Where does the time go? I have just realised that I haven’t updated my blog since the 4th of August and here we are just a couple of days away from Christmas. That is the reason why I say that I should practice what I preach as blogs can be a great method to drive traffic to your website and encourage repeat visits but the golden rule is that you MUST keep your blog up-to-date. At least I have already worked out my New Year’s resolution - to keep the PanoConsulting blog up-to-date!

I play in the 2nd violins section of the Tavistock Orchestra and we had our first concert tonight. It was just an informal gathering where we played three pieces. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to September when we will meet again after the summer break. The pieces we played were:

1. Pirate of the Carribean medley.

2. Pavane by Gabriel Faure.

3. Jamaican Rumba by Arthur Benjamin.

A new Orchestra has recently formed in Tavistock. I have been to two sessions which are held monthly.

We play a mixture of music in the Orchestra from classical pieces, to contemporary pieces, and movie music.

Just a quick note to say that I passed my Violin Grade 4 exam with merit at the end of March and am now working towards grade 5 as well as learning the theory for grade 5.

I haven’t started working towards the pieces yet but have chosen my pieces from list “A” and list “B”:

List A piece = Mozart, Bagatelle: German Dance
List B piece = Attrib. Paradis, Sicilienne

I enjoy setting myself challenges and after I passed my Masters degree I set myself the challenge of passing grade 8 violin. It will be a few years yet but a target I am determined to achieve.

Well, I have had a really busy few weeks hence I haven’t been able to add any posts to this blog. The two main things I have been doing are:

Violin Grade 4 Exam
On March 26th I took my Grade 4 Violin exam so I had been practicing like an athlete for the weeks leading up to it. It went well I feel but I won’t get the results for another couple of weeks. For my pieces I played “English Dance” which is 13th-century melody and is very fast-paced and played vigorously. Then, my favourite piece “Mazurka” which is a Polish Dance that has a lively tempo and heavy accents on the first note of each bar. Finally, I played a Cuban piece called “Estes Indifferente” (You Are Indifferent) which is slower than the previous two and is played in a moody style.

Charity Letterbox Walk
I have been organising a Charity Letterbox walk on behalf of The Labrador Rescue Trust. It was a rush to get everything ready in time which I just managed to do. I sited the stamps on the moors the day before the “Spring Meet” and got caught in a heavy hail storm halfway around the route but me and my dog sheltered behind a rock and it passed off eventually. On Sunday 29th March I was in Lee Moor Village Hall at the Spring Meet selling my charity Letterbox walk along with another volunteer who bought some LRT merchandise for us to sell as well as the clue sheets for the walk. Thoroughly enjoyed the day and made a nice amount of money for The Labrador Rescue Trust.

I’m off to see Kenny Rogers at Plymouth Pavilions tomorrow night. Long story…

In a few previous posts I have discussed website content in some shape or form. Well here is the most important thing you will learn about content on the web. I have mentioned it before but I will mention it again:

Content is king

You should never have a website designed until their is a clear grasp on the content for the website. In others words the website should be designed to fit around the content and the content for the website shouldn’t be an afterthought.

In reality it is much harder to put this utopian vision of a website into practice. I know from experience that often I can wait a long time for  a client to send me the content for the website.

However, well written and engaging website content from an early stage in the website design process can pay dividends.