zbd1960

It's all very alien to me... I never went clubbing etc as a youngster

I have mixed feelings about this. If it's once every three weeks and it's a reasonable time of day, I think they're being a bit overly critical, especially if they say they can't hear it in winter... If it was more frequent, they'd have a point.

I've had a listen to quite a few of the links that have been posted above. It's interesting that some are stylistically similar to the minimalist genre in the classical world, obviously some are not. Some for me give me the same problems I have with C20th 'avant garde', 12 tone serialism, etc. as in 'where's the music?'. Musical preferences are very personal. In my younger days I was very much a 'classical only' person. My tastes and interests are much wider now, and even for genres that I don't get on with I can still appreciate good musicianship even if I don't like the music!

I’m a cellist and I go with those saying no. I have a challenge with a normal sized hand getting the 4th finger I tune and not slightly flat in first position when extending for say C# on the G string. Bass spacing is much bigger - it would be tricky. Cello involves a lot of shifting as well and bass doesn’t have an easy way of marking 4th position ( ok there are fret markers). I can cope with learning bass and I’m sure someone younger would adapt much more easily.

The bass viol bow came back from the luthier - £40 for a re-hair. I've put some anti-moth papers in the case - apparently these deal with the mites as well. So hopefully that doesn't recur.

Okay, different topic today. I've been reading about the various issues people have playing in bands - much entertainment and drama it seems! By and large the choirs and orchestras I've played in are an entirely different beast to the bands discussed here. You pay a subscription to be a member (around £140 pa these days). They have a music director to lead/conduct. The nearest equivalent at the moment is probably the saxophone ensemble I play in. We're a disparate group that came together via an online community. We're currently an octet if everyone turns up playing SSAATTBB. We're widely scattered and meet near Manchester as it's equally inconvenient for most of us! That leads to the first 'problem'. Given the distances involved for all but one person, we meet monthly for a 3 hour rehearsal. Sax, for everyone except me, is their first instrument and they've started as 'late adult learners'. Being an ensemble playing orchestrated arrangements means you have to read staff notation and for most this was new as well as playing. It was me that started the group, originally as a trio meeting at my house. The loss of high street music shops makes it very difficult to find suitable music to play especially as I ideally need to have a look through to see if it can be managed by the group. Some of the players are very competent. The issue with most is like many they they play with backing tracks at home and have little or no experience of playing with others in a group. As the person with the most experience of playing/performing in large ensembles, some experience/training in conducting, and also with the most music 'knowledge', I've ended up being the conductor of the group and I run the rehearsals and sort out the music. People do sometimes buy/obtain music for the group. We've been meeting for several years now. Compared to when we started, the group has made a lot of progress. Things like sight-reading and timing have improved a lot. The biggest issue is timing/rhythm and that's where playing in a group is a big difference - you need to be listening to the other parts as well. The thing that prevents more progress is the irregular nature of the monthly meetings - it's not a fixed date as we try to pick dates when the most people can attend. We have discussed meeting more regularly, but logistics are against us. The distance between me and the most northerly member of the group is nearly 100 miles, and east-west we're scattered over about 80 miles. The issue I have is that I started playing trios as I wanted to play in a sax trio/quartet. For reference I'm grade 6 on sax. One player is grade 8, the rest are 3 - 5. I've ended up being the leader, conductor, music arranger (I've edited various pieces of music for us to play) for the group. Large parts of most meetings I'm standing there with a score and a baton conducting and working to help people sort out issues. I usually bring both a Bb and Eb sax so that I can help out people with their parts. I actually don't get to do much playing most times. Sometimes, if I am playing, I'm playing my part from the score so I can watch what else is going on. I kind of feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. I really want to play. I accept that I'm the one with the experience to help rehearse the group. But it places all the onus on me. It was interesting a few meetings ago when one of the soprano players needed a break and said they'd conduct whilst I played their part on tenor. At the end of that they said they hadn't realised how difficult it was to try to beat time, read the score, and listen to what everyone is doing... Sometimes the G8 player will conduct, although he's stopped doing it except when I'm away. He freely admits he lacks the experience of working and rehearsing groups and he's told me he finds it very difficult. If I opt to just play, the group will struggle and it's not a realistic option really. I am likely to be moving later this year, that may adjust things dramatically. The move will put me much nearer other players and I may just have to move on and accept that I've helped develop the group and that it's tie to move on.

I used to play tenor sax in a wind band that's 50 miles from here. One of the reasons I stopped playing with them was repeatedly coming home from rehearsals or gigs and discovering random overnight road closures with 20 mile detours...

Yes, if you use Photoshop, In Design etc and you need to fill a text box with text then 'Lorem ipsum' is the default text that gets inserted until replaced by your real text.

Definitely musique concrète... This was the nearest I could find to neo-brutalist music...

Oh dear... someone hasn't done their proof reading and site checking...

