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My ears are shot - but not dead yet

malada: Greenland flag (Default)
Friday, October 17th, 2025 06:58 pm
Years of working in TV Master control with whirring computer/server fans and the whine of tape machine gradually destroyed my hearing leaving with with a lessened sense of tone and pitch along with needing hearing aids just for normal speech.

I've picked up the acoustic guitar again hoping to retrain my ears. I was playing my housemate's father's guitar - a small 'parlor' guitar from the early 1950s and although I used a tuner to tune the strings it just sounded off. It needed refurbishment so I handed it off to a guitar repair shop.and it came back in better shape, but it still sounded off.

I started checking individual notes and discovered the intonation was off. If I tuned the guitar strings with a tuner the chords were out of tune. So I tuned it to itself and noticed a distinct difference; it sounded... better. It may be one of those guitars that you need to tune to itself.

This experience shows that I have retained some sense of pitch which is a good thing. I'm hoping to spend more time playing guitar and bass to re-educate my ears.
  • Current Mood: hopeful
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Song to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell"

malada: Greenland flag (Default)
Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 07:15 am
The leopards eat your face,
The leopards eat your face,
Hi-Ho, you're chewy-oh!
The leopards eat your face.

You voted for the Don,
You voted for the Don,
Hi-Ho, you're chewy-oh!
You voted for the Don.

You bought into the con,
You bought into the con,
Hi-Ho, you're chewy-oh!
You bought into the con.

You're really screwed you know,
You're really screwed you know,
Hi-Ho, you're chewy-oh!
You're really screwed you know.

The leopards eat your face,
The leopards eat your face,
Hi-Ho, you're chewy-oh!
The leopards eat your face.
  • Current Mood: snarky
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I finally got new strings

malada: bass guitar (playing base)
Saturday, May 3rd, 2025 07:40 pm
i own two bass guitars, one electric, one 12 string, and three acoustic (classical) guitars. Two to the acoustics need repairs which I think I can do if I can get the parts. Actually, the third acoustic has a cracked bridge but it's still playable. The electric I want to rewire. The basses are fine. They all really need new strings.

So I got some nylon strings for the (mostly) working acoustic.

NEVER PUT STEEL STRINGS ON A CLASSICAL GUITAR. YOU WILL BREAK THE GUITAR.

It took a while for the strings to stretch into tune. I'm sure it's going to be a few days before they settle in. Tuning was difficult with the strings stretching and immediately going out of tune. It's been ages since I've restrung any guitar and I didn't do the best of jobs with this one. On top of that, my hearing loss has made it difficult to tell when things are out of tune. I pulled out my guitar tuner and spent the time struggling to get it at least close.

Then I started playing basic chords. Half of my hand remembered where the fingers go but the other half had almost completely forgot! Classical guitars tend to have a wide neck and my fingers are short.

But at last, the strings were mostly in tune and my fingers remembered where to land. And I suck. I was never very good anyways but... it was close enough to bang out some chords. And then something clicked in my brain. I remembered what the guitar sounded like, and I could hear it again. It only lasted a few moments but that tiny spark of musicality that resides in my soul light up again.

I think that playing again will help my failing hearing so I'm going to investigating repairs, more strings and playing more. I might even buy a steel string acoustic. The 12 string is hard to play although it sounds like a million bucks - when it's in tune.

Playing music feeds something in my soul. I'm a lousy musician but I want to feed that part of my soul that's been starving for a while. If I play for anyone it'll probably be only for me.

And that's all that matters.
  • Current Mood: artistic
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A sort of New Year's resolution

malada: Greenland flag (Default)
Monday, January 2nd, 2023 08:15 am
There is something I want to do... or at least try to do... this year. It started in November when a song idea started to percolate in my head. All it was was a feeling, a chorus and a thought. Later, after noticing some old VHS recorders in Goodwill (which I did not buy) a whole concept sort of exploded in my head.

The song is titled "One Track Mind". (No, it's not about sex.) I want to play and record all the instruments: guitar, bass, drums and vocals onto a four track cassette deck and mix down all in analog. I also want to video tape the performances on VHS - edit the video digitally (I'm not crazy) to post on my YouTube channel.

Technically, I think I can do this. If I keep the music simple the instruments I could handle after I relearn them. The vocals - argh, my voice is thin at best. But I want to make the attempt. I may fail but hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I want to start playing again anyways - even if my hands hurt.

-m
  • Current Mood: artistic
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A black woman plays the flute

malada: Greenland flag (Default)
Sunday, October 2nd, 2022 09:20 am
So... this amazing musician named Lizzo went to the Library of Congress to check out their flute collection.

Wait... they have a flute collection? How many? 1,700? Hot damn!

Then she got to rock on a crystal flute owned my James Madison? Awesome!

I now know the Library of Congress has a *huge* collection of flutes, and one of them is a *crystal* flute, and there's this black woman named Lizzo who can blow like nobody's business.

So... what's the problem?

I'll tell you what my problem is... I didn't know _any_ of that before!

Now I want to know what else do they have in there? Do they have cellos? Calling Yo-yo Ma! Oboes? (Naw, nobody cares about oboes). Guitars? Saxophones? Can we get a _band_ together?

