Cello diary

Ticciati bourrée practice 2

the327thmale — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:02:00 +0000

After a few days of more practice, here’s what it sounds like now:

Better, but the piano bits need to be a bit more piano, and the forte bits a bit more forte.

New toys

the327thmale — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 00:38:56 +0000

I’ve got some new toys to play with!

It’s a NS Design NXT electric cello. It has five strings as opposed to a normal cello’s four, the extra one being lower in pitch so I can pretend to be a bass player. Here’s some audio from a quick session on it:

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All the parts in that recording were played on the NXT. The other equipment I used includes a Digitech RP80 effects pedal, a PC with Audacity running, and a Yamaha Audiogram 3 to get the sound into the PC.

Ticciati bourrée practice

the327thmale — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 01:45:16 +0000

Here is some awful audio for you. Again, the idea is to chart my progress, not to delight you with my wonderful playing!

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String instruments in slow motion

the327thmale — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 05:01:48 +0000

Some informative videos about how stringed instruments really work, shot with high speed cameras. You can really see the “stick slip” action at work.

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Cirri allegro 1 week later

the327thmale — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:37:16 +0000

After a week of more practice, this is what the piece sounds like now:

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and here’s what it sounded like before:

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Not a major improvement, but at least it’s sounding and flowing a little better.

Bloodlines

the327thmale — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:05:18 +0000

I’ve been playing too much guitar hero recently. The next piece I’ll be working on is a cover version of this:

It’s quite fun to play. I’m working it out by ear and will post some sound samples soon (and eventually the score to my cello arrangement).

Cirri Allegro

the327thmale — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:03:05 +0000

I’m currently working on an allegro by Cirri, here is my latest practice run.

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Apart from the obvious stops and starts, the whole piece really needs to flow more, at the moment each note is an island. Here’s hoping with some more work I can improve it.

Resurrection

the327thmale — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:59:26 +0000

I’ve decided to resurrect this blog temporarily as a kind of cello practice diary. I’m at the point where I need to practice more or just give up, so I’m trying the former first. Undoubtedly this blog will be of little interest to anyone but me – it’s pretty much just a diary of practice, with recordings of how bad I sound. The idea is that hopefully those recordings sound better over time with more work, and I’ll be able to track that better by listening back to old ones.

So here is the first recording, it’s me attempting to play the solo in smells like teen spirit, and failing miserably.

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Abandonware

the327thmale — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 01:20:41 +0000

I’ve been neglecting this blog for quite some time, so it’s time to admit that I need to take it out the back and shoot it. Sorry old fella!

Thankfully although this blog has been abandoned, the cello hasn’t. Still practising, still learning, still getting better. From here on out any cello related posts will go on my normal blog, under the cello category. There’s a new post there now!

Edit: main blog moved too – it’s now at danielkinsman.wordpress.com

Majorly boring

the327thmale — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 07:04:13 +0000

Well I dropped some dollars on a new cello. It sounds a lot better than the hired one! Photos, pics and mp3 soon to come, for now I just jumped on to bitch.

I am bored with major keys. All of the practice pieces and stuff I have been doing is in major, I want some minor dammit! I want to stretch my musical horizons and my fingers. Everything sounds cheery and upbeat but sometimes you just want to express some darker emotions.