Unutterably Silly So what are you doing RIGHT NOW?

[Stitchawl]

I've tuned my guitar to the dropped Dorien mode of the key of D. Makes it sound like a sitar. I'm sitting here playing improvisational ragas in memory of one of the finest musicians to grace our generation... Ravi Shankar passed away, at age 92. His classical Indian music influenced so much of our super groups; the Beatles, the Stones, Jefferson Airplane, etc.

(For you guitar players:
Drop your low E to D
Leave the A and the D strings as they are
Drop the G down to match the 4th string D
Drop the B down to A
Drop the E down to D.
This gives you, from high to low, DADDAD
Play your melody lines on the high D and A. The rest of the guitar will resonate sympathetically sounding like a sitar.)

Ravi, R.I.P.


Stitchawl

[HomeInMyShoes]

^It is indeed a sad day.

Alas my guitar playing days are a few years off yet. I need the little one to learn patience and that not everything was meant to fly or be beaten with anything one finds.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I've tuned my guitar to the dropped Dorien mode of the key of D. Makes it sound like a sitar. I'm sitting here playing improvisational ragas in memory of one of the finest musicians to grace our generation... Ravi Shankar passed away, at age 92. His classical Indian music influenced so much of our super groups; the Beatles, the Stones, Jefferson Airplane, etc.

(For you guitar players:
Drop your low E to D
Leave the A and the D strings as they are
Drop the G down to match the 4th string D
Drop the B down to A
Drop the E down to D.
This gives you, from high to low, DADDAD
Play your melody lines on the high D and A. The rest of the guitar will resonate sympathetically sounding like a sitar.)

Ravi, R.I.P.


Stitchawl

Very sad news about Ravi Shankar. He was amazing, and opened a lot of minds to exploring musical possibilities that existed outside of the Western world's traditional 12-tone scales. Fortunately, his daughter is still with us, and has also produced some fine music, including some synthesizer/sitar duets that are really fantastic.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I've tuned my guitar to the dropped Dorien mode of the key of D. Makes it sound like a sitar. I'm sitting here playing improvisational ragas in memory of one of the finest musicians to grace our generation... Ravi Shankar passed away, at age 92....

It won't be the same thing, but I think tonight I'll put my Clavinova in modal tuning to reproduce some of those wonderful sounds that can't be captured in equal-tempered scales.

[Rumpelteazer]

Making a shopping list for tomorrow.

My sister and I are going to Amsterdam, first to the Tutankhamun exhibit and we're going to the inner city. I then want to go to a big art store where they have sketching paper on offer, and to a tea shop where they sell cinnamon flavoured hot chocolate milk mix (I'm a cinnamon addict ). We both hope to find a new handbag and my sister also wants to go to a certain shop but she didn't remember which.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

It won't be the same thing, but I think tonight I'll put my Clavinova in modal tuning to reproduce some of those wonderful sounds that can't be captured in equal-tempered scales.

How do you change the tuning on a Clavinova?
And, is there a way to cause octave notes to sound out sympathetically?


Stitchawl

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

How do you change the tuning on a Clavinova?
And, is there a way to cause octave notes to sound out sympathetically?


Stitchawl

With a few push buttons you can change the tuning and experience what music sounded like in the days before J.S. Bach and the well-tempered claviers.

As for making octave notes sound out sympathetically, I believe you need an acoustic for that. I've never heard of an electric that mimics that aspect of pianos, although it might be worth trying on a Rhodes since that uses tone bars rather than pure electronics to make the sound. You might get a little bit of induced ring; I don't know because I've never tried it. Fortunately I have a studio piano in the living room should I ever get a hankering to hear notes play by themselves.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

With a few push buttons you can change the tuning and experience what music sounded like in the days before J.S. Bach and the well-tempered claviers.

What a world we live in today...

As for making octave notes sound out sympathetically, I believe you need an acoustic for that.

That makes sense. When I tune to the tuning above, I can make the one guitar sound like three are playing together in octaves. Sounds impressive, but in fact, pretty easy, especially if I play the melody line just on one string like a dulcimer...


