch that the mechanics behind a self-winding watch is fascinating. Springs, gears, levers - I wanted a marvel of old-world technology on my wrist. And that Stauer didn't let me down. The watch has an exhibition back that shows the weighted rotor that moves 360 degrees to wind the watch anytime my arm moves. Now the ad talked about the first patent for the modern automatic in 1923 and how this watch mimicked that first automatic. I googled and wikied for all the information I could find regarding the technology. I discovered that the Chinese movement was not a replica of the bumper automatic but rather the Rolex-patented in 1930, full-rotating automatic movements that are in all automatics today. I also discovered what a hacking watch is. The $100 watch could hack - meaning the second hand stops when the crown is pulled out to adjust the time. That allows the watch to synchronize to another time source.
I didn't expect much accuracy with this watch because an electric signal from a quartz crystal is more accurate than a spring, a gear and a lever. For the first few weeks the watch was off by two minutes a week. But amazingly, it got more accurate as time went by and now it is off by a dozen seconds or so a week. Seeing the balance-wheel move through the exhibition back was another love of mine. This was brought even further by blogs displaying hand-made watches that were designed to show all of the mechanics of that watch. In particular are the Tourbillon movements. Those are found in watches that generally sell for more than $20,000.
This Stauer has a sweeping second hand. Just to show my ignorance, I was taught that a person could spot a fake Rolex watch by looking at the second hand. The fake ones I saw had the kind of second hand that clicks every second. Now I know that it has to do with quartz movements - all automatic mechanical movements have sweeping hands. The Chinese-movement in my Stauer could be in a Rolex-copy and I would be fooled. Never-the-less I still view the sweeping hand a sign of luxury - at any price.
I love the Stauer watch and recommend it to those with a low budget but I needed to move on to what I hope to be my final watch. My friend Larry wears a Rolex. It's not that he could afford one as much as it is that he always wanted one. I can't say the same so it's smart that my wife has no intention of getting me one. I would not appreciate it. But I do appreciate having a Swiss-made automatic movement on a nicer watch. I was considering getting a Hamilton watch someday. But I came across Invicta and found some really wonderful options. Invicta has a series called "Pro Diver." In the series are a half-dozen or so watches that look just like a Rolex Submariner. All of them are automatics and cost between $90 and $300.
I was opting for the Invicta model 8626 with a Japanese Miyota movement. But like my guitars, buying the inexpensive one would not satisfy me. The fact that the back display shows a plain movement and a plain rotor along with the fact that it's not a Swiss movement and it is non-hacking, with a mineral (scratchable) crystal would not have satisfied me. Fortunately I got a bonus from my boss and was able to get the $300 model 9937 with everything I want in a watch. I don't want a Rolex or anything costing close to that much. I hope that this watch will last me because the Sellita SW200 Swiss movement isn't proven yet and I'm not sure what Invicta means by calling the crystal "Flame-Fusion." I know what it means but the name is used as a trademark. Supposedly it is more durable than a straight sapphire crystal but it may only be a cost saver. Time will tell. The bottom line is that the watch looks great and already someone mistook it for a Rolex.
Why now? I don't know. Maybe I'm thinking back to when I was a kid with my Caravelle watch. Maybe it was discovering that I could afford a watch that looks like a Rolex. Maybe it's the marvel of the engineering. But I'm happy to own this watch and I will wear one from now on.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)