They should just go the whole hog and buy a theorbo...

I have several A4 magazine holders which occupy the bottom shelf of one of my bookcases in the study

I understand the pain, but as an amateur musician that has sung for years in various choirs and played in various orchestras, with one notable exception, I have to pay to perform via subscriptions etc. I did some film work for ITV where they needed real musicians who knew how to play their instruments. We were filmed but MU rules meant pros sound was overdubbed onto our playing... It was fun and well paid. I get paid for repeats too... (only once so far). A friend of mine who's done band work etc for decades says the fees are ridiculous as they're less than they were 30 years go. As noted, costs haven't gone down...

I try to keep a poster and programme for all concerts I've sung/played in.

I suppose ultimately they're fairly 'niche' so numbers are not high, so that mitigates against manufacturers automating stuff etc. as there isn't the volumes to make it viable. The strings are common to various instruments, such as lute (a six course Renaissance lute in G has the same tuning as the tenor viol). Compared with say my cello, they are high maintenance. The top string will only last a 2 or 3 months at most as the gut starts to fray after a while and then snaps. Frets either stretch and won't hold their place, or they wear, in either case they need replacing. Viols, unlike the members of the violin family, sound much more consistent across the sizes (e.g. treble, tenor, bass vs violin, viola, cello). Part of it is probably that the tenor is the correct size for its pitch - the viola should be the size of the tenor viol, but because it's played 'da braccio' it can't be, so it's really too small for its pitch. This piece is for treble, tenor, and 2 bass viols. It's a choral piece, which I've sung a few times. https://youtu.be/-_E877TUqfU

Imagine the endless debate over the choice of aggregate for a concrete guitar... "Hey man, it's got to be MOT for that real hardcore sound...."

Each to their own - I know a lot of people like it, I don't personally. I'm not looking forward to all the hype and media attention that will ensue in determining where it will happen etc.

I had a number of issues with my left hand/arm/shoulder when playing cello, so equivalent of fretting. I had pain in my elbow and in my shoulder. I saw a physio and there were several issues conspiring together. My day job was designing computer systems, so I was sat at a computer all day using a mouse and I'm left-handed. A normal mouse introduces torsion into your forearm: compare your arm resting at your side when stood up vs how it is when using a mouse - there's a significant rotation. So one recommendation was get a vertical mouse. I had a work station assessment done at work and they not only got that, but a 'slope' which my keyboard sat under and I coudl pull it down to write without having to twist to the side. I also got a better headset for phone calls and a better chair. I had some tendinitis in the left elbow, so I was given some exercises for that. This was caused in part by gripping the cello neck too tightly - the thumb should really 'float' with almost no pressure and stay opposite ~2nd finger. I adopt the same approach with the bass. With cello being fretless, it is easy to apply too much pressure when fingering a note and in particular to squeeze with the thumb. We often carry a lot of tension in our neck/shoulders and modern work sat at a desk with a computer really doesn't help. If you have posture/stance issues, this can lead to all sorts of problems and an osteopath can help a lot with sorting out skeletal issues: use a physio for muscle/tendon/ligament issues. If in doubt, seek professional advice.

This has done the rounds in the classical music circles as well, "You'll never be a pro / concert soloist unless you've done a minimum of 10,000 hours..." etc. There is zero real evidential base for this. The reality is a conservatoire student will be playing for 8 or 10 hours a day for 4 years for their performance degree and they then may do a postgraduate / masters.

btw... it cost £120 to re-string the tenor viol. The bass will cost over £200...

I took the bow into the luthier I use for re-hairing my bows in Shrewsbury this afternoon. He confirmed it's carpet dust mites eating the bow hair. So, need to vacuum the case out and get some varmint repelling papers... Bow will be ready to pick up on Wednesday. EDIT. Just to add - it only seems to be an issue with the bass viol case - don't get it with tenor viol or cello. Very odd. Luthier said it's a common problem.

To whet your appetite for the bass viol... two strings have snapped and something has got at the bow - possibly some form of mite... tbh I suspect a full re-string needed...

I ordered some rosin from them a few weeks ago. Arrived OK after about 4 days.

Annoying - lost a post... I've tuned the viol to A415, which is 'baroque' pitch. Being gut, it will be several days before they've stretched and settled. Changes in humidity affect tuning as well. Some jobs left to do. The fingerboard needs a clean. And I need to tune the frets. The frets are double loops of fret gut which are tied on to the neck. Anyway, that completes the re-stringing of the tenor viol. Next job is to order some replacement strings for the bass viol and the small matter of getting one of the bows re-haired....

Eventually, I got all 6 strings changed. It's always useful to keep old strings if they're not broken as you never know when you may need one - gut strings are fickle. I label the envelopes with the string name and the date I changed them. Here you can see the tailpiece with all 6 strings - in the correct order - snugged up. The peg box could be better, but it's OK. And added to my collection of 'may be useful...'