Cello Chords

Jim asked me to re-post my cello chord diagram from a year or two back (The server it had been sitting on is no longer). Here it is. Pretty simplistic, but a start for strumming accompaniments or boom-chuck patterns, and you can use the same chord shape, moved up or down the fingerboard, for other chord names.

I sure do like Copland!

On my way into work today I heard a Copland piece in it's entirety on the radio. There's not much 20th century so-called "classical" music that I can tolerate. Give me 20th century jazz, R&B, pop, rock, show tunes, dixieland, disco, anything over contemporary classical. Hmmpf! Classical? Not to my mind.

Ah, but Copland? Wonderful! He takes his time. He carefully builds and he gracefully recedes; 25 minutes that combine to make a whole piece. He blends and he separates. He's not afraid to be simple, and when he's complex he still makes sense. Enjoyable dissonance; dissonance that makes sense; that bright, straightforward, no-nonsense sound. I think I can see why he never wrote a cello concerto. I question whether it would have been accepted by the cellists of the time.

I can't remember who, but some famed musician of Copland's era said something like, "In Europe they clamor for more American music, but that's not what they mean. What they really mean is they want more COPLAND!"

I guess my taste is hopelessly unsophisticated. Yeah, even if I had talent, I could never be a classical musician; too simple-minded; too schmaltzy; too working-class. But in Copland we proletariat can find a 20th century composer for the common man.

Another "note"worthy blog

Readers of Cellists By Night might remember that a couple of months ago I mentioned I enjoyed listening to morning disk jockey Dennis Bartel at the local classical radio station, KUSC (Yes, we are members).

I like his subtle wit and the way he makes transitions. From his comments, he clearly has an excellent in background classical music, but even more importantly, he has a solid background in all kinds of things. And he's a down-to-earth plain-spoken guy, not at all pretentious, unlike a certain other syndicated classical DJ I can think of.

Well, he has a blog: www.kusc.org/bartel. I recommend reading The Child is Father to the Papa (No douby y'all can guess who that's about). It goes to the heart of what makes a person, any type of person, great. And it just goes to show, aren't all the truly great musicians also autodidacts?

Goodbye to Cello?

This has been building up a couple of months. My wife and I bought a bank-owned fixer-upper to move closer to where my daughter will be attending high school. Well, it's turned out to be more of a fixer-upper than we had imagined. We have to sink far more time and money into it than we expected. Mold is much more extensive than we were told by the inspector (kitchen is now completely torn out), poor original construction (crazy wiring, no attic access...), and even more poorly done modifications to the house by former owners. What's more, the 13-year-old we moved to be closer to, now is punishing me by refusing to come to Dad's anymore over my support of my wife regarding the snotty way my daughter talked to her. So my ex is taking big advantage of this to egg on and reward the daughter for staying away from Dad, use the opportunity to stop working, go back to court, get a change in custody, and up the child support and attorney fees to maximum she can get (We've only been to court 60-70 times since the kid was born; she's a paralegal).

I don't know how I'm going to get through the next few months. I'm can't motivate myself for, and concentrate on cello playing. So I terminated my cello lessons, and I may even end up having to sell my cello. I've informed the folks that I play with that I'll play at an event that I committed myself to next week, but that's it.

I expect I'll continue to occasionally monitor some of my favorite cello blogs. Maybe some months down the road things will start to come around, and I can relax again. But for now, every day presents too many problems I just can't solve.

Oo-ah-oo-ah-oo-ah...

The subject of Starker's Organized Method of String Playing came up on Cello Chat about a week ago. I don't have access to the thread right now, but it might still be on the first page. Most of the posts dealt with the hazards of Do-It-Yourself. No one can understand the great mysteries behind the book without a teacher that apprenticed under Grand Master Janos or with one of his duly ordained disciples. My teacher's not in that exclusive club, she went to USC.

But I'm sorry, I don't find the goals of the book all that mysterious and inaccessible. It's sets of simple double-stop mechanical finger exercises, following a mechanical, non-musical sort of chromatic progression: first one finger stays put and the other two finger progress chromatically, then the first finger progresses one half-step and the two other fingers start over in the progression. Sort of like gears in a clock.

To complete the exercise though all the permutations of a single position, in tune, requires really good hand/arm position, finger independence, and very little unnecessary tension. Benefits: precise intonation; endurance from efficient, non-tense finger dropping; and knowledge of what notes are available in what position.

However, (1) I don't have the endurance to play a whole set well without tension. Also, (2) I have difficulty identifying and maintaining good intonation in a chromatic, atonal situation, and, (3) I get bored, and (4) I don't really absorb what notes I'm playing in such a mechanistic exercise, anyway. So, during the past couple of years I've made simplified versions that center around a key. It helps me listen and hopefully make musical sense out of the intervals. And if, at one time, I only play those that fit within a specific key, then rest, I can get though it without over-stressing and tightening up my fingers.

My previous post showed what I'm talking about (click here to see). On it I identify the a key and chord progression that the exercise intends to suggest. I see it didn't garner any interest on Cello Chat. Instead, I killed the thread. I seem to have a knack at that.

A home-made exercise

This little home-made exercise is posted here for a discussion elsewhere, unless you'd like to comment here.

105 degrees F, so I'm told

Whew, was it hot yesterday out on Paramount Ranch, site of the 48th annual Topanga Banjo-Fiddle contest. The quest for shade was, umm, indeed "paramount".

Our time to play was 11:00 AM, not the hottest part of the day but late enough.

I played ok, for me, which is to say not well enough to win, show, or place. But as we all say, it's the experience that counts. Right now, perhaps still tired and recovering, I'm wondering if that universally-treasured experience is always all it's cracked up to be.

There were some fantastic players there. People who think these players of fiddles, banjos, guitars, mandolins, and myriads of other instruments are just slouches that wouldn't be able to hack it in the classical world just haven't heard what some of these musicians can do. Sure, there are throngs of just-begunners and mobs of intermediate wanna-bes (like Yours, Truly). There's also quite a number of amazing performers, many of whom don't compete, they're just there for the fun.

At least three cellists competed in the "Other Instruments" category, in addition to finger-picked guitar (Finger-picked guitar is considered a separate instrument), harmonica, flute, dulcimer, and I forget what else. I was able to observe only one of the other two cellists and yep, he was better'n me (but even he didn't win). And, he made a smarter choice of what to play -- my choice was just too near the limits of my ability. Fool, fool, fool!

Y'know, though, what I'd really like to do for next time, whether it be next year or several years from now? Compete in the accompaniment category. I think that's where cello shines, but it's also something I like to do. Now, where am I going to find somebody crazy enough to (1) compete in the whithering heat of the day-long festival against some true virtuosos, and (2) let the likes of me provide accompaniment? Send any takers my way.