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Wednesday 25 April 2018

KravikLyra: Death of Ragnar Lothbrok theme tune

Kraviklyra Tuned A C D E F G a so if the strings are numbered 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 then the main theme to start with is 5 6 5 3 4 5 6 Chords that can be played to accompany the voice include 5 and 3 played together and 2 and 4 for example. You can see and hear Einar Selvik excellent rendition on the Vikings Tv show as well as on Youtube videos like this one: https://youtu.be/5keu8LVKkPw?t=1m42s Instruments to order and plans to make your own available from my various shops online: website

http://www.michaeljking.com

Wednesday 14 March 2018

Anglo Saxon Lyre: E Minor Pentatonic Tuning





E G A B D E tuning,   E minor Penatonic scale

Digital Detox Challenge with a Punkt MP01 2018






I am mobile phone Junkie, that's the truth of it, a detox has been on the cards for a while.
The main downsides of this experience are that it's not something you can easily share while you're doing it,
My plan was to Take the sim out of the iphone 6s and to do the detox from 8 to 5.30 each day and then to use my Ipad/android phone in the evening.
punkt1.jpg
The first two weeks I pretty much followed this, but with travelling around and attending a funeral of a friend, I found I used my Android backup device with wifi more and more to fill the gaps, Buying a physical train ticket when visiting family again seemed anachronistic to the extreme.
Typing on the MP01 was fine for simple replies but took forever as I like to write in full sentences, reminds me why I loved going over to Blackberry back in 2010! I discovered that not too many people texts these days.
With my main Sim in the Punkt MP01 I had to turn off iMessage and facetime, That was not a big a deal as I thought. Soon found that most people on my Contacts list including customers used Facebook Messenger.
By week two I needed to change tactics, My sim returned to my iPhone and I used a second sim to forward all calls to the Punkt phone, I could then allocate time to work distraction free. My fitness band, a Xiaomi Mi band 2 was connected to facebook messenger so if there was a message could look at my phone if I needed too.
The device itself is charming and simple to use, with none of the extras found on other dumb phones, The audio sounds are really fun and the battery life as you can expect is amazing. I had no trouble fitting wither my Giffgaff/O2 or EE nano sim in an adapter in the phone at all. swapping wasn't too hard.
punkt3.jpg
I think towards the end of the period I made up for the time lost by using a spare android phone I have without a Sim like an ipod to catch up on Podcasts, watch Youtube videos. managed my Facebook detox better but Still posted there via the Instagram app.
I used my Laptop so much during this month, I realise that I have transferred all my typing to customers and website use to this from the smartphone. Explains my normal battery drain by mid morning!
In future I plan to keep using the forwarding call function in the mornings when in the workshop to keep my start clear, Working from home this means leaving the Phone in the living room on charge and out of the way, The same for overnight, or if out with friends.
Will try to limit Podcasts to the afternoon or when doing repetitive tasks, Doing this demi-detox helped to break my iphone use I think, I was worried about not having imessage and the mail app but I didn't miss any messages.
so now my contract has just ended, all I have to do is decide which Android phone I want to get!
Digital detox!

Friday 9 February 2018

The Bowed Lyre Book back in print 2018





Just a quiet walkthrough of the book(with audio demo),  I was going to overdub but never did,   This book remains the only book that covers the tradition, the tunings and playing and includes archive recordings. 



You can buy the book from this website:

https://holvi.com/shop/Raunonieminen/product/75f9ea9b885f2c743f494abbe82759b9/

Tuesday 23 January 2018

Michael King electric uke demo 1



As a follow up I recently found the same Ash bodied instrument featured on my blog for sale on Reverb (now sold)

https://reverb.com/item/5592474-michael-j-king-electric-soprano-ukulele#&gid=1&pid=1

 It's rare and nice when I get to see these instruments further down their journey and how they are maturing.   This instrument has been gigged but is in otherwise great condition,  small amounts of wear and tear add to the character over time.