Battling Beneath the Waves with a Violin

”Combat Beneath the Waves” Practice Notes#

In the original track, 1.5 beats = 78, which means the BPM is 117. I have to match that tempo. It’s pretty fast and pretty brutal.

I expanded the scope of my practice from just the chorus to the entire first half. That said, it really just meant adding the pizzicato in the intro and verse (A section?).

I generated a MIDI backing track based on a full score I found online, spliced together the least terrible takes from my recordings, and layered them on top—quality aside, it was a ton of fun. You play this monotonous pizzicato while everything around you swells and builds up, and then, right when the stage is completely set, you plunge into the chorus. That feeling is just the best.

Maybe just listening to music isn’t enough after all.

A Gripe#

Back when I used to take violin lessons, what on earth was the deal with being forbidden from listening to the demo CD that came with the book? If we take the adage “art is imitation” to be true, how are you supposed to imitate anything when you have nothing to copy in the first place? I can sort of understand that it’s meant to train you to read sheet music, but I still couldn’t help thinking, really?