Reading: The Last Templar
Music: Boondock Saints
TV/Movie: Battlestar Galactic on SciFi
Link o' the Day: Slowplayers.org

Pretty Maggie gave me a $40 gift certificate for eBay knowing that I would either buy a.) a new and louder bodhran or b.) a fiddle. After some careful consideration, exploration, consultation, and so forth, I found a fiddle on eBay that doesn't look like a fly-by-night operation unloading cheap Chinese fiddles.

So if all goes well, by week's end I should have a fiddle in my possession. Now my theory is that because I've been learning the mandolin over the past few months, with a concentration on irish session tunes, I should be able to transfer this to the fiddle. It's the same tuning. Much of the music for mandolin can be switched to the fiddle and vice-versa. Now we see if this theory holds water. I don't know the basics, of course, in how to handle a fiddle--particularly the bow, so I expect an awful lot of screeching and terrified cats until I get that down.

I'm considering actual lessons.

If this wasn't enough, for Christmas, I got Pretty Maggie a Scottish chanter. It's basically a bagpipe without the bags and pipes. It's just the bit you blow into and finger. This is her specialty. She does wind instruments. I can't do wind for some reason, which is a shame as I think the flute, bagpipes, and pennywhistle are three of the most beautiful-sounding instruments on the planet. I am aware, also, that they sound _terrible_ if you don't know what you're doing. Pretty Maggie at least has the groundwork for a chanter if not the actual practice. We're trying to find a good book or tutorial on how to set the reeds for the chanter. This is crucial to the instrument's tuning. So yesterday we trooped down to Borders and I went to the info desk and asked:

"Can you help me find books on beginning bagpipes, beginning fiddle, and beginning annoying your neighbors?"

The people at Borders have no sense of humor. She actually started looking for the last item while the customers near me chuckled. I'm a horrible person and shouldn't pick on people while they're working.

Long story short, no joy in Mudville regarding the first two book topics. There were scads of books for guitar players, but precious little for anyone else. Ironically, we may have to check out Guitar World next. (There seem to be surprisingly few music stores in the Providence area.) And there is always the internet, godblessit.

* * *
In keeping with the Celtic-music theme, today's link visits Slowplayers.org, a site devoted to what are known as "slow sessions" which are like regular Celtic jam sessions, but geared toward beginner-level musicians. There doesn't seem to be a slow session group in the Providence area, but I'm also a little out of touch with the current session scene. Maybe I'll find one eventually.

But in the meantime, rosin up that bow, bang that drum, pick that mandolin, strum that geetar, hammer that banjo, and boil the breakfast early.

Cheers!