my ukulele progress

[ripock]

I never sing. Sometimes I'll use pentatonic scales to emulate phrases in my matching my spoken intonation with the words in my head and how I'd say them. pentatonics are good at that.

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

I never sing. Sometimes I'll use pentatonic scales to emulate phrases in my matching my spoken intonation with the words in my head and how I'd say them. pentatonics are good at that.

Is that something like, "Bap bip boo bap pap shabba doo zap, zabba daba bee bow happy doe pap"? If so, I spend much of my daily commute doing that, while beating my palms on the steering wheel. Other drivers tend to steer clear of me. In the past when she would sometimes allow me to drive her to work, my adult daughter hated it.

 

[ripock]

When driving I usually take a harmonica.

 

[ripock]

I have been interested in the recent thread about theory. I am torn in half by the topic. The solipsistic side of me scoffs that anyone would not want to steep him or herself in theory. After all who could be so daft as not to be like me. The other side acknowledges that if someone just wants to play in groups and socialize, there's absolutely no need to attain any theory.

Theory is interesting. In theory my wife didn't want mushrooms in velouté sauce. It is too heavy she says. I make it with bacon drippings making it even heavier but I use more stock thereby making it thinner. She said she liked this "lighter" version much better. And since I know culinary theory, I know the variables and how to manipulate them to trick my wife and serve my end.

Then I used some theory to think about the notes I have been missing by playing in E. E has 7 of the 12 notes in it. I have become proficient in knowing where those notes are. But what about the notes I never play? The Bb, D, F, and Ab. I knew where to find them. In the key which is the flat version of E: Eb. The natural key and the flat key have some interesting connections. For example if you add the number of sharps in the natural key and the number of flats in the flat key, the number always equals 7. That is useful knowledge. A lot of people know that D has 2 sharps in it, but what about Db? A lot of people wouldn't know how many flats it has. Because of this paragraph you know it has 5 flats

For music today I went back to my Yorkie. As fine as the kamaka is, I greatly prefer the voice of my Yorkie. It is more somber being 100% hardwood. Plus I have it downtuned. Its notes are clear but warmer and quieter.

I was playing a progression that is mainly Dorian: Em, B7, DΔ, F#m6, B7 (a different voicing).

Over that progression I played some more Dorian modes and their friends. Since I was playing all 4 strings, I had another 2 modes to play with at the 2nd and 11th frets. And with a usable G string I could do my arpeggios again because I have them memorized as 4 string patterns. I could do 3 string versions but they always sound truncated and acephalous.

 

[Voran]

I would rather [redacted, I've been reported for gross humor more than once already] than bother learning theory but that's just me haha

 

[ripock]

You're so crazy. Nothing is more theory than creating your own tuning and handpicking the intervallic relationships of the notes of your chords

 

[ripock]

I went to the market today and someone complimented my Victorian look. To be honest I would have preferred the sobriquet of Edwardian because that's my favorite period: some modern conveniences but without a lot of the baggage of modernity. I was wearing a rather loud sportscoat and a Homburg hat. I suppose that's what qualified me as a Victorian. After all, I wasn't wearing sweats and a hoody.

I bought my normal purchases of vegetables, some ground elk, and some cheese for a treat. Rather it is a treat for my cat who is fussy but loves cheese and sunflower meats. The last time I bought some cheese it was infused with scorpion pepper and I couldn't share that with my cat. The cheese wasn't intolerably hot going down but--my apologies to Johnny Cash--later that evening I had a burning ring of fire. I didn't want to inflict that upon the cat. So I bought some double Glouchester and that's right up my cats alley.

The thing I didn't buy was garlic. I have gravitated away from fresh garlic. I have opted for powdered garlic because the ajo en polvo (I shop where a lot of spanish is spoken and written) is easier to use. It doesn't burn, it doesn't require prep, and you can use as much as you want. I suppose it is less nutritious than raw garlic but that's a trade-off that seems acceptable to me.

 

[ploverwing]

I suppose it is less nutritious than raw garlic but that's a trade-off that seems acceptable to me.

Actually, I'm not sure that it is. To be at the height of nutritious, you need to let freshly cut garlic oxidize for a bit, so I suspect that garlic processed for drying gets that opportunity in spades. Sure, you might miss out on some "living" value, but stuff that's properly dehydrated can contain a lot of goodies.

To be honest I would have preferred the sobriquet of Edwardian because that's my favorite period: some modern conveniences but without a lot of the baggage of modernity.

Based on your recent avatar update, I'd have voted Edwardian.

 

[Down Up Dick]

I’m glad to hear that you wear hats. I wear them all the time, and I changed over from Winter to Spring last Monday. Happy Spring!

 

[ripock]

You have touched upon a very sore subject with me. Here in the desert we cannot wear felt hats for half the year. It is so warm that the only hat I can wear is a brown stetson hat that has a solid top but the sides are mesh. I have tried straw hats but even they are too dense. I have a linen trilby and I sweat in it but don't care as it is old. The art of millinery is dead to me for months on end.

 

[bbkobabe]

I'm tired of the effect that super hot chili peppers have on my "system" the following day... done with that!

There is a company that produces the hottest chili sauces in America... It's called The Pucker Butt Pepper Company.

The name alone says... too much.

They sell a box of potato chips "seasoned" with their proprietary chili sauce... TWO chips per package. That's it... It's some kind of a contest I think. If you can eat the second one, you are entered to win...

Win what? A bad day on the toilet is my guess...

never Never NEVER!

 

[ploverwing]

Yeah super hot spicy goes into my Nopebook. But if that makes you happy, enjoy.

