Friday 23 June 2017

Ode to Joy butchered on a hermonica



First bit of music on it though. 

9 comments:

  1. Better than 90% of the harmonica playing I hear which is really just randomly blowing. How long have you spent practicing up to this point?

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    1. Thanks, but it's really only the equivalent of playing piano with one finger. But I was quite delighted it could be recognized. Practice might be caller, some.

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  2. Not bad at all! I certainly would have recognized it.

    I think my entire repertoire consists of "Oh Susannah". (and maybe "Turkey in the Straw" on a good day) Makes me want to go dig mine out.

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    1. When I'm learning an instriment I try to get a song in my fingers. With the guitar it was the Yellow Rose of Texas and with the piano it was the Skye Boatman. But I'm fairly convinced now that I need to try the violin because my hands are quite small and I found reaching the frets on the low string and getting the hammer shape was nigh impossible. And similar with the keys. I believe to get really good you have to span from C to E above the next C, or 10 keys. And I can do the C to C, but I haven't strength in it. I'd say 6 was my realistic distance.

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  3. Near where I live, we are going to have a total solar eclipse on August 21 this year and I'm starting to plan things out a bit. I have glasses on order and will probably take my DSLR and 300 mm zoom lens. Any words of wisdom for photographing a total solar eclipse? Do they make filters for photographing the partial eclipse? I have a Canon lens.

    We will have to drive about two hours south of here to get into the zone of totality. This will be my first one I've experiences so I'm really looking forward to it.

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    1. There's a few ways to go about it.
      1. A 10 stop ND can be got from Amazon for about $30. That should allow, ishy, f8 at 1/100sec. And leeway to get the corona.
      2. f16-->f22 and 1/4000 plus. Lowering both during the passage.
      You'll need a tripod. And a wired release. The latter Neewer does them for less than $20.

      Tip. See if your camera software will allow tethering to a laptop then you can look at the laptop. Don't look through the viewfinder at the sun.


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  4. Thanks! I have a tripod and a wired release. I assume ND is neutral density filters from what pops up on Amazon. I'll see if I can find one that is compatible with my lens or if I need to get something to adapt it to it. I'm guessing I can look at digital display but it will be pointing down so difficult to see. I will have to see if I can tether a computer of some sort to it. That would make it much easier.

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    1. You can get step rings for pennies. Or you can get square ones, but they tend to be more expensive on the whole to get one that are colour sound. But you could get a 2 a 3 and a 5 stop filter in a pack with a holder.

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    2. I was able to find some ND filters that would screw right into the end of my lens and according to the reviews were quite good. The hardest part is the computer bit. According to what I find online, my camera (Canon Rebel T3) is compatible and I can download software on a laptop to control it all. The kicker is that I don't have a laptop anymore. The one we have only retains a charge for about 15 minutes before the battery goes dead so I would have to be somewhere with electricity I could plug into. My daughter has a Chromebook but there didn't seem any way to make that work very easy. I might keep my eye open for something used and cheap but at the end of the day since I probably won't need to do this again in my lifetime, I may just wing it. I did pick up some solar eclipse glasses so I can look up and see things as they happen without the camera.

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