Odds and ends

The photo is of our backyard last fall.
I've been doing some things, but they don't look like much. I have the back area tuned. Ended up with 3rds, 5th, minor7th and an octave, just like it's supposed to. Of course sometimes it takes a few listens to figure out what you got. It sounds like D when you tap it, but it rings at E. Go figure. I thought they would be the same. Ha! I just checked and 285, or around D is one of the prominent modes on the free plate, maybe mode 4? I took it off the fixture to check it's stiffness. It's 4g lighter and it lost about 4hrz, so the stiffness is still around where everyone says it should be. Everyone? Isn't that what your kids say..."But EVERYONE does that." Feels really stiff to me. I thought these things were supposed to move. I'm tuning the belly now. It seems to have C# as the fundamental, that's a semi tone lower. Just about what EVERYBODY says it should be. I'm sure when I glued it on the ribs it rang at over 360, 272 is a lot lower than that. Maybe that is mode 4 as well. After I glue the back on I'll pop the belly off and give it a check. I'm still learning so I need to see what I actually did, to see where I'm going.

So the numbers are coming out close to where they should be according to everybody. It is wood shaped like a violin body so that isn't too surprising. What is surprising is how a great violin can be just slightly different than a so so, or bad violin. There is no way to control all of the parameters. The belly, the back, the ribs, the neck, the bridge, the soundpost, the fingerboard, the strings. Any difference, any variance, and the result is different. There are more things going on than you can keep track of. The world is the same way. The snow just melted and you can finally see the ground. What is amazing is that under the snow plants were growing. Daffodils (deer eat tulips), mums, and other hardy perennials are already pushing out of the ground. Things going on that you don't see. In your life things go on underneath, that aren't seen by others or even yourself. The things going on underneath have great effect on what comes out on the outside. Fill the inside with God's love and the outside will be beautiful.