Author: Dolapo Soboyede

Tonic Sol-fa

Hi folks,

In this post I’ll talk about Tonic Sol-fa.

Tonic sol-fa is a tool for teaching sight singing, invented boy Sarah Ann Glover.

It is based on movable do solfège.

You use it to learn the notes of the major scale, which is one of the most commonly used music scales, especially in Western music.

There are 7 notes in the major scale in the key of C. C major scale is the easiet scale to learn because it has all white keys.

The notes of the C major scale are C D E F G A and B.

The names we give to these keys in tonic sol-fa are:

do re mi fa sol la and ti

or in shorter form we call them:

d r m f s l t

To remember these you can use the song Do-Re-mi

It goes as follows:

Doe – a dear, a female dear (do)
Ray – a drop of golden sun (re)
Me – a name I call myself (mi)
Far – a long long way to run (fa)
Sew – a needle pulling thread (sol)
La – a note to follow so (la)
Tea – a drink with jam and bread (ti)
and that brings us back to to Doe.

See Do-Re-Mi video below:

The solfège syllables for all notes of the scale are shown below:

Major scale degree Mova. do solfège syllable # of half steps from Do Trad. pron.
1 Do 0 /doʊ/
Raised 1 Di 1 /diː/
Lowered 2 Ra 1 /ɹɑː/
2 Re 2 /ɹeɪ/
Raised 2 Ri 3 /ɹiː/
Lowered 3 Me (& Ma) 3 /meɪ/ (/mɑː/)
3 Mi 4 /miː/
4 Fa 5 /fɑː/
Raised 4 Fi 6 /fiː/
Lowered 5 Se 6 /seɪ/
5 Sol 7 /soʊ/
Raised 5 Si 8 /siː/
Lowered 6 Le (& Lo) 8 /leɪ/ (/loʊ/)
6 La 9 /lɑː/
Raised 6 Li 10 /liː/
Lowered 7 Te (& Ta) 10 /teɪ/ (/tɑː/)
7 Ti 11 /tiː/

That’s all for now. Till next time, happy music learning.

References

Tonic sol-fa. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonic_sol-fa
Solfège. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge

How to record your piano from overhead

Hi folks,

In this article I go over how to record yourself playing a piano from overhead using a smartphone camera.

I got inspiration by watching this very useful video on YouTube:

The EASIEST Way to Record Piano OVERHEAD (with a PHONE!📱)

All I had to do was follow the instructions there and I could get mine set up.

The four components needed are

  1. A smartphone with a camera
  2. Tripod boom mic stand
  3. Phone adapter
  4. Ball head adapter

Setup Procedure

  1. Set up the mic stand
  2. Attach the ball head adapter to the mic stand
  3. Attach the phone adapter to the ball head adapter
  4. Mount your phone into the phone adapter.

Below are Amazon links to the last 3 components should you wish to purchase them.

GLEAM Microphone Stand – Tripod Boom Mic Stand with Carrying Bag (Tripod)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B082285YXD?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

H&S Mobile Phone Tripod Mount Holder Adapter Bracket Smartphone Clamp for Ring Light iPhone Samsung 360° Rotation
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07DZHXPL6?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Neewer Video Camera Digital Recorder Adapter with Mini Ball Head-360 Degree Pan and 180 Degree Tilt Movement for Connecting 1/4-inch Thread Camera, Camcorder, Recorder with 5/8-inch Mic Stand or Boom
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07571NL5G?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

That’s all for now. Till next time, happy music production.

Further considerations when choosing a spouse

Hi folks,

Here’s another article on relationships. Again I’ll follow up on my previous article on choice of spouse.

The new point to add here is that you must not take things at the surface when choosing a spouse, rather you must pay close attention to all factors you cosider important in a potential spouse, and seek and apply wisdom from God and from people who have more experience than you.

You must not overemphasize one factor to the detriment of other important factors when picking a spouse.

For example, one may you may be looking for a husband or wife who is caring, responsible etc. i.e. you’re interested in the behaviour of the person. That’s fine. But you must not ignore the person’s background. This is important because the behaviour that a person exhibits during courtship may or may not be their real behaviour.

If you want to know a person’s real behaviour, yes, it’s important to observe how they act towards you, but you must also consider the family the person grew up in. How do people in the person’s family behave? Also, you must consider the behaviour of the friends the person mingles with. This is how you would really know if a person’s beviour is likely to be their real behaviour, or an act.

As a Christian, I also believe it’s imprtant to put one’s endeavours in God’s hands, including choosing a spouse, for only God can give the grace to make good decisions.

That’s all for now. Ciao.

Circle of Fourths and the Number System

Hi Folks,

Here’s a quick interesting observation about circle of fourths and the number system in music.

If you move in fourth intervals in a given key, you will follow the pattern:

7 – 3 – 6 – 2 – 5 – 1 – 4 – ♭7 – ♭3 – ♭6 – ♭2 – ♭5

and then the circle repeats.

