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On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:46:46 +0000, Orchid XP v7 wrote:
> Jim Henderson wrote:
>
>> Interesting; I was going to say that I had never heard of a school
>> doing that, but we were required to learn recorder, autoharp, and to
>> sing in the choir.
>
> I was *also* in the choir. You know, when we had one...
I couldn't sing to save my life. I mostly didn't sing, just went through
the motions.
>>> Um, OK. So it's *me* that's naff. :-|
>>
>> No, it just takes practice - years of practice - to get good sound out
>> of an instrument (doesn't matter what). I can make my violin make
>> horrible sounds as well - it has to do with getting the right pressure
>> and speed of the bow across the strings - too much pressure and not
>> enough speed, and it sounds exactly like you described.
>>
>> There also is a factor of the instrument itself as well; each
>> instrument has different tonal factors.
>
> Yeah, well... It's an *old*, cheap school violin. So I had assumed it
> was just naff. But like I said, the teacher had no trouble getting the
> most beautiful notes out of it, so it can't have been that busted...
Well, there are lots of different tonal qualities you can get. Comparing
my violin (a copy of a Guineri) to, say, Pearlman's Stradavarius, there's
no comparison in the tone. Pearlman's Strad is one of the most fantastic
sounding instruments out there (similarly, there are few cellos that can
rival the sound from Yo Yo Ma's Strad). My violin only cost about $1500
back when my parents bought it; Pearlman's Strad is worth millions.
> Random snippet: I remember when the school orchestra performed Ode To
> Joy. (Don't ask me who wrote that.)
Beethoven used it in the last movement of the 9th Symphony, but it's a
traditional tune, and I don't know if the authorship is even known. The
words were written by Friedrich Schiller (a poet) in 1785, but it's been
used in music since 1786; Beethoven's use (the best known) is just one of
many uses in music. Even Tchaikovsky used it (which I didn't know).
> Our teacher was very strict. She
> could tell I was playing the tune rather than reading the music, so she
> moved me from 1st violin to 3rd violin, because there is no way in hell
> you could play that from memory.
Heh, maybe not at first, but eventually you learn to just memorise the
music on the page - it's easier that way. I played 1st and 2nd violin
parts myself, depending on which orchestra and at which time. In the
school orchestras, I always played 1st violin (and my senior year, 1st
chair), but in the youth orchestra it varied.
> Anyway, the piece starts off telling you to play very softly. And then
> after a while it says play a little louder - but just a little. And then
> it's like... forte. [OK, I give the bow a little more elbow.]
>
> Double-forte. [OK. I press down a bit harder and really *work* those
> strings.]
>
> Triple-forte. [Uh... OK, let me bow a bit faster...]
>
> QUADRUPLE-FORTE!! [Dude... what? This thing doesn't *go* any louder!!]
Well, it's also a factor of the number of people in the section. :-)
> Still, with a couple of cellos and hons going - not to mention the music
> teacher taking the bottom notes of the school piano a lively workout -
> it sounded pretty damn good.
That was the thing that surprised me the most; the school orchestra
conductor I started with in high school (and had all through jr. high
school) would have us play unarranged music (ie, he'd use the original
scores) and we'd sound not too bad. Listening to recordings now, they
sound amateurish, but compared to sitting in the orchestra actually
playing the music, we sounded really good.
The youth orchestra I was in in high school (my junior year) went to
Russia on a concert tour - so some of the music in my collection is
professional recordings of the pieces we played on that tour.
> Fact: It's almost impossible to hold a violin comfortably while wearing
> a school blazer with huge shoulder pads... >_<
I could see that, even with a proper shoulder rest, you need a fairly
solid shoulder underneath it.
Jim
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