Hot damn.

-m

PS - my profile pic is me holding a 1972 Hagstom bass guitar. I rescued it from a garage sale - rebuilt the electronics, repaired a large hole in the front and took it to a repair shop to have the neck shimmed. It doesn't play very well but I like it.
  • Current Mood: impressed
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A nice comment

malada: Greenland flag (Default)
Monday, December 14th, 2020 02:41 pm
I have a Youtube channel: Malada Media Labs. It's mostly me fixing up or playing with old computers, with a few Second Life videos.

One thing I've always tried to do is create my own music for each video. I use LMMS - typically used to create 'Beats' and similar style music. Fruity Loops and FL Studio is similar. To be honest, I'm not terribly talented but I've got a little music theory training and I wander outside the basic sounds that come with LMMS adding interesting soundfonts and VSTs to make the sound richer and more varied. I've had a few videos with pretty bad music... but I think I'm getting better at it as time goes on.

I uploaded my latest video Sunday night and was surprised to get a comment on it come Monday. They found the video informing and said my music reminded them of the German band Kraftwerk.

*smiles*

*soft happy glow*

Aside of their song 'Autobahn' I've never listened to any Kraftwerk, but having my music sound like *something* makes me feel good.

-m

edit for typo
  • Current Mood: pleased
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They called Ted Nugent a WHAT?

malada: Greenland flag (Default)
Friday, April 21st, 2017 05:35 pm
The New York Times - and Glenn Thrush in particular - referred to Ted Nugent as:

" — a guitar demigod, knife-between-the-teeth hunter and conservative provocateur — "

which shows how little they know about rock music.

I've seen Ted Nugent live twice in my life... and BOTH times he was outclassed and out played by the 'warm up' bands.

The first time it was the fat man... and I swear he was the biggest man to ever pick up a guitar... by the name of Leslie West. He had a little group in the 1970s called Mountain. "Mississippi Queen" was the claim to fame. He was there with a drummer and bass guitarist... that's it. He played four songs... and was on stage for 40 minutes... 40 mind bending minutes of awesome guitar work. Ted Nugent and has army of other guitarists was a let down.

The second time the opening act was some new group which had just put out their first album. Their name was "Van Halen". Yeah... THAT Van Halen.

Ted Nugent is no guitar demigod but a washed up has been who I personally saw spiked by a fat old man and a young punk kid.
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The Snow Box Project 9

malada: Greenland flag (Default)
Sunday, January 8th, 2017 01:18 pm
-networking, cabling, movies unavailable and a bass guitarist-

I like Cat 5 cable. It's more secure and reliable than WIFI - so I have our computers wired up to our Internet router, then into a switch for my 2 - sometimes 3 - systems. Also from the Internet router I have a 75 foot drop of scrounged cat 5 that goes to the basement (where I have the Laboratory) and into another switch. From there there's a drop up into the living room.

I have more cable so I ran another length to from the basement router to the Snow Box... and fought with connectors for a few hours. It didn't work. I suck. Bought replacement connectors and tried them. It still doesn't work. I suck. Checked the cable for continuity - it's fine.

I've always had a slight tremor in my hands making really fine work difficult - like wiring up cable connectors. It's gotten worse as I've gotten older. So I just suck at this stuff.

So I take the connection I *do* have to the living room and wire it up to a cheap switch.

So I have 4 ports from the Internet router - three in use. One goes to my housemate's computer, one to my switch, another to the basement switch. The basement switch is has eight ports - one is connected to the switch in the living room (8 ports) which two ports are used. Yes, it's silly but it works.

So how about a nice movie to watch on my old but big TV in the living room. Download the Amazon app! No, I don't want to pay monthly to join Amazon Prime. Look for Tank Girl.... not available? Well, shoot. Download the YouTube app. Search for Tank Girl - it wants me to go to another site... which I can't click on in my Snow Box. Or it's been pulled because of DMCA violation. Okay. Check with the computer... go to the site... log in? Create an account? What kind of skeevy site is this? Go back and try another version. Same thing except it sends me to a different skeevy site that wants me to create an account.

Hello, guys! I've got this credit card... I just want to stream this movie. I'll pay a few bucks because I'm a Good Girl. I don't want to join some skeevy site to watch an older movie.

Back to my computer... ah.... I need to sign on to my Amazon account to stream/download movies! Okay. But I had to dig through the website to find out. The apps aren't really intuitive or informative.

And cruising the web on the Snow Box? Eeeeewwwww.... Internet Explorer!

However, checking out YouTube I did find a clip of Jack Bruce talking about and playing 'NSU'. Heard of him? No? Great bass player. He was in this group called Cream - or The Cream. You might of heard of the guitarist, some slow hand named Eric Clapton. Now I know that 'NSU' stands for non-specific urethritis - which is a urinary tract infection that is not Neisseria gonorrhoeae. It's a sexually transmitted disease. Jack related that it was first song he wrote for Cream. It was called that because Clapton had it at the time. X-D.

It's a great song and the words have nothing to do with STDs.

Waiting for parts to arrive - the DVD drive sort of opens when it wants to and I can hear it trying to open. If I pry it while it's making noise it opens and closes - at least for a little while.

-m
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