The season of Lent -- the 40 days of fast and abstinence before Easter -- begins tomorrow, Wednesday 5 March.

I have a good mind to keep the tradition that I had been keeping over the last two years and stay off Newgrounds for Lent. This time, I am including Sundays as well, unless something really important needs to be announced. I have been on NG nearly every single day for months on end, and while I enjoy the camaraderie, and oftentimes the material that gets shared here, it's time for me to take a bit of a back seat.

I'm aware that this means not being able to take part in contests, game jams, etc., including RealFaction's Art-Inspired Music Contest. I'm also sad that I haven't been able to give you folks much of a present before my absence, unlike last year. So it's going to be painstaking, but I've got to try and see what these forty days will bring.

I will pop in on Skype to say hi to the Audio Portal guys every now and then.

Now, Easter falls on Sunday 20 April. That also means I'm celebrating my birthday off NG -- some of you may know when the actual date is, but I shan't say a word here. I'll be back on NG on the 20th, likely at midnight BST.

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On a side note, thanks to two wonderful people, I have now access to not one, but two MIDI keyboards! No, I won't be greedy and use both; I'll stick to one, thank you very much. I am really looking forward to using it.

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I'm really sorry for the sudden news about my absence. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

Yours,

T. x

First off, thanks for the pointers and support you've given me in the last post. I managed to borrow those timpani mallets today, and hand speed training is a GO.

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There's something I wanted to share with all of you... it's not a song, but rather, what I experienced recently -- in fact, just a few days ago.

In addition to the bodhráns and the guitar I have in my possession, Seán and I unearthed a few more instruments that had not been played for yonks -- two accordions, a violin, a tin whistle and a MIDI keyboard. Nearly all of them had fallen out of tune, but I just wanted to draw a sound out of them. I picked up the violin and its bow, and began drawing it over just one string, and I just got lost in the motions of it.

"You'd make a good violinist, you," I was told.

I was deeply moved. That may have been true, but when contemplating a second instrument for me to learn when I was 12 years old, the common choices were the violin and the flute -- and I didn't want to play what everyone else played. I didn't want to fit a 'mould'. My favourite instrument was the same then as it is now -- the drum. I forewent the violin and the flute, knowing full well that I wanted to be my own person.

But that day, as I drew the bow over that old violin, there grew in me a desire to breathe life into any instrument I found... regardless of what it was. I wanted to play something. I still want to play something. I just don't know what...

I don't know if my dream of becoming a multi-instrumentalist will ever be achieved. But that little incident, I felt, was beautiful. I don't quite know how else to express it.

Hey everyone.

Someone *coughyourstrulycough* is going to be a timpanist pretty soon.

...And I'm worried. I cannot cheat my way out of a drum roll by letting the sticks bounce on the head anymore. Timpani mallets are soft, so we can rule out the bouncing.

I need help doing proper, clean-sounding single-stroke rolls. I fear the exhaustion this will bring. Anyone know any guidelines for this? Wrist techniques, etc.? It'll be much appreciated!

After five long days, the job is finally done. Let's just say, much of it was due to paint drying. At the time of writing, the red paint is still a little tacky. But I'm glad that the work is done at last.

Almost done; markings yet to be removed in this pic.

The roundel with Seán's initials.

But the one picture that strikes me most.... is this --

The one on the right is the work I had finished. The one on the left is the fabled 20" bodhrán, the one that belonged to Seán's late father. I doubt my work came close, but I did my best.

Okay, what happened since the fiasco of a gold-and-silver pattern I tried to do on a bodhrán shell?

Well, this.

Sanding,

Fully sanded...

Staining,

Fully stained...

Re-marked...

Repainted -- it was unfinished by this point, but still. And those are actually two different colours -- perhaps later pictures will show the difference.

Final details. And yes, in case anyone needs physical proof that I toiled on those drawings, and that they are all different colours, here it is.

In case anyone has no idea what's going on, I'm going to explain this as briefly as possible:

Right, so Seán recently got an 18" tunable bodhrán, and in the vein of his father's bodhrán, he wanted some designs on the frame. He and I planned for it, and first settled on gold and silver twirly lines. Let's just say, that first painting bit started off beautifully but worsened dramatically as it went along, so Seán sanded it down and restained it, and I started all over again. This is the close-to-finished product, missing a few touches here and there. Oh, and the tuning mechanism's been taken off too, if you're wondering what the holes in the frame were for.

Full sets of pictures here, here and here.

This was Seán's bodhrán that I did. 18", tunable, hence the screws on the shell. It started out beautifully but worsened dramatically as it went along.

