Liberty is not a woman walking the streets, she is not sitting on a bench waiting for an invitation to dinner, to come sleep in our bed for the rest of her life.
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Projects
I like to work on things, with my hands and with my mind. Since 2000 I have been an amateur woodworker, and since we moved in to our house in 2002 I have been doing a good deal of carpentry as well. Also, I spend a fair amount of time thinking about computer programming, and occasionally do some human-directed writing and translation.
I've nearly learned first position well enough to play the lead for "Drinkin Wine (spo-dee-oh-dee)"! Was able to make my way through it with a little confusion, it will sound great in the near future...
posted evening of November 8th, 2018: Respond ➳ More posts about The Blues
I had my first cello lesson today. Teacher was intrigued in the cello and interested in helping me with technique. Said it would be a challenge as a lot of his teaching techniques are specific to cello geometry, which differs in key ways from that of the tin-can cello.
Advice for left hand is learning first position, with scales and Suzuki tunes. Thumb position is key, the thumb should be in back of the neck or even on the outside of the neck. Right hand, my fingers should cradle the frog. The angle of bow hair to string is different than when playing violin, the bow hair is facing the floor, so angled away from you. (These two bits of advice are by themselves worth the cost of the lesson.) We tried playing Humorèsque together. Vibrato was mentioned.
I am following (loosely) the plan David Courtney writes about at Chandrakantha.com for setting up a dilruba bridge.
The idea is to keep the rigidity of the shape but open up its structure, to reduce mass. I'll cut the marked areas away using a combination of drill press and fret saw (the latter of which I'll need to find, and acquire a jeweler's blade).
posted morning of October 28th, 2018: Respond ➳ More posts about Woodworking
I mean I'm sure I'll be doing bits of setup here and there for months. But for all intents and purposes. Here's what it sounds like... pardon the atrocious playing :), I've just now contacted a local cello teacher!
It's funny, because my original estimate for best-case when I might finish the cello was "end of September". Not bad considering! This whole project has taken like 4 months from conception to execution.
Update from Sunday morning: wow! The instrument stayed nearly in tune overnight! First time that has happened. A couple of things to be done this morning: I forgot to put parchment on the bridge for the A and D strings; I want to re-drill the string holes in the pegs; some of the pegs need a little more peg dope. I ordered fine tuners.
