my ukulele progress

I've found that in general cats like to be around undemanding humans best.
Just read in the AARP magazine that when cats rub around your legs & ankles it’s not because they’re showing affection—they’re rubbing their pheromones on you. It’s a territorial device.

And when they roll on their backs they do NOT want a tummy rub. Thus when you start to rub the tummy you may get scratched!
 
beware of cat acquisition disorder. At one point in time we had a colony of 17. it started off with 2 but one was a prolific fornicator and we were feeding 3 litters of cats in the course of a year. And after I lost my soul-mate of 20 years to cancer, I kind of went crazy and kept acquiring cats to replace my tabby, Horace. But I came to my senses eventually when I realized that I would never find another Horace and I was destined to walk down the path lined with yew trees to death without a cat at my heels.
 
beware of cat acquisition disorder. At one point in time we had a colony of 17. it started off with 2 but one was a prolific fornicator and we were feeding 3 litters of cats in the course of a year. And after I lost my soul-mate of 20 years to cancer, I kind of went crazy and kept acquiring cats to replace my tabby, Horace. But I came to my senses eventually when I realized that I would never find another Horace and I was destined to walk down the path lined with yew trees to death without a cat at my heels.
Aw, I'm sorry. It's so hard to lose a soul mate. I mourn the loss of my Murri almost daily. He was my Horace equivalent, I think.
 
My "Horace" was called Arthur. Arthur was very special indeed. Then came Oscar, and now Freddie (Freddie Freeloader - Miles Davis). They were not replacements, never could be, but both lovely chaps. After twenty years, I still think about Arthur but nowadays it's only about once a week.
 
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Happy Thanksgiving from the ghost of dead Horace seen here objecting to the proximity of a poodle. My thanksgiving will be easy. My wife wanted nothing special and nothing special is what I have in spades. I have some lamb, a butternut squash, and some potatoes. I'll see what can be done with that.
 
I made a sour-cherry pie last night, and today we are also having a non-Thanksgiving Day dinner. No turkey this year, since we both admitted that we aren’t passionate about turkey. But we are passionate about pasta carbonara. So that’s what it will be.

I make it with the guanciale (pork cheeks) largely trimmed of fat, and as the pasta I use bucatini, which is essentially fat spaghetti with a hollow center.
 
I remember reading about a boar's head being a holiday treat in England and at the time I didn't understand. But once I realized the tender delicacy of face flesh, I understood. So the guanciale sounds good. I believe I will be making a shepherd's pie with a side of butternut squash. My fingers were itching to use my poultry shears just because I have them. And I was disappointed not being able to cut a spine from the turkey but my meal seems somewhat holidayesque nonetheless.
 
I remember reading about a boar's head being a holiday treat in England and at the time I didn't understand. But once I realized the tender delicacy of face flesh, I understood. So the guanciale sounds good. I believe I will be making a shepherd's pie with a side of butternut squash. My fingers were itching to use my poultry shears just because I have them. And I was disappointed not being able to cut a spine from the turkey but my meal seems somewhat holidayesque nonetheless.
Ooooh have you used them to spatchcock a bird yet?

Your Horace was a spotty stripey grey boy like my Murri! Here's a digital piece I did from a photo of Murri:

murritag1.jpg
 
I didn't do a proper spatchcock because I believe that entails grilling the bird, but I removed the spine from a chicken or two and baked them flattened on a bed of onions. I then pressure cooked the spines with some mirepoix to make a white stock.
 
Post Thanksgiving assessment:

The shepherd's pie was successful. I made the mistake of telling my wife what was going to be in it and she was fussy. I had to be uncharacteristically brusque with her. I've been feeding her for almost 30 years; I know what I'm doing. She is going to eat it and like it, and she did.