We're having it sanded down tomorrow.... I'm going to have to start over. It's just.... I do feel a little disappointed, because I believed in the finished work, and it turned out horribly, very much unlike what I imagined. Is it really good to believe in myself...?

Here are some pictures of the work in progress:

Hey everyone. As I mentioned in my previous post, a Work in Progress and Reject Reel is due. This one dates to the date of writing, i.e. 3 February 2014.

Please be sure to be logged in to leave timed comments!

Also, if for some reason you missed out on the very first Work in Progress and Reject Reel, it is here.

I have hit yet another period where all I can ever churn out are works in progress; almost never finished works. I have begun recording Dance in the Emerald Forest, but I haven't had much luck putting it together or continuing.

As such, I'll be releasing another Work in Progress and Reject Reel over the next week or two.

I don't know what will inspire me to continue from here on out. T_T This is a time where I dream of a finished debut album, where I dream of going live, but haven't got the means to do anything. Someone very dear to me suggested that I go on Kickstarter, but I don't know what I can offer in recompense that will be of use to anyone...... I feel as though my musicianship is in shambles.

This is what happened within the last two weeks, which has led me to decide on the idea of my first recording of the year:

1. My original tipper (the beater for the bodhrán) broke! You've noticed how light-coloured it was; it was one made of pine, so it was relatively soft. When I went to Stonyhurst on a conference not too long ago, the second night was a dance night -- a céilidh night -- and I brought the bodhrán. To avoid it being abused, or to avoid huge amoungs of people finding out that the bodhrán belonged to me, I took the tipper with me, and had it with me when I went dancing. Sadly, it fell... and someone, I don't know who, accidentally trod on it. It snapped in two, and Seán tried gluing it back together, only for it to come out again. I still have the "halves" of the tipper, for lack of a better word.
2. I was given an 8" bodhrán. It really sounds quite high and tinny, but I can still play it alright. Thing is, that 8" was a souvenir. The minimum recommended size for a performer's bodhrán is 12". But hey: if I can still get a sound out of it, it's worth using!
3. I've got a new tipper... a rosewood one. It's heavy, it hurts my middle finger if I don't hold it correctly, but my word, it makes a marvellous sound. It's bringing out the bass more than ever.

So let's see what I've got for this recording.

• 18" bodhrán, rosewood tipper, for the bass.
• 8" bodhrán, pine tipper (I THINK), for supplementary rhythms.
• The two halves of my first tipper, which I can click against each other for supplementary rhythms.
• Bells. You've heard them in one of my previous improvisations.
• A guitar. I have a good mind to learn a few chords, to begin with. If I can't, I'll use a few notes.
• Voice.

Sounds like fuel for a medieval-sounding piece, eh?

With all these, I would like to bring to light a composition from one friend here on NG, who has loads of potential and wonderful ideas in his head. Bardash's first ever piece is Dance in the Emerald Forest -- and I'd long wanted to make a rendition of that piece and share it with all of you.

I'm not sure when the recording will be out. But I'll try and get it out by January. I have to accept the prospect that sometimes, it may not even come out at the time that I hope. However, I want to do my best with it.

So, I hope you're buzzing for it as much as I am! ^_^

Ta for now,

T. x

To begin, I wish everyone a blessed New Year 2014. 2013 has had its ups and downs, but we have pulled through -- and let us hope and pray for greater things to come.

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The bodhrán solo I've been recording is now out! Oof, it really tuckered me out. I enjoyed it very much though, and I hope you do enjoy it as much as I do! By the way, no idea why it exported in 16:9 as opposed to 4:3, which was the camera size...

On that note, Seán (the friend who recorded this) is a fellow bodhrán player, and he and I talked about christening (in other words, naming) our instruments. I don't know if it's an Irish thing or not, but in his own words, "it's an inanimate object; it's meant to have a woman's name." To this point I only knew that ships and planes, and wreckages of ships and planes, were referred to as "she" or by some close-to-feminine name.

Technically my instrument has already been christened -- I had my bodhrán blessed close to the end of 2012, as I said in the video -- but I will gladly go through the formality of giving her a name.

The next time you see me ever mention the name 'Siobhan' (pronounced shi-VAHN), I'm referring to my instrument. Siobhan is the Irish form of 'Jeanne', a name I wanted to take at my Confirmation years ago.

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As for updates, I will be posting periodically as always, so do stay tuned to hear, and perhaps see, new stuff coming from this low-key end. See you all soon!

Have a blessed New Year,

T. x