Stitchawl

[Rumpelteazer]

The mouse I use with my notebook has been dying a slow death for a while now. Earlier in the year the scroll wheel left click (which I set as "back" button when using the browser) stopped working. I set right click with the scroll wheel as "back" button and that worked until this evening when it stopped working too.

Logitech has an inexpensive wired laser mouse that is good enough for me and it even comes in different colours. However, the local store only has the black with green stripe in stock, but I like the cinnamon red better. The big quesstion now is should I go pick up the black/green one tomorrow before or after our store opens or order the cinnamon red one online, pay a couple of euros more and wait a day longer.

[WT Sharpe]

Thanks for reminding me. My mouse eats batteries. Off to buy some a pack of those hi-tech batteries that last 6 times longer than conventional coppertops.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

The mouse I use with my notebook has been dying a slow death for a while now. Earlier in the year the scroll wheel left click (which I set as "back" button when using the browser) stopped working. I set right click with the scroll wheel as "back" button and that worked until this evening when it stopped working too.

Logitech has an inexpensive wired laser mouse that is good enough for me and it even comes in different colours. However, the local store only has the black with green stripe in stock, but I like the cinnamon red better. The big quesstion now is should I go pick up the black/green one tomorrow before or after our store opens or order the cinnamon red one online, pay a couple of euros more and wait a day longer.

I find it best to wait and get the color I really like. Otherwise I'll discover that I've bought the 2nd best, and STILL want to get the best one too. Then I've paid for two of them!

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Thanks for reminding me. My mouse eats batteries. Off to buy some a pack of those hi-tech batteries that last 6 times longer than conventional coppertops.

The batteries in my desktop computer mouse last really long, I think officially 3 years (mine still got 191 days left). For my notebook, however, I usually have a corded mouse because I don't think it's worth the expense to buy a cordless one.

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

I find it best to wait and get the color I really like. Otherwise I'll discover that I've bought the 2nd best, and STILL want to get the best one too. Then I've paid for two of them!

I just ordered the cinnamon red one. It being The Week Before Christmas chances are I'll collapse on my bed tonight without watching tv or switching on my notebook.

[Rumpelteazer]

I just made an appointment to get my new contact lenses checked out. I started wearing Silicone Hydrogel contacts on Friday. I have no problems with my left eye except for a bit of redness due to getting used to the silicone. My right eye, however, can't focus. I called customer service Friday morning and was told that my eye had to get used to the different type of contacts and that it could take a few days.

On Friday it was annoying but being outside most of the day bearable. On Saturday I took them out after two hours because in our store with all the colours and having to shift focus often it drove me crazy. On Sunday, as an experiment, I tried my left contact in my right eye (same strength, different ophthalmic astigmatism strength) and my right eye saw focussed. If I put my right contact in my left eye I can't focus again. My conclusion is that there's a problem with my contact and not with my eye but before I try a new contact I want to have it checked out by the specialist.

[Turnstone]

I am converting my music CDs to wav and mp3 files. So constantly changing CDs and checking metadata, waiting 2 minutes, next CD... boring! When I am done with converting a batch to wav I can convert them all at once to mp3. The only chance to leave the computer without losing time! Right now reading mobileread makes it not so boring for me.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Thanks for reminding me. My mouse eats batteries. Off to buy some a pack of those hi-tech batteries that last 6 times longer than conventional coppertops.

Be careful, Tom... When I discovered disposable lithium AA batteries I thought I had it made in the shade. My flash unit for my camera can take five batteries at once, with instant full refresh because of that 5th battery. Great for multi-flash action shots. So I used it to photograph a Thai Muay Thai boxing match... and burned out the flash! The batteries overheated so badly that they cooked the strobe's circuits, and Nikon wouldn't stand behind its warantee because they didn't specify that I 'could' use lithium batteries. Note; they didn't specify that I couldn't either, but that didn't seem to make any difference. I had to buy another...


Stitchawl