PlainTone Videos
20251204 - Silent Violin (13:18) Equipped with a professional microphone, I can now make recordings that take these very silent strings of the violin, without that there is much hiss to hear. It can go so close that even breathing is in good quality. Recently, I started playing the silent violin acoustically, and it sounds this way, when I am practising with the wired earbuds on direct monitoring. So, the microphone opens the door for new ways of recording the instruments, and there is a lot to try out still.
Two days ago, I discovered that the violin and the digital saxophones that I am playing fit well together, and, as a result, the violin is now in my focus. Also, the recording technique is new, where I pick up the room acoustics, rather than directly the strings of the instrument. The violin is soon too loud, and looking for something better started because it is too loud for me. It’s basically a matter of how and with what you hear the instrument, and I have experimented much the whole week long. When it makes me play, I am fine.
20251120 - Digital Saxophone, Effect (11:47) Actually, I gave up already, as it didn’t make fun anymore, due to trembling teeth and moving lips, but I had a good idea yesterday. Because of better energy, as it turned out, I now play without some mouthpiece and wind cloth around the top of the saxophone to have a kind of torch-mouthpiece, so that it is nearly a trumpet experience. Also, for convenient reasons, this digital instrument rests on a bag and carton to reach a distance away from the body, otherwise there would be problems with the spittle. And I can play very much with it again this way.
A new situation was discovered, a few days ago, that has me listen to the instruments that I am playing via a microphone that picks up rather the room acoustics, being placed not close to the instrument. It looks as if sounds coming from a speaker or a monitor are too direct, in the long run. Here, I played my second piano over its speakers which are picked up by a microphone that lays somewhere aside. The overall loudness that is recorded is not so big and sharp, and exactly that should be positive for a listener. Also, the microphone is recording more of the musician as a human being with noises of the garment, for example.
20251104 - Digital Saxophone (13:13) Last week, I already put the saxophone away, because it did not make fun anymore, due to trembling lips that were caused by a side effect of the medication, and I intended to replace the instrument with the big wooden bass recorder. Soon but, it turned out that the general mood during the day is worse, as I couldn’t play so much as I had done with the saxophone. So, I tried it again, and put down the mouthpiece to play without some. It looks as if the tones are straighter now, and the trembling isn’t so heavy anymore. Obviously, it’s the only wind instrument with which I can play very much, where only then it turns into a sustainable mood.
20251028 - Bass Recorder (09:43) Last week, I decided to stop working with my two digital saxophones. The acoustic element is missing. There is much more to get therapeutically from this wooden bass recorder, I found out, which is rather new in my possession. So, still, one cannot play for long, and the lowest tone does not sound always, at the moment. But that it is so pleasant to play? What a recorder can do! An Alto Recorder in comparison does not come close in sound to these low and soothing tones. The vibrato that I work with gives the landscape an extra touch. It’s just unbelievable, for me. Stubbornly, I was fixated on these digital saxophones. It really makes sense, and such an instrument is missing in jazz music.
20251024 - Keyboard, Reface CP (12:14) The Reface CP by Yamaha is an instrument too small for my big hands. A one-time session like this is but great. My kids will play it, I believe. What it exactly is indeed keeps being hidden. It’s just this session, then the mood cannot be held anymore. The big fingers find their way in between the keys, so, it is rather the little mass of the keyboard. An object can feel good by itself, before the function. Horses are quite sensitive on stones, for example. The energy of the place one plays an instrument at has to suit one’s body. Actually, I have no idea of these things, but learned to know big differences by small changes.
20251019 - Solo Guitar (13:09) In jazz music, some guitarists switch between chords and melodies as a way of improvising. And I liked to do that as well in the past few years. Actually, I could play this way already, but, suddenly, certain things started to hurt, and I tried it again and again. New is that I am exclusively standing when I make music, also with the piano, so that the mood has become more stable, and this strength is enough to be able to play with chords and melodies in exchange as a technique again.
20250927 - Piano / Violin (14:43) Months ago, still, I was frustratingly trying to play the violin without rosin, with a bow that had formerly been played with rosin, and I found techniques that worked, at least for around twenty minutes playing-time. Then a new viola and a new violin came in my possession that are played without rosin by me. Because the bows of these two instruments haven’t been in use for long, so far, the sound varies unwantedly sometimes on particular tones, but I am nearly sure that there won’t be complications later. And so I am jamming with the violin or the viola for ages on piano recordings of mine, at the moment, which I didn’t actually believe in anymore. Rosin would make a violin unplayable, in my case, due to a side effect of the medication, or a smaller damage on the nerves. One needs to try out the things if they suit you, and I have been trying out a lot already. Well, in this case, it’s very close to try out to play without rosin, when one has rosin on the bow ineffective. A positive side-impact is that I like the instruments more with these silent tones than a violin or viola would produce with rosin on the bow. Concretely, I just adapted myself to the handicap.
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