Yeah, I know, I tend to go on about this. It’s a big thing in my life, and this journal is mainly for my records, after all.
I mentioned the slice in the table to my teacher at the ensemble lesson on Sunday and her eyes got very big. She looked at it and said, “Do you have a digital camera? Take a picture and send it to them, and ask them what they’re prepared to do about it, and if they’ll guarantee the work. This kind of thing can really affect resale value.” I wonder if they might end up dropping the price a bit because of it. Because damn it, I like the sound of this one. I’ve already seen that four different examples of this model sound completely different; it’s not like they can just order another one in for me.
Also, the more I think about this, the less willing I am to make an absolute decision one way or another in this brief space of time. Renting had occurred to me months ago when I was trying the Jay Haides in Toronto, but my mother reminded me of it yesterday. I know my local luthier rents student kits; there’s probably no reason why they wouldn’t rent this student cello to me for a few months, in order for me to get a better sense of how the size is going to affect my playing. Not all my rental fee will go toward the purchase, of course, but most of it will, and if I don’t buy this one then I have a credit for whatever I do end up buying, be it cello or bow.
We got new music in the ensemble class yesterday: The Beatles’ ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ arranged for trio (so much fun for the middle voice because there’s that rhythm but you’re not playing the melody you expect), ‘Dona Nobis Pacem’ as a canon, ‘Ave Verum Corpus’ (which I could not get in tune; the 7/8 felt like it was sitting funny, as if I was torqued, but no matter how I adjusted I couldn’t shake it, and of course I was playing the top voice which goes stratospheric), a really fun blend of two popular tunes done tango-style, and a kids’ song (we get to accompany the littles, and it’s going to be hilarious). There will be more, no doubt. And I learned that my friend from orchestra, who also began studying with our principal cellist about a month before I did (and who also plays a 7/8), is playing the other part of the Lee duet with me, which is going to be lovely.
Back to work.
It is your blog. You post what you want. And I somehow doubt I am the only one who looks forward to the cello-related postings.
Best of luck with the cello repairs (if needed and wanted) and such. I am sure you will find The One, even if this is not it.
I know, I know; and I write what I write for me and not for an audience. But the cello stuff gets the least amount of response. Not that I’m going to censor my cello-related babble!
Yes, but that doesn’t mean we’re not reading! It is not the nature of comments to appear where there is the most thought-provoking or interesting posts. Just the ones that make people want to say something. Like the comments about Schrodinger’s comment box — which got lots of response. That doesn’t make it better than your cello posts.
If we judged blog posts by the number of comments, I think we’d get a very skewed picture indeed.
What Ceri said.
I know El Squat about cellos (celli?), so I rarely comment on your posts about that, especially the technical ones. Still, I enjoy reading them because I learn something new every time. :)
Oh, I’m not complaining about the lack of response to my cello stuff, and I’m fully aware of the inversely proportionate comment response to important vs. casual posts. I just had no idea that people actually looked forward to the cello stuff.
But whatever happened to the broken cello of your cousin’s?
Ah. The Great Cello Disappointment of ’08 is introduced here, and detailed here. Basically, when the finalized quote finally came in it was double the guesstimate, and my cousin and I can’t afford it right now. We’re saving up for it over the next five or so years.