Friday, August 20, 2004
Attack of the Practice Prosthetics!
I'm at the stage where practicing my instruments isn't enough. I need to attach gizmos and widgets to practice now!
On the pipes, the single biggest thing holding me back from achieving the vaunted "next level" (grade 3?) is the steadiness of my blowing. So I bought a water manometer, and have begun to practice using it to steady my pressure. At first, I was all over the map: 30" of water plus or minus 6". But within a single practice session, I was able - for most of the time, to get it down to plus or minus 2". Eventually, I added the drones, so I could better add the auditory aspect to my "biofeedback". I suspect that I will be practicing with the manometer for at least a half hour a day from now on. The downside of it is that it does not permit all three drones to sound, so my air loss rate is not completely realistic. Perhaps I'll devise an extra stock for the bag, hidden by the bag cover, just for connecting the manometer tube.
For you science types, that means that the activation pressure of my reed is approximately 55 Torr, or 7.5% of atmospheric pressure. At some point, when I have more control, I want to study where the cut-off pressures of various notes are, and how they vary in pitch near those cut-offs.
Now to the fiddle. While preparing for the fiddle club performance at the Virginia Scottish Games, I wondered if it would be possible for me to fiddle fully strapped into my smallpipe bellows. If I could, it would be easy, not only for that performance, but all gigs where I might play both instruments, to switch between the two in the middle of a set. I discovered that not only could I do it - though with some difficulty - but that the smallpipe bellows significantly constrained my elbow, so that I was forced to bow almost entirely from the wrist. I could still use the elbow and shoulder for major movements, but it was laborious to do so, and my natural tendency was to use the wrist more than I ever have before. Considering that one of the big weaknesses of my bowing is - and always has been, even in my classical violin days - my inclination to bow from the elbow, this could prove a huge help in retraining myself to use the wrist and fingers for most bow motion. So now I spend most of my fiddle practice strapped into the smallpipes bellows.
Though, all in all, it is a little odd to play either instrument hooked up and strapped in.
On the pipes, the single biggest thing holding me back from achieving the vaunted "next level" (grade 3?) is the steadiness of my blowing. So I bought a water manometer, and have begun to practice using it to steady my pressure. At first, I was all over the map: 30" of water plus or minus 6". But within a single practice session, I was able - for most of the time, to get it down to plus or minus 2". Eventually, I added the drones, so I could better add the auditory aspect to my "biofeedback". I suspect that I will be practicing with the manometer for at least a half hour a day from now on. The downside of it is that it does not permit all three drones to sound, so my air loss rate is not completely realistic. Perhaps I'll devise an extra stock for the bag, hidden by the bag cover, just for connecting the manometer tube.
For you science types, that means that the activation pressure of my reed is approximately 55 Torr, or 7.5% of atmospheric pressure. At some point, when I have more control, I want to study where the cut-off pressures of various notes are, and how they vary in pitch near those cut-offs.
Now to the fiddle. While preparing for the fiddle club performance at the Virginia Scottish Games, I wondered if it would be possible for me to fiddle fully strapped into my smallpipe bellows. If I could, it would be easy, not only for that performance, but all gigs where I might play both instruments, to switch between the two in the middle of a set. I discovered that not only could I do it - though with some difficulty - but that the smallpipe bellows significantly constrained my elbow, so that I was forced to bow almost entirely from the wrist. I could still use the elbow and shoulder for major movements, but it was laborious to do so, and my natural tendency was to use the wrist more than I ever have before. Considering that one of the big weaknesses of my bowing is - and always has been, even in my classical violin days - my inclination to bow from the elbow, this could prove a huge help in retraining myself to use the wrist and fingers for most bow motion. So now I spend most of my fiddle practice strapped into the smallpipes bellows.
Though, all in all, it is a little odd to play either instrument hooked up and strapped in.
# posted by Peter @ 11:58 AM 
