Change of Pace

Trying out the vid capacities of this blogger thing. If this works, you'll see a wee clip composed of shots of me and the kids. And you'll hear one of the worst versions of the classic Irish jig "Out On The Ocean" that you're ever likely to suffer with.

But it's particularly cool, because I wrangled into being, and with much cunning. Elder Son plays cello -- badly -- in that audio. But he's only been at it about three weeks, so it's forgiveable. And the fiddle that sounds melodic would be Natalie, but the wee scratchy fiddle noises are the Mau-Mau and her little pink violin, sawing faithfully away. The burbly-sounding instrument is a Low Whistle, courtesy of yours truly.

Thing is that Natalie is desperate to play music with her kids. And the music she loves is Irish, mostly. So today, I got tired of the constant depressing phone calls and the gloom and bullshit, and I took Elder Son aside and pointed out that he could easily manage to saw away on the G-note string on his cello in a simple rhythm to underpin the jig. And the only changes he needed to make? A couple first-position E notes on the D-string, and a couple open-string D.

So, there we were. And Natalie was so damned happy she charged off to get a little recorder. And really, for a group with a 3-year old on the fiddle and an 8-year-old with three weeks experience on cello playing an accompaniment designed by a whistle player... it could be worse.

That's what I figure, anyhow.