Good afternoon, Nostr ☀️ Hope you’re having a great weekend! Coming at you a little later than usual today. This morning I did some errands, grabbed groceries, picked up a few things at Home Depot… and then sat down to play a bit of Bach. Somehow I haven’t shared any Bach on here yet, even though he’s been such a big part of my musical life on both violin and viola! Today I picked up the Prélude to the Second Suite in D minor for solo cello (BWV 1008). Violists don’t have any Bach written specifically for their instrument so we’re always stealing both the violin and cello repertoire 👀 You probably know the Prélude from the First Suite in G major (Yo-Yo Ma plays it all the time), but this D minor one is quieter, more introspective. It feels like Bach’s spiritual side. I learned it years ago but had to bring it back for an audition recently, and it was my favorite thing to play on that list. Here I’m just sharing the first dozen or so measures. I hope you enjoy this bit of Bach for your Saturday afternoon 🎻 #musicstr

Good afternoon, Nostr 🌞 Coming at you a little later today… had a busy morning, but I managed to record a little viola improvisation that I’m excited to share. I realized it’s been a while since I’ve featured the viola here, so it felt good to pick it up again. It’s really starting to feel like fall here! The trees out my back window are just blazing with fall colors, and that cozy autumn feeling found its way into this improv. It’s built around a simple chord progression that I kept cycling through. It’s of kind of a happy, boppy, slightly fiddly vibe, in the tenor voice of my viola! Hope you’re all having a great day and that you can bop along to this little fall tune with me 🍁🎻 #musicstr

🎻 Good morning, Nostr! Thanks for all the engagement yesterday on my Baroque tuning experiment! I thought I’d keep exploring that a little more today, because it’s such a fun (and kind of mind-bending) challenge for me. This time I’m playing part of Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in A minor, RV 356 from “L’Estro Armonico, Op. 3 No. 6”, along with a recording by Tafelmusik, a fantastic Baroque orchestra that actually plays in this lower historical tuning all the time. I first learned this concerto when I was about 11 years old, so it’s one of those pieces that lives somewhere deep in my mind and fingers. But playing it a half step lower in Baroque tuning is so much harder than I expected!! It really messes with my ear and sense of pitch! You’ll hear a few moments where I’m fighting to stay in tune 😅😅😅😅 It’s funny how something so familiar can suddenly feel brand new just by changing the tuning a little. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this slightly wobbly but heartfelt attempt at Baroque Vivaldi today. 🎶

Good morning, Nostr 🎻 I hope you all had a great weekend! It was a long holiday weekend here, so I took some time to rest and spend time with family, and now I’m back at it. Today’s video is a fun one (for me, anyway!). I was recently inspired by some Baroque music I heard, and in the Baroque period, or in “historical performance practice”, string instruments were/are actually tuned quite a bit lower than they are today. Usually about a half step lower, or a semitone. That lower tuning gives the strings a mellower, warmer sound. The strings are literally less tightly strung, so less tension = a mellower sound. So in this video here I’ve tuned my violin a half step down in that Baroque tuning just to explore what that feels like. It’s funny, though… it totally messed with my ears! I’m so used to the modern tuning… I have a connection of ear to left hand fingers. So in this baroque tuning my fingers are going down, my ear is expecting a certain note, but then what comes out is a semitone lower! So that mind–ear–finger connection felt totally out of whack! Anyway, here’s a mellow, exploratory improv in Baroque tuning… just enjoying the softer color and trying to play in tune! Hope you enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions about Baroque tuning or historical performance practice. #musicstr

Good morning, Nostr 🎻 Hope you’re having a great day. Today I’ve got a little bit of the blues… something melancholy has grabbed me… not sure why. Do you ever feel that way? So this morning’s violin improv came out in that same mood… slow, exploratory, maybe a little wistful. I’m grateful I have music as an outlet. It feels good to be able to let the music hold whatever I’m feeling. What do you do on a down day? Anyway, here’s the music that came out today. I hope it resonates with you 💜 #musicstr

Good morning, Nostr 🎻🎹 I hope you’re having a great day. Today I’m sharing a little improvisation where I’m playing both violin and piano. You’ve seen me do this before… I’ll play something on the piano with my left hand, then jump back and forth to the violin. But near the end of this one, I got inspired to try playing both instruments at the same time! That means my left hand is playing the piano, while my right hand bows open strings on the violin. So no left-hand notes on the violin, just resonance and rhythm. This one feels full of a kind of pomp and nobility, upright energy and passion. I love thinking of music as a way to express different characters or emotional colors, and that’s a big part of how I compose too. It’s amazing how sound can take on such precise shades of mood and meaning… often I don’t even know where it comes from. Anyway, here’s what came out today. Hope you enjoy! #musicstr

Good afternoon, Nostr 🎹🎶 Posting a little later today… it’s been a busy one! Here I am playing along with one of my absolute favorite jazz musicians, Thelonious Monk. This track is from his beautiful album Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington, and the tune is “I Got It Bad (and That Ain’t Good)”. There was a time when I listened to this record obsessively. I’ve always loved Monk’s touch, his phrasing, his approach to harmony… he’s one of my favorite jazz pianists, hands down. I’ve never actually played over this tune before, so I’m just going by ear here, finding my way through, catching moments that feel good. It’s alllmooost like I’m actually playing with Thelonious Monk 💜 Hope you enjoy this one as much as I did playing it 🎻🎹 #musicstr

Good morning, Nostr 🌞 I hope you all had a great night! Today I’m back on my trusty studio keyboard. Last time I used the choir setting, but now I’ve got the harpsichord going. I recorded a little harpsichord line into the memory and then improvised a solo violin melody over top. I love this combination, especially at the beginning. The harpsichord part is a busy and rhythmic, while the violin floats gently above it. The harpsichord is such a great instrument. Baroque era, like a piano, but instead of hammers striking the strings, it plucks them, giving that crisp, plucky sound. It’s an old sound that can still feel new, given the right context. Hope you enjoy this little meeting of past and present. Have a nice day! 🎶 #musicstr

Good morning, Nostr ☀️ Today I’m improvising alongside some of the music from the film Koyaanisqatsi (1982), with its mesmerizing score by Philip Glass. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a kind of visual essay… described as “an essay in images and sound on the state of American civilization.” It’s a montage of slow-motion and time-lapse imagery, all without dialogue, just Glass’s repeating minimalist textures driving it forward. At the time, it was one of the highest-grossing art film/documentaries ever made, and it’s become a classic, still relevant today. Here I’m playing over the very beginning of the soundtrack, when the music is sparse and open, just adding my own melody on top of this gorgeous, slow-moving music. Hope you enjoy 🎻 #musicstr