A New Plan

At least for the moment...

Hi folks, and thank you for your interest in reading my weekly articles about music and about learning fiddle.

In the last couple weeks, we’ve been talking about grace notes and how natural they are for us humans. As usual, when we organize things to the point of writing them down, these natural gestures get codified and sometimes take on a more rigid feel and attention than they are meant to have.

Last week we talked about slow grace notes, and the next topic is quick grace notes, those percussive finger taps that mark a beat or separate two of the same note. Some quick grace notes are not taps at all, but involve a quick or even partial lift.

Later on, we’ll take a look at combining slow and quick grace notes — always a sure way to impress your friends and neighbors! This will lead into a nice way for everyone to learn the Irish roll, too. And there’s more on the way, in terms of general musical ideas as well as fiddle ideas which often translate to other instruments too.

For 15 months, I’ve been writing these articles every Wednesda!y for you (if you missed some, be sure to browse them online). During this time, I’ve also been writing two other weekly posts you might like to read if you haven;’t already. On Mondays, it’s Scotland’s Music, Landscape and Events, full of photos, stories, and music from many years of coleading music and walking trips in Scotland, interspersed with music articles I wrote for 24 years in Scottish Life magazine, and new interviews written up just for Substack. On Fridays, I’ve offered essays and fiction (even serializing a novel), as well as a few poems and photos, simply called “Ed’s Writings.”

My new plan, at least for the moment, is to offer these writings every other week instead of every week. I once heard a report on the radio about quality food, and at one point the investigator admitted ocasionally indulging in some tasty “bad” food once in a while, because it was “good for the mental.” I think cutting back a little on my deadlines here will be good for the mental! I may add in an extra article here and there, or may go back at some point to a weekly schedule for one or more of these publications. If you have thoughts about this, I would be happy to hear whether this new plan sounds fine, or is even better for you to receive articles a little less often, or if you were counting on them and will find this change disappointing. We’ll work it out one way or another!

Until next week!