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Thanks for visiting! After many years of contemplatiing, I finally decided to buy a mandolin and teach myself how to play it. I set up this blog mainly in order to track how I am going. Feel free to follow my progress here too. (And yes, in case you're wondering, I did name the mando after Mycroft Holmes).

Friday 16 November 2012

Bach: Two-part invention in D minor

Ah, I see I'm neglecting the blog already. Never fear, it doesn't mean I've been neglecting Mycroft, just that I've had a few too many fails with technology and have become a bit disgruntled with it.

I was determined to record duets with myself (seeing I don't have a jamming buddy) but it turns out all those cute little YouTube videos of people for example singing all 6 parts of such-and-such a capella must be made using some fancy program... because I sure as hell can't find something that will allow me to essentially merge the audio and visuals of two videos together! Nothing free at any rate.

Anyway, rant over. I gave in and had to extract the audio from two videos to make this one. It's the Bach D minor two part invention (originally written for piano... and I have played it many years ago on piano too, if memory serves me). Had to transpose most of the lower part up the octave as it was written in bass clef. Now there's a nice way to screw with your mind - transpose on a not very familiar instrument! Had a bit of difficulty syncing the two tracks correctly, but I think I got them pretty close in the end. Some wayward rubato tripped my up when I was trying to record the second part. It's harder than I anticipated to duet with a partner who is COMPLETELY inflexible. Oh, and my trills are pathetic. Obviously I need to work on those!