Thursday 30 Apr 2009 by Orphi the AweKid.

According to legend, it was Pythagorus who discovered that sounds who’s frequencies share a “simple” ratio sound harmonious together. (By “simple” I mean something like 5:4 and not something like 253:612.)

The Pythagorean scale is based on this concept. Let’s say we start with C, and tune that to 300 Hz (just to make the calculations easier). An octave is a 2:1 ratio, so we tune every other C to some multiple of this; the next C will be 600 Hz, the next 1,200 Hz, and so on.

Now, we move one 5th up from C, which takes us to G, and we tune that to 3:2 higher. So we take our 300 Hz, divide by 2, and multiply by 3, yielding 450 Hz. So that’s the frequency for G. (And 900 Hz for the octave above, and so on.)

Next we move up another 5th from G to D, again increasing the frequency 3:2, which gives 675 Hz.

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Wednesday 29 Apr 2009 by Orphi the AweKid.

OK, so I realised I’m not explaining myself very well. Let me try again…

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Thursday 23 Apr 2009 by Orphi the AweKid.

OK, this one’s for you, FlipC.

I don’t have a keyboard or the score in front of me, but I’m going to describe how to play Widor’s tocatta from memory. For no specific reason.

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Monday 20 Apr 2009 by Orphi the AweKid.

Hey, check it out people! I’ve got a new video of me playing Widor’s toccata on my keyboard at home. (Unfortunately, the pipe organ I used last time is currently in pieces for renovation work.)

Check out the previous video to compare how much I’ve improved since last year.

(Having compared it with a professional performance, I think I was actually playing it a touch too fast. Since this video was recorded, I’ve been practising playing more slowly and fluidly, and I also learned another block of the score for the first time in months, so I’m practising hard on that too…)

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Saturday 18 Apr 2009 by Orphi the AweKid.

I’m only dancing… certain dances. (Both me and my partner dislike the quickstep. It’s more of a desperate, frenzied sideways scamper than an actual “dance”. Besides, all the twisting hurts her back, which I can understand.)

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Friday 17 Apr 2009 by Orphi the AweKid.

OK, so I had to go into the store room for a minute. While I was in there, I decided to have a quick jog round the room. I vaguely recall some government recommendation somewhere that you’re supposed to at 20 minutes of moderate exercise per week or something like that, so I thought I’d jog round for 20 minutes.

Hah. Haha. Er, no.

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Wednesday 15 Apr 2009 by Orphi the AweKid.

I had a really great evening last night. Spent the evening with one of the few people I knew at uni who was actually nice to me. Was so good to meet up again.

Apparently she’s doing some work in my home town this week, so I arranged for us to meet up after work. The two of us went and had a meal in Old Orleans. You know, I spent so much time animatedly talking that my meal was more or less cold by the time I ate it! Still, it was wonderful just to be with somebody who actually wants to talk to me.

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Saturday 11 Apr 2009 by Orphi the AweKid.

So, now I have WinAmp installed on my laptop. (Is it just me, or does WinAmp want to install even more unwanted crap every time you download it? I just want a music player!!) The onboard speakers are actually not too bad. Certainly better than my old laptop — but that’s not hard! As soon as you play some Enya, the speakers just rattle.

My new laptop manages better. With the built-in subwoofer (?!), there is a small amount of bass. (Although, predictably, it doesn’t go down very low. At least it manages to avoid giving you one-note bass.) The speakers lack slightly in trebble, but generally they’re fairly good. Irritatingly, asking the laptop to do things introduces small crackles into the sound. (Only if sound is playing though. The speakers don’t crackle if they’re not trying to play something.)

One small problem though. There’s a set of “buttons” to control the volume. I say “buttons”, it’s more like a touch-sensitive bit of glass. Unfortunately, the volume-up button works just fine, but the volume-down button won’t work for toffee. It’s quite annoying…

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