I’ve been looking for a robot voice for my SONG BLOG and I thought the only good option I could find was at http://www.cepstral.com/demos/ which is a nice program but only free for non-commercial use.
Today, Apple posted a link to Verbalize, which allows you to type in stuff and your Mac’s built-in voices will say it. It’s very cool. I may soon have a robot announcer.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/audio/verbalize.html
I start the show for the Henhouse Prowlers, a local bluegrass outfit, here in Chicago. No Cover.
Red Line Tap
7006 N Glenwood Ave
Chicago, IL – Map
FREE PARKING one block North at Glenwood and Estes in the Trilogy lot.
Sat, Jan 19, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Tapestry Folk Dance Center.
$40 for members and $45 for non-members
Minneapolis, MN – Map
I will be teaching a workshop dealing with fiddle tunes, styles and improvisation at the Young Fiddler’s Association (in my old neighborhood of Minneapolis no less) at the Tapestry Folk Dance Center. The YFA holds fiddle workshops throughout the year and more informal jam sessions. They also hold a summer fiddle camp.
Somehow bowing staccato helps your clean sound and clean, efficient finger movements. This is one staccato variation I like, suitable for intermediate/advanced. The bow should dig into the string when you do up bow staccato. That creates a good crisp start to the note. You should also keep pressure on string between each up bow note. Normally we lift the weight off the bow to change notes, but here that is not the case.
Connie Heard told me when I was studying with her, that the best person she knew at doing up bow staccato practiced it in front of the TV! I’m not sure I recommend that, but it’s a good anecdote.
Rapid up bow staccato finds its way in some gypsy music as kind of an effect and it’s also in some Fritz Kreisler pieces I like.
Thu, Dec 13 at 9:00 pm
Zack, solo
Heartland Cafe
Chicago, IL – Map
No cover. You can eat while I play at the venerable Heartland Cafe in Roger’s Park. As their website says they are a place “where the man-woman-child conscious of their body would come for periodic nourishment…getting into that basic, whole, good tasting food…prepared with care…”
Parts of this may remind you of 20th century music and at other times a myriad of fiddle styles will be evoked. Somewhere in between — that’s where you’ll find the “orange-ness.”
TRACK LIST (click to stream)
1. Billy in the Lowground
2. Prelude
3. It Depends on the Context
4. Energy Fields
5. Millennium
Stream entire album: lo-fi / hi-fi
PRESS FOR THE ORANGE MIGHTY TRIO EP:
“Combines mountainy roots music with urban jazz and hints of classical, careening between beautiful, bold and a bit of bombast.” — Chris Riemenschneider, Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Sometimes playful, sometimes dark, sometimes airy–always fascinating.” — Dwight Hobbes, Pulse of the Twin Cities
“Kline’s fiddle, which also graces the Celtic-folk outfit Piper’s Crow, leads the way, emulating Grappelli here, Heifetz there, Vassar Clements over there.” –Rick Mason, Minneapolis City Pages
ORDER