This means if you start at the 7th tone of the scale, e.g. B in the key of C, then move by a fourth interval, you will reach the 3rd tone of the scale, e.g. E in the key of C, etc.

Thus by memorizing this number pattern, you have a way of knowing where the next key falls on the scale when you move by a fourth.

That’s all for now. Till next time, happy music learning.

Tip on how to clean a lawn mower

Hi folks,

In this post I talk about a nice way to clean lawn mowers.

As a lawn mower gets used over time dirt builds up around the product.

First step is to use a brush to scrub off dirt from the lawn mower.

After this, here’s the actual tip: Use a flat blade screwdriver covered with a cloth.

Thus allows you to reach spots that may be difficult or impossible to reach with a brush.

That’s all for now. Till next time, happy gardening.

The importance of paying attention to what you believe in the Mass Media

Hi folks,

In this post I’ll share some insight I came about while reading the books My Watch by Obasanjo. The insight to be careful about what one believes in the mass media.

First, media outlets usually like to publish sensational news about people some of which are usually false. It’s not every time that newspapers take the time to verify information before publishing it. This happens even with supposedly reputable newspapers.

Second, how the media portrays a person depends to an extent on the person’s relationship with the media companies. For example, if one is nice to media staff, showering them with gifts, money, etc, the media is likely to write good things about the person. But if one doesn’t show as much camaraderie and generosity towards the media, then it’s likely the media will publish negative things about the person, even if those things aren’t true.

So, when you read sensational news in the media about famous personalities, it’s good to be careful about what you believe in such news.

That’s all for now.

Insights from disassembling a kindle

Hi folks,

In this post I share a few insights I gained when I disassembled my Kindle. It was an old D01100 kindle. Why did I disassemble it, well, it was working very well and I was just curious to see what the great Amazon kindle contained.

The most important insight i made is that no one accomplishes something truly great without relying on others.

when i opened brought out the circuit board, i found there were components from samsung and texas instruments, atheros, etc.

this means amazon had to rely on these other amazing companies to create the kindle. amazon didn’t just create the kindle itself out of thin air.

A minor insight i made is that i discovered the torx screwdriver and star screw. I had to use a torx screwdriver since all the screws used in the kindle were star screws. As I didn’t have such screwdriver on hand I had to quickly order a set. Luckily they’re relatively cheap.

So in conclusion, by studying the inner parts of a kindle I learnt that collaboration is needed to create things that are truly great. Also, I learnt that it’s a good idea to have a set of torx screwdrivers in your toolkit if you plan to tinker with electronics.

Below is what the kindle looks like afer disassembly. Not all parts present.

That’s all for now.

Fascination with Diwali

Hi folks,

In this post I’ll talk about an interesting festival called Diwali. A few days ago I noticed that some of my friends were celebrating Diwali festival and it looked very colourful. It included lighting diyas (stylish lamps), wearing saree and lots of other fun stuff. so I though I would do a little research about it.

Diwali is often referred to as festival of light. It is celebrated by people of different faith around the world, including many Hidu, Jains, Sikhs, Muslims and Bhuddhists. It is usually cenebrated over 5 days. It involves lots of feasts, sweets, making offerings to gods, lighting diyas, visiting friends and relatives.

The significance of Diwali festival is to signify peace and joy, the victory of good over evil, and light over darkness every day. What a wonderful festival it is!

That’s all for now. Till next time, happy celebration.

References

1. Diwali 2021: Significance, history, date, time, puja muhurat and all you need to know. https://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/festivals/diwali-2021-significance-history-date-time-puja-muhurat-and-all-you-need-to-know-101635849456204.html

2. When is Diwali 2021 and how is it celebrated? https://metro.co.uk/2021/11/02/diwali-2021-when-how-is-it-celebrated-15522781/

How to enable or disable users in Windows 10

Hi folks,

In this quick post I briefly go over how to enable or disable users in Windows 10.

  1. Launch cmd as an adminstrator
  2. List all users by running the following command in cmd: 
    net user
  3. Once you find the user you want to disable, run the following command: 
    net user theusername /active:no
  4. To enable a user, run the following command: 
    net user theusername /active:yes

That’s all!

Till next time, happy system administration.

References

  1. How to Enable or Disable a Windows 10 User Account. How-To Geek. https://www.howtogeek.com/396117/how-to-enable-or-disable-a-windows-10-user-account/

One Line Script for Converting tiff to pdf files in Linux

Hi folks,

In this post I briefly talk about a one-line script to convert a number of tiff files to pdf files. This can be useful if you scan documents in tiff format and want to save them in pdf format for easy reading. Here it is

Suppose you have a few files 1.tiff, 2.tiff and 3.tiff and need to convert them to 1.pdf, 2.pdf and 3.pdf using the tiff2pdf library, here’s the command to do this on a terminal in Linux:

 

/bin/bash -c 'for i in 1 2 3; do tiff2pdf -o "$i.pdf" "$i.tiff"; done;'

That’s all for now.

Happy software development.