aristophanes

Been working on Now The Maids And The Men, both singing it and playing it. My violin has been making this awful high squeaking/squealing noise at random, both A and E string but especially the E. (These are the two highest strings, for the non-violinists here.) I kept thinking I'd found and corrected the cause (e.g. not enough rosin, accidentally tapping a string, too much rosin buildup, bow not tight enough, bad bowing technique) but every time I'd fix the 'problem' the noise would continue. Finally I found a webpage talking about the issue, and basically it revealed that it's actually kind of a common problem when you just haven't played the violin in a long time -- that is, the violin itself gets weird if it is left unplayed. So one solution to loosen up the violin is to just lay it on some big speakers and blast music at it. I did this, boomed Mozart's violin concerti 3 and 5 as loud as they'd go, and man -- that did a major change in the sound of the instrument! I'm still getting some squeaks on the E string but the A string is much much much much better. I have gone ahead and ordered a new E string -- as another thing that can cause the trouble is just the strings getting old -- and hopefully that will fix it in time for the show.

As to singing the song that too is ending the troubleshooting phase. The hardest part is my second verse: "I won't trust you so far, I know you too well/Should I give you an inch, you'd soon take an ell/Then lordlike you'll rule/And laugh at the fool." I need to remember to extend the word 'well' because otherwise it falls flat, but if I can hold it I can correct it nicely. "And laugh" has a difficult run on it, mostly difficult because it's very low, so I have to switch fast into a booming chest voice. But it's going well. Now if that damn actor singing Coridon would just return my phonecalls so we can practice together...