 

[ripock]

Thanks for the link. I wear Ex Officio underwear. Now I can wear it on my head as well.

 

[ripock]

Yeah super hot spicy goes into my Nopebook. But if that makes you happy, enjoy.

I live near the chile capital of the world. Chiles are different from peppers. Chiles can be spicy but they burn a bit and then it is over. Peppers are a different proposition. They burn but then linger so that the second bite combines with remnants of the first and the spiciness redoubles. I only use one pepper sauce, Bunsters from Australia. It is very potent with Scorpion Peppers but also still being food. It has a citrus profile. However you still have to demonstrate prudence. You have to put just a drop or two in a dish to give it piquancy. If you used as much Bunsters as you would use mustard on a hamburger, the food would be inedible.

 

[Down Up Dick]

You have touched upon a very sore subject with me. Here in the desert we cannot wear felt hats for half the year. It is so warm that the only hat I can wear is a brown stetson hat that has a solid top but the sides are mesh. I have tried straw hats but even they are too dense. I have a linen trilby and I sweat in it but don't care as it is old. The art of millinery is dead to me for months on end.

Well, that’s too bad, ripock. We have hot summers too here in So Cal, but I’m retired, so I just don’t go out if it’s too hot. Sometimes I wear a visor if there’s wind or just or go bareheaded If I hafta go out. I wear a Stetson Rancher too. I guess summer is just summer.

 

[ripock]

I became inspired from one of the sub-topics in a recent thread, so I set aside what I was doing (primarily stuff in Harmonic Minor and the Diminished Dominant) and played some pentatonics. After all Roots musicians need to stay connected to the roots.

I just used the central riff from "death letter blues" and I played it in the sub-tonic shape (I cannot remember how guitarists refer to it; it is shape 4?)

I merely used that shape because it is in the middle of the fretboard in the key of E. I supported the melody with some chord voicings nearby. Essentially Em and 7b9's because dom7's in that area of fretboard give me some challenges and I wasn't in the mood to be thwarted.

 

[ripock]

I received a headwear reprieve. Two days ago it snowed and today there is bitter north wind coming off the Sandias which is our local branch of the Rocky Mountains. I'll be able to wear some felt hats for a while yet.

 

[ripock]

My home lost electricity for three days now but I found that one of the outlets is working so I bought some really long extension cords (previously the longest chord was a 13 with the extensions of b7, 9. 11. 13). And I used the cords to plug in my refrigerator and my internet. The internet seems like a frivolous use of a plug but I work two jobs from home and I need to log into work; I wasn't just jonesing to update my twitter account or feel unconnected to the world thru social media. As a matter of fact I didn't bat an eye at being disconnected as some of the younger folk would. I just played more uke and went to bed earlier.

What I have been doing with the uke is changing to the Neapolitan scale for a spell. Even if someone takes the most superficial glance at this thread, he'd see that I am much more attracted to the aiolian sounds. And the Neapolitan is just a fancy way of saying it is the Aiolian with a flat 2 and a natural 7.

That may seem an insignificant difference but really one note can really change the picking of the scale. I am a fairly faithful adherent to the 3-per-string school of thought. When one or two notes alter, then you have to re-evaluate how you organize the scales. And once you re-organize the scales new associations form. You naturally group things together as they're grouped together on the strings, but when they are grouped differently it opens new doorways for you.

So I do find the Neapolitan stimulating and challenging although it is just an Aiolian variation.

And for the progression, I have just been opting for a descending pitch kind of thing: Am, Em, F7, CmΔ7, B7#5. For anyone doing the math, that's a 4-1-b2-b6-5 progression which is honestly pure doggerel. But the descending line works as does the prevailing vibe from one chord to the next.

 

[ripock]

My wife has been sick for the last few days. She was actually vomiting which I found strange because I didn't think women puked or farted. At least that's what I had been told. She is back with the living and ready for solid food. I made some things which took more time than I usually take with dinner:

1. boiled swiss chard
2a. pressure cooked yukon gold potatoes which I am going to mash with some butter (BTW I am using unsalted butter that I was forced to purchased at the market. It is fine except for one thing...it needs salt. I may as well have used K-Y Jelly. It is just a tasteless lubricant).
2b. to put atop the potatoes I made a "gumbo" velouté sauce. My wife has dietary restrictions so I cannot really use any spices. In that sense it isn't gumbo at all because I couldn't use the spice-complex that makes gumbo gumbo. However what I did is make a very dark roux with a spoonful of ghee and a generous twirl of olive oil mixed with garbanzo flour. When that nutty smell has begun to smell like slightly burnt popcorn I threw in some white onion that I had cut really finely, some shrimp, and some sausage (it had Hatch chilis in it; don't tell my wife!). I added some chicken broth to attain the consistency.
3. I had some chicken ribs to which I used my spatchcock recipe. I baked them atop a bed of onion floating in some wine that my wife bought but which she cannot drink because it upsets her. I put some in the pot and put the rest the down the drain as it was a wasted purchase.

 

[ploverwing]

My wife has been sick for the last few days. She was actually vomiting which I found strange because I didn't think women puked or farted. At least that's what I had been told. She is back with the living and ready for solid food.

I'm sorry that she was sick like that. NOT fun.

"Never puke" Ha. Ha. How long have you been married? If your wife has never otherwise vomited during your association, she is, indeed, a lucky human. I cannot say that I am lucky in that respect: kind of a canary in a coal mine as far as that tendency goes. I do not have the cast iron stomach that my husband has, and am much less liberal about keeping food than he's willing to be.

And wow, I would never be able to eat from that menu so shortly after a stomach distress. I'm lucky if I can manage toast or rice. Your wife is indeed remarkable in her constitution.