zbd1960

It's always the same. I used to have a challenging 55 mile drive to rehearsals for one orchestra in the Birmingham area. My drive was at least an hour and ten and was 50% rural A roads and 50% M54, M6, M5. I was never late, unlike those who lived within 3 miles who'd dribble in

Never rule out complete incompetence...

Bird scarer is probably the nearest....

To continue the 'tease'... There are Neumann studio monitors stacked up on the floor. I have ordered a DSP and associated software. No, it's not a studio....

You do encounter some very good musicians busking from time-to-time. I know several that do busk, mostly to raise money for charity but I do know that they're competent players. The notable thing about the good players is that they're not usually very loud... In the summer months we get a busker who appears in the town centre and he just sits there all day endlessly repeating the same things. This drives the staff in the shops mad. There is an issue I think with amplified busking. The usual issue applies here - whatever laws/regulations exist are woefully out-of-date and not relevant. Most councils haven't got the funds to have an environmental officer wandering around with a calibrated SPL meter. A simple option to help protect the sanity of those who work adjacent to such things is to time limit playing in a location. I'm not sure how easy it is to deal with volume levels.

I have a new music project underway, which I started on nearly a year ago. I'm not going to go into any detail yet - there will be a 'big reveal' in a few weeks' time. The project has involved some electronics and sound equipment, I will say that much.

In a different musical universe... one of the choirs I sing with rehearses Wednesday evenings. I joined them last September. I'm a competent bass/baritone singer - I can sight read to a reasonable extent, but I'm not perfect and not at cathedral lay clerk standard.... I'm finding it tough going though. I have sung all the stuff for the next concert previously, so it's not new to me. The reasons it's tough going are various. I'm not keen on the MD's approach - partly I think he's an arrogant arse. As someone who has been chair of several choirs we'd be having words if I chair here. He doesn't seem to understand that a lot of the choir are not sight-readers. The main issue with the basses is none of them is very strong and they're struggling, not helped by the MD's way of working. I'll do the concert next month and move on, it's not worth the hassle.

Oh yes - one of the Prokofiev pieces went into treble clef as well as tenor - up to the E on the top space of the treble clef... As for the number of key changes - don't ask... lots of them - 5 sharps appeared later.

I was out with the cello last night for an orchestral concert in Carlisle. Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev. Here's the opening page of the first piece. I think the double bass part is similar.

I play viol. I started in bass but play mostly tenor

Oddly, the viola da gamba (viol) which I also play, uses underhand bow. But in the viol world, it's not referred to as 'German' as it was the standard. There are different 'holds' the English one is the one advocated by Christopher Simpson, there is the French Forqueray hold, which mostly differs by rotating the wrist to apply more pressure on the bow hair. With the viol, your middle finger rests on the hair and so rotating the wrist anti-clock adds pressure to the bow hair.

Hi, welcome

As someone who plays bass, and in particular also plays baritone sax (which weighs 8kg) getting straps etc right is important if you don't want neck/back issues in the future. You cannot eliminate the weight of the bass as we have yet to work out how to alter that aspect of physics. With the bari, I cannot take that weight on a strap (I can't with a tenor sax either which is half the weight) as the pressure on the nape of the neck is too much. I also cannot use the usual alternative which is a 'strap' that sits on the shoulders, as it's still too heavy. That means using a harness - there are different types of these, some of which means no weight on neck/shoulders at all (weight is transferred to a hip belt). There are some very expensive options - there is a sax 'stand' that holds the sax in place and you wheel it into position to play (seated). They cost £00s For bass I use 4" wide straps which have substantial padding, which distribute the weight over a larger area. There are harness type straps but I've never used one so I can't say how good/bad they are.

I know.... I keep thinking about upgrading my cello bow. At the moment it's a Durfler bow with pernambuco stick, which was £450 back in 2011. I tried some bows up to £2,000 a few years ago but none 'spoke' to me.... I have a feeling I wasn't looking in the right price range...

You'll need a proper string specialist/dealer. They are thin on the ground and due to high street costs, some are now home based. There's Tim Toft in Stone in Staffs for example who does have a large shop and on-site team of luthiers.