Law and Software

Everyone and their cat can play the Prelude in C from the WTC on their lever harp thanks to Anne-Marie O’Farrell’s workshops and now her published lever changes. Even more so now that it is on the grade 4 ABRSM syllabus.

Anne-Marie also includes a transcription of the C minor prelude from the lute suites in her collection.

But the other week I stumbled on this. A harpist who goes by the name Lira Siren 天琴座海妖 . Her YouTube channel is awesome. A couple of years ago she posted Prelude 12 on YouTube.

I’m giving some online music lessons. I have been successfully using Zoom with Midi instruments for about 4 months now. This article is long because I do cover “almost” solutions before the one that works. You might be trying to get these “almost” to work – but they won’t. The solution does work very effectively for the situation where both teacher and student have digital/midi instruments. Feedback/suggestions welcome.

I have a Roland RD64, not a “real piano.” I use a Mac (currently on Mojave). And am using Zoom as the platform.

If you are using a piano, violin or other instrument, your microphone is going to do all the mixing you need. If you are using a digital instrument, why would you want to deal with microphone positioning when you have USB output.

However, going digital means learning far more than you ever wanted to know about Apple’s core audio, and Zoom’s features and limitations.

Here’s my story.

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Randy Newman’s “satirical” new song “I’m Dreaming” puts race front and center in the upcoming election. He almost makes an empathic argument. He makes the ironic case for the cracker voter, and he does it so well that the target of his derision will likely not even notice, and will be humming the tune on his way to the ballot box.

Go watch and listen. And then come back to set the record straight on all those dead presidents, with the Pussy Riot Gangnam Style Player virtual mashup of the Newman video and a historical tour-de-force sung by Jonathon Coulton.

I love synchronicity. How come Coulton sings about Taft when Newman does too? How come the line “Hoover screwed the pooch in the great Depression” fits so well? Also Andrew Johnson+Richard Nixon and impeachment, Hayes and Reconstruction, Roosevelt and the Nazis, Garfield’s eclipse/assassination…

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This is a virtual mashup. No copyright owners were harmed in the making of this movie. Because it was never made.

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