A busy year and an exciting opportunity

 

I’ve been quite busy with the start of the new school year, and haven’t had as much time to write as I would like.  Part of that is because my writing time has been given to an “interview” review of sorts.  My review was accepted and is published at TabletPCBuzz.com!  This site is a great resource.  It’s where I’ve gotten a lot of the information that has helped me get the most out of my TC1100.  The “interview” part of it was that they were looking for someone to write reviews.  I started with a machine I already have but will now have the opportunity to have access to many other tablets for the purposes of writing reviews.  I will also get to post about my experiences here, and may even add a guest blog over there that will focus more on my use of tablets in the world of classical music. 

 

Speaking of which, the TC1100 went out for its first live performance this weekend.  It has been behind the scenes often helping when I’m running media for services.  But I also play bass for the women’s ministry – Coffee Talk.  Chord charts are sent to us via email as a Word document.  Rather than printing them out, I just downloaded them to the tablet.  Inking in Word 2010 is smooth and accurate.  It allowed me to take all the additional notes I needed for each piece.  Each chart is only 1 page long, and I had plenty of time in between to switch to the next one.  Full screen reading view showed me the whole chart.  The position of the bass player on stage is off to the side to be by the drums, but it’s a bit dark.  They have a stand light, but the lighting people aren’t thrilled about that, and I’m not so good about remembering to turn it off when I’m done.  It was nice to have backlit music, which meant I didn’t need to bother with the stand light.

 

The studio this year is full to the brim, and despite my general policy of not taking new students, a few younger siblings and few friends of current students have slipped in.  I have 4 pre-twinklers, all 3 or 4 years old, and I think I might explode from the cuteness.  I’ve also had another student ask about switching to viola, and her parents are totally on board with the idea.  Yay for more violas! We’re trying to get more involvement for the violas in the local Suzuki organization.  I’ve been working with the coordinator of the local play-in to find a way to have violas involved with the violins this year.  I’m very excited to see violas getting a chance to stand out and be recognized too.