Johanna Speaks

Karaoke is back at the lake club!! I have been waiting since 2019 to have it back! 

I used to do karaoke with my friend Sophie and Abby all the time when I was like 9 or 10! I always remembered we would first go to the pool and swim there for a bit and then get out and go to the lake club and sing! But then covid shut it down and never did it again until now sadly. 

Ok, I would sing if I was like with the Garza girls or Abby. Well, maybe...... I feel like it would be pretty cringy if I started to sing again. And if I did sing again it would have to be a song I know pretty well. Or if I played violin and my brother Nicholas did guitar and we played together that would be fine because we do that all the time. But then that's not us doing karaoke. So you know..... I might be too old to do it again. I'm already regretting saying that.😅 

I just need encouragement and the Garza girls with me to do it!! I know probably they are reading this so if you are reading this than we need to sing together one of the nights and then we can have a sleepover after because that would be amazing! 

Anyways, the karaoke night is tomorrow which is Jan 27. I won't sing but I hope my sister Sophie and her friend will sing because that would be amazing! 

So today I will be explaining the differences between a violin and a fiddle. 

I just want to say that there is no difference between them at all! All you do is play differently. Now you must be asking, " Jo, everybody plays different types of music so why is it called fiddle playing and not violin playing?!?" 

Well, to answer your question, technically you can say you are playing violin music but to be more specific about what type your playing, you can say I am playing fiddle music. 

Here's what fiddle playing sounds like:

That video was a guy playing really good fiddle music! Some people even make up different fiddle songs because it's just pretty easy to make! They don't even need to name it. Once you hear that type of music, than you will know that's fiddle playing. And again, it isn't a different type of violin that's called a fiddle. It's just a certain way you play it. 

I actually LOVE fiddle music!! I try to play like that but for me, I can't do it. I just need time and practice. Which I am too lazy to do. :) Ok, actually not true....... I practice for church and for the bible studies and then after I practice. But most of the time I don't try to do fiddle music. But I should!! 

Well, Bye!!!!!

Okay, I made a post on when I first got a violin. I just went back to the post and read it. Back when I first had my violin, there were a lot of things that I wish I hadn't thought that was right but actually wrong. As I once said, " When the peg on the violin starts to slip, just tighten the fine tuners, and that will fix the problem." NO! That will NOT fix the problem. It was caused by the air temperature. When, let's say, the air gets hot, suddenly, your peg will start to slip. To fix the problem, push the peg more into the violin. Or a more terrifying way is to take out the whole peg, lightly swipe it with your violin bow, and then put it back on. The rosin should stick to the wood and not slip easily. Boom! Fixed that problem! Number two! When you are a beginner, remember only to use the fine tuners. UNLESS your fine tuners can't tighten any tighter or they can't loosen any looser, then first make sure that the fine tuner is almost the way out before switching to the peg. I don't know why you do that. So don't ask! I actually could be wrong here, so.... yeah. Risa, if you are reading this, you can tell me why in the comments. 

I now know a lot more things about the violin. I remember when I broke a string, and the bridge fell off. I cried because I felt so bad and was angry at myself for breaking it already! I even wrote a letter to the people at the music store asking if they could please fix it for free and telling them how sorry I was. Then I put the letter inside my violin case and gave it to my parents to take there. I didn't go because my parents had to run errands. Later, they came back with a fixed violin for me! I was just so happy! I asked them if they had to pay for it, but they said nope! I didn't want to touch it because I was afraid of breaking it again. But after days went by, I started to play it. 

Yep! That was my violin story! Now, I don't feel afraid of holding, touching, or even tuning it like I used to. Oh, I even named it Harmony. My friend Abby's violin is named Melody. I might change mine because I want a cool boy type of name for a violin. So comment and give me some name ideas! 

Bye! Thanks for reading this blog!!

I have been teaching my friend Abby how to play the violin! So far, she is super good at it and learning fast! I have been taking videos since she first started till now. And so far, I have only been playing for two weeks! She has had the violin for a week longer, but that does not count because she only practiced when I was there, and I was not there every day, so this only counts as she only practiced for two weeks. I put all the videos together and will now show them to you. But don't forget she has only been playing for two weeks!

We are learning the scales; basically, doe ray me fa so la ti doe. But keep going higher. I don't know if I even spelled that correctly, so don't judge! We have been learning the scales, and Abby has nailed it down! 

 I want her to use the whole bow, the very tip of the bow, and the frog down to the very bottom. But that is pretty hard to do. I mean, she doesn't have a scratchy noise or a bumpy noise but a clear-sounding noise. So, the next thing she can learn is to use the whole bow. She has done that before, but I want her to do it for every song she does.

 Now we are learning for Christmas Feliz Navidad! I went on YouTube, and there is a video that shows numbers like 2, 1, 3 and stuff like that, so she knows what finger to put down. At first, she didn't understand it, but then she told me," Jo, the two words you said, I now understand it!" So now she is learning Feliz Navidad's song from YouTube and can play the music from the video. It's a little hard to place the third finger on the fingerboard for her because you have to stretch them sometimes, and it is hard to do, but I know she will nail that third finger over time! 

Last night, we went on a Zoom call and practiced Feliz Navidad, but when she tried playing I couldn't hear her, which also happened to Abby. But I did hear her a little bit. So it wasn't too bad. 

She is just so good at it!! So happy for her!!  :)

We also made a funny video! Obviously, it wasn't her playing and it doesn't really look like she is actually playing the song because of the shifting and all that but don't judge! 

So I have wanted to play " He's a Pirate " from Pirates of the Caribbean so badly because it's such a fun and cool song to be able to learn! And I especially want to do it with my brother Nicholas, who is super good at guitar! He could even do fingerstyle, too! Which is plucking the strings on the guitar but also doing some strumming too! It sounds so cool! So, if he and I learned it together, it would sound amazing!! But the problem would be me actually trying to play it, which is that the song is pretty hard on the violin to learn for me. But Nick could probably learn easily because he's a pro on guitar! :)

By the way, I have actually never watched Pirates of the Caribbean before. And now I have been so badly wanting to watch it! I don't know if it's okay to watch that, though. The trailer looks fun to watch. But I just so badly want to! I love the songs! And it looks cool to watch! Oh, and Sophie and I have been actually playing Pirates of the Caribbean Lego version on the Xbox. It's so much fun, and I love the story of the game. The Lego guys are especially super funny. And they have all the character's faces and movements correctly. So it's basically showing you the whole movie, but you get to play as the guys in Legos. And they really get all the details in the game perfectly! Here is a video of a professional violinist playing " He's a Pirate".