The filling was easy ground lamb and spinach and a big spoonful of beans for texture and some separation. Then I threw in a bunch of savory things: some lemon juice, garlic, carmelized onion, herbs, tumeric salt. The crust was easy. I just pressure cooked four potatoes and then whisked them with raw leeks. In a way I erred with them. I made them rather dry so that they would brown up better in the oven. But dry potato mash is difficult to spread. So it wasn't so smooth. Let's just assume it was an affect I was chasing and let's call it rustic.

The butternut squash cooks itself...after you cut it into a moiety and put it in the oven. So I just cooked that thing, scraped out the meat and added the usual suspects of butter, cinnamon, salt, black strap molasses.

That was my holiday feast and it was fine. This morning I had a shock going to the market for provisions and a bundle of leeks was going for almost eight dollars. I had to opt for a red onion. And I bought some yukon potatoes which I haven't done in a long while and now I remember why! When I took them out of the potato bag, they were round. They are going to be difficult to peel. Now I remember why I gravitate away from them.

I've been playing around with the E alt scale. I was focusing on the A# on the 10th and 13th frets. A# was probably on my mind because of a recent thread about enharmonic notes. It is A# because It is in E and E is on the sharp side of the circle of fifths so that all its accidental notes are sharps.

However, underneath the melodizing I am playing a 2-5-1 in F using the same tones. In that case the A# is not an A# but a Bb because we're in F which is on the flat side of the circle of fifths.

If I were going to publish the sheet music of what I'm doing, I would have to make some executive decisions. On one hand, grammar is grammar so that A# is A# in E and Bb when in F. However the goal of sheet music is communication. As a writer you have to evaluate would breaking grammar makes things more clear. Would calling the tone Bb throughout the composition makes things easier for musicians or would someone say I'm finger picking in E and you write Bb? WTH?
 
Post Thanksgiving assessment:

The shepherd's pie was successful. I made the mistake of telling my wife what was going to be in it and she was fussy. I had to be uncharacteristically brusque with her. I've been feeding her for almost 30 years; I know what I'm doing. She is going to eat it and like it, and she did.

The filling was easy ground lamb and spinach and a big spoonful of beans for texture and some separation. Then I threw in a bunch of savory things: some lemon juice, garlic, carmelized onion, herbs, tumeric salt. The crust was easy. I just pressure cooked four potatoes and then whisked them with raw leeks. In a way I erred with them. I made them rather dry so that they would brown up better in the oven. But dry potato mash is difficult to spread. So it wasn't so smooth. Let's just assume it was an affect I was chasing and let's call it rustic.

The butternut squash cooks itself...after you cut it into a moiety and put it in the oven. So I just cooked that thing, scraped out the meat and added the usual suspects of butter, cinnamon, salt, black strap molasses.

That was my holiday feast and it was fine. This morning I had a shock going to the market for provisions and a bundle of leeks was going for almost eight dollars. I had to opt for a red onion. And I bought some yukon potatoes which I haven't done in a long while and now I remember why! When I took them out of the potato bag, they were round. They are going to be difficult to peel. Now I remember why I gravitate away from them.

I've been playing around with the E alt scale. I was focusing on the A# on the 10th and 13th frets. A# was probably on my mind because of a recent thread about enharmonic notes. It is A# because It is in E and E is on the sharp side of the circle of fifths so that all its accidental notes are sharps.

However, underneath the melodizing I am playing a 2-5-1 in F using the same tones. In that case the A# is not an A# but a Bb because we're in F which is on the flat side of the circle of fifths.

If I were going to publish the sheet music of what I'm doing, I would have to make some executive decisions. On one hand, grammar is grammar so that A# is A# in E and Bb when in F. However the goal of sheet music is communication. As a writer you have to evaluate would breaking grammar makes things more clear. Would calling the tone Bb throughout the composition makes things easier for musicians or would someone say I'm finger picking in E and you write Bb? WTH?
Based on knowledge I've recently obtained with the patient help of you and others, my vote is, "A# is A# when in E and Bb when in F" exactly as you stated. Though the chord shapes are identical on a uke fret board, both chord names have their proper place and not acknowledging that is tantamount to ignorance. Ignorance is a far worse condition than stupidity because the former is willful and the latter passive. Stupidity is correctable. Ignorance is a chosen path.
 
