zbd1960

Obviously he must have been a devotee of atonal serialism

e.g. no symphony orchestra concert hall / theatre has been 'tested' with full capacity audiences

Yep. The altos and tenor shawms are also very loud - that was a soprano. They were used outdoors for leading processions etc. I was singing in an early music workshop some years ago and there was a tenor shawn in the instrumental group. It's a long instrument so sitting down, they had the bell playing into a cushion filled with lambs' wool to reduce the volume...

Ahh... you need to encounter shawms... not to be used indoors...

I think I saw a report yesterday showing some preliminary results from the first set of event tests? The whole thing is beyond annoying. The entire arts/events industry has been hung out to dry. A huge number of people who work in this space are freelancers and none of the government's schemes covers them. The failure to address that might be irreversible damage to the sector as people have had to find jobs and may not come back. Without insurance no company is going to even attempt to run an event where they have to commit finances with no idea if it's viable or not. Most major European countries have put some sort of government backed scheme in place to cover organisers. I have heard repeated statements for at least the last 2 months from government mouthpieces saying "We're working flat out on a solution...". Germany announced April last year what it was doing right through to August 2021.

I think there are two issues causing this. To put an event on requires planning and financial commitments to give out contracts to suppliers etc. Without insurance, they're placing themselves at enormous financial risk. It takes months to plan a big event and I think they're also sayign they haven't now got enough time to plan properly.

Yes, that's true and I'm a part of it. There are more people in this country in choirs singing on a regular basis than play or attend football.... It's odd that it doesn't have a higher profile. A lot of it stems from the cathedral tradition. The cathedral choirs generate a huge number of experienced singers who often go on to lead and conduct choirs.

Apart perhaps from the Welsh, we don't have a culture here that encourages everyone to sing. It is much more of a 'standard' thing to sing in many European countries (and elsewhere). I agree that apart from the blessed few, most of us have to put effort into singing properly - there is a lot of technique in that. Control, dynamics, and range are what teaching improves. I hadn't sung a note until I was 33, when I started lessons and that started a huge thing for me singing in choirs of various sizes from chamber choirs with 2 dozen in them to large choirs of 150. I've been fortunate to sing some serious 'gigs' in some major venues, including the Albert Hall. The problem comes with those that sing along with the radio and think that's all that's involved to perform in public.

I think the overwhelming majority of people have the capability of singing, the number who are genuinely 'tone deaf' is in fact very small. However.... whilst some people find it an easy thing to do, others need a mix of encouragement and tuition.

In similar vein, the orchestra summer school I go to (so a week of playing) was cancelled again a few weeks ago - two years in a row.

This is an important point. There is stuff to learn about playing or singing in a group and amongst the obvious ones are listening to each other and adjusting pitch/tempo/volume etc as necessary. It's especially important in non-directed bands/ensembles since you haven't got a conductor to sort those things out.

I've encountered similar, although in a very different context... I don't sing solo, but I am a very experienced choral singer. We would occasionally get people wanting to join the chamber choir I sang in - a lot of our repertoire was a cappella (unaccompanied) - you very quickly discovered that some of these people had no idea. This included basic things like not all parts have got 'the tune', and the reason we have a conductor is so that we're all singing the correct things at the correct time. Then there's the issue of blend.... Fortunately we had a policy of trial periods which gave us the option to say 'no thank you'. Won't be everyone's cup of tea as it's not exactly rock n roll, but this is an example of the kind of things we sang (I'm not religious, but a lot of choral music has its origins there). I would sing the baritone line, which partway through merges with the bass line https://youtu.be/5AOwGE0KuRI.

Having at least some lessons will help a lot with sorting out technique issues etc. I much prefer to have a teacher, not least because it will push me down paths I probably would not otherwise take. I'm probably weird (there's not need to answer that! 🤣) but I don't have any problems with theory and quite enjoy it. Unless you wander off and want to read figured bass and realise it on a 6 string bass... you don't need to go too far, but enough to be able to understand the basics of scales, keys, chords and harmony etc is probably useful.

I'm currently trying Logic Pro as a free download... Currently watching loads of online stuff to get my head round it

OK... this seems like a sensible place to ask... I'm thinking of trying a 6 string... just for fun... so one of the ones that pops up when I look around is the Spector Legend 6. Anyone familiar with this and have any thoughts? Ta.

To quote Dr. Johnson: Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel

My French is reasonable... (as with many Brits, I can read it better than I can speak it, but I can get by) but the lack of punctuation added to the challenge

As usual, consumer protection law is way behind the curve - it's still stuck in the 1970s

That is extremely good looking

Their cellos used to be made in Romania?

Pic from a few days ago of the routing of the back. Mine is the second one up from bottom left.

Looks like mine's in there too....

You need to make sure that the length of the USPS investigation doesn't expend any of your consumer rights here, e.g. credit cart protection. Anything with an international component is an utter mess at the moment. It's not just basses - astronomy gear is up the wall as well. The vast majority of optical equipment is made in just a few factories in China now, apart from some very high end stuff. Shipping is severely disrupted with delays of 6 months or more being common.

Hope it recovers. I had a complete rupture of my left Achilles' Tendon 2 years ago - separated by 6mm. I had to wear a boot 24x7 for 4 months and I had physio most weeks for 9 months. It was only last September I was fully signed-off. It has fully repaired and the work of the physio has got rid of the lumps and restored full function.

I watched a lot of the videos of this and I came to similar conclusions - it felt like an exercise in being unconventional for no particular reason. I felt it came across as someone who's lost interest to some extent?