Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Half off topic: hello cello!

We returned from abroad last night and came home to find that the cello I had ordered for my middle daughter had, indeed, arrived. She's been taking group lessons at school this year and likes it. She takes piano as her primary instrument, so we were inclined to move rather slowly on acquiring an instrument for her for home practice. And then there were several months of back and forth with the luthier for one reason or another. We wanted to trade in all of our older daughter's non-full-sized violins and this required getting them back to him and we are on different coasts. Then we were waiting for the right instrument, and then there were missed calls and forgotten ship dates. All of which conspired to get our middle daughter most of the way through the school year without a cello. This was all to the great frustration of the cello teacher at school who, having never directly spoken to us and thus only getting vague weekly reports from our daughter that "my mom keeps saying she's getting me a cello" was dead convinced that her parents are "those parents" who don't value music or music instruction. While this is not actually true, it's certainly feels true from her perspective so all I can do is apologize.

Anyhoo, so you can imagine the enormous family excitement over the arrival of the cello! Of course it arrived while we were abroad. Of course. So there it sat, unopened, until we returned, with said middle daughter relentlessly texting me "can I open it? Can I open it?"

No.

So we barely got through the welcome home hugs and laughter over mom's creative sunburn before I was pulled into the front hall to supervise the Great Cello Unboxing of 2015.

And there I was greeted with our new family member. One thought struck me, immediately. What was it? Well, let's just say that shipping boxes for cellos look like coffins. And, once opened, it didn't get much better, because soft black cases for cellos inside boxes that look like coffins look like body bags.

Fortunately, cellos do not look like dead bodies, so...the good news is that after unzipping the inner black case with more trepidation than one would typically expect when receiving a musical instrument, the story does not end nearly as morbidly as it began.

So, we now have a cello in the family! And despite playing violin (secondary to piano, of course) for so many childhood years, I had never actually touched a cello, and have obviously thus never played or tuned one.

What glorious, deep, chest filling resonance is a low C string! That thing takes some serious bow pressure to play, though, and the strings are wide and unforgiving. One C major scale left my fingertips sore. No more fooling around with a cello until after my recital, I think.

So now the question is: how quickly can we get said middle daughter from one year of group lessons to the Shostakovich cello and piano sonata? I'm hoping the answer is "next month" but I'm guessing it's gonna be a while.

Darn.

In the meantime, if anybody needs help getting rid of a body...I have a box.

Congratulations on the arrival of the newest member to your musical family!

I went to a marvelous cello and piano recital Tuesday, Beethoven, De Falla, Bauer and Rachmaninoff, with an encore by Chopin. Many composers saved some of their best inspiration for the combination, including the last two mentioned. I am glad your daughter is showing so much enthusiasm for it.

This is why I enjoy reading your posts

It must be exciting to have a family full of music lovers! So many opportunities for collaborative performances (regardless of level) which I assume are really fun and joyous events.

I remember trying to play some piano+violin arrangements with a friend of mine (you actually helped me find some pieces!) and surprise, surprise, the week after our first meet-up, he moved to USA to live with his relatives there. My cousin also wanted to learn violin, and when her parents almost agreed to get her one, she decided she preferred jui-jitsu. Collaborative music is not meant for me

Congratulations. I've played the cello since I was 12, and it is a truly marvelous instrument. It covers nearly the entire range of the human voice, and can have such a marvelous lyrical tone. The cello was