The one that really bugs me is calling the 7th interval in F# an E# instead of an F. That one sticks in my craw because I use F#. It is a great funky key and the 7th interval is so important since I play Roots music which is full of dominant chords.

There are more outlandish examples, but they are more theoretical than real. For example, you could call the key of B, the key of Cb. But that isn't really practical because the key of B has 5 sharps and the key of Cb has 7 flats. To write in the key of Cb you would make more work for yourself and your readers. That just isn't realistic. Same thing with B#. B# is the 7th interval of the key of C#. But why compose in c# with its 8 sharps (actually 6 sharps and a double sharp) when Db only has 5 flats and no eccentric names.
 
And I bought some yukon potatoes which I haven't done in a long while and now I remember why! When I took them out of the potato bag, they were round. They are going to be difficult to peel. Now I remember why I gravitate away from them
I just eat the peels. I love potato peels. Except in mashed potatoes.
 
I just eat the peels. I love potato peels. Except in mashed potatoes.
I do exactly the same. And I did that today more to warm the house than anything else. I cut up 3 yukons and then mixed them in a bowl with olive oil, salt, garlic, and a chive/onion mixtures I have and then roasted them at 425.

Meanwhile I was playing around with my E scales which I played over an F progression. The progression was essentially a minor 2-5-1: Gø, C7, Fm7. Then I played some arpeggios chimingly. Gm and Fm. Then I sneakily subbed in the F on the 13th fret for the one on the 8th fret with which I had been arpeggiating.

I saw a thread about tenor regrets. What's to regret? With my tenors I have 6 more frets after the 13th, so the notes still sound good. With smaller instruments we'd be at the periphery of their limitations.

Anyway, that 13th fret F is within the A# to A# iteration of the E alt scale. So I just melodized for a while. I am finding one of my favorite sounds with the altered scale is to play with two adjacent notes (e.g., the E and F on the E string) and then move over a string and play two notes that are separated by a fret (like the C and D on the C string). By hook or crook I could get up to the A# on the 13th fret and then employ a dom dim run that divebombs down to the E on the 9th fret and from that subtonic resolve up to the F. That was the basic strategy today.
 
What are yukons?
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They're a pretty common potato in North America
 
I made one of my favorites, my farinata which is 1/2 cup of garbanzo bean flour and 5 ozs. of liquid. You combine the two and let it sit while you put a skillet with some fat in the oven. Once the oven gets to 450 or 475, then you add a swirl or two of olive oil to your farinata mixture and add whatever else makes you happy. I put in umami powder and pepper and some very finely chopped red onion. After I pour it into the hot skillet, I usually sprinkle on something green (today it was basil) and something red (today it was ground pequin peppers). Then put it in the oven for 15 minutes or so. It is crunchy but also gooey.

This morning I am pondering labels. I had had an infection and I was not feeling too spry but was just sleeping more and life was uninterrupted except for blowing my nose a lot. However my wife went to the pharmacist and got covid tests. She has covid which means I have it as well. When it was a cold/flu I was okay with just working with it, but now that I have covid I am taking a day off work.

And my curiosity with labels extends to what I'm playing. I'm playing a chord progression in F while picking in E. The reason I decided to do this is simple. When picking the tune in E altered, I saw that the notes were there for chords in F. That's it. I don't have any grander theoretical reasoning.

so I have been strumming Gø, C7b9, Fm and then playing melodies over it and I was prioritizing the F to F variant of the E alt.

I do want to mention the results of the methodology I have been using with the altered scale and the dominant diminished scale. What I usually do is take a scale and all the modes of that scale and map them out on the fretboard. The glory of the mode is how modular it is. When you're playing a mode you know what you're doing for that portion of the fretboard. The problem with that way of approaching it is that it creates very discrete units and you tend to stay within the bailiwick of that unit, and the trick becomes how to unlearn the walls that enclose the mode so that you can flow up and down the neck.

What I've done this time around is not be such a micromanager. I learned where the notes are but there are no modular shapes; I can go anywhere because there are no boundaries demarcating units. At this point it is a bit stultifying having such freedom. I believe I'll get to the same place as I would have if I had done by traditional methodology. In the old way, you overlearn and then undo it. In this case I underlearned and slowly am building relationships between the notes.

And for some reason, I became stuck playing a few chords over and over. It was F sus2 and Am add9. I would try to introduce other chords but nothing was sounding right. I tried some chromatic chords like a Bm and I tried some diatonic chords. However I never found that third chord that I was looking for. But that's the fun of improvising.
 
I made one of my favorites, my farinata which is 1/2 cup of garbanzo bean flour and 5 ozs. of liquid. You combine the two and let it sit while you put a skillet with some fat in the oven. Once the oven gets to 450 or 475, then you add a swirl or two of olive oil to your farinata mixture and add whatever else makes you happy. I put in umami powder and pepper and some very finely chopped red onion. After I pour it into the hot skillet, I usually sprinkle on something green (today it was basil) and something red (today it was ground pequin peppers). Then put it in the oven for 15 minutes or so. It is crunchy but also gooey.

This morning I am pondering labels. I had had an infection and I was not feeling too spry but was just sleeping more and life was uninterrupted except for blowing my nose a lot. However my wife went to the pharmacist and got covid tests. She has covid which means I have it as well. When it was a cold/flu I was okay with just working with it, but now that I have covid I am taking a day off work.

And my curiosity with labels extends to what I'm playing. I'm playing a chord progression in F while picking in E. The reason I decided to do this is simple. When picking the tune in E altered, I saw that the notes were there for chords in F. That's it. I don't have any grander theoretical reasoning.

so I have been strumming Gø, C7b9, Fm and then playing melodies over it and I was prioritizing the F to F variant of the E alt.

I do want to mention the results of the methodology I have been using with the altered scale and the dominant diminished scale. What I usually do is take a scale and all the modes of that scale and map them out on the fretboard. The glory of the mode is how modular it is. When you're playing a mode you know what you're doing for that portion of the fretboard. The problem with that way of approaching it is that it creates very discrete units and you tend to stay within the bailiwick of that unit, and the trick becomes how to unlearn the walls that enclose the mode so that you can flow up and down the neck.

What I've done this time around is not be such a micromanager. I learned where the notes are but there are no modular shapes; I can go anywhere because there are no boundaries demarcating units. At this point it is a bit stultifying having such freedom. I believe I'll get to the same place as I would have if I had done by traditional methodology. In the old way, you overlearn and then undo it. In this case I underlearned and slowly am building relationships between the notes.

And for some reason, I became stuck playing a few chords over and over. It was F sus2 and Am add9. I would try to introduce other chords but nothing was sounding right. I tried some chromatic chords like a Bm and I tried some diatonic chords. However I never found that third chord that I was looking for. But that's the fun of improvising.
ripock - I wish you and your wife a quick and symptom-free recovery from covid.

Your final sentence brought to mind an exchange I had last week with Barry Maz. After watching his informative but painful review of the Fender Avalon tenor, I PM-ed to ask the name of the tune he'd strummed for the sound sample. He responded by referring me back to his webpage, which (after just a bit of searching) answered my question. The strum began with Am7 (open), then A7 for a half-beat, followed by Bm, then up to C, F7, back to Bm, and ended the bar with F7. The first run in the chorus is really interesting because it goes Eb6, EbMaj7, Eb, EbMaj7, Eb6, each of which (as written by an accomplished artist) works from a barre at the 3rd fret with only the A string making the difference.

Correct me if I've taken the wrong side of the multi forked musical path but the possible connection to the tune in Barry's sound sample is that the shape nearest the nut for Am add9 is 2(B)0(E)0(C)2(A), and the first shape for F sus2 is 3(C)1(F)0(C)0(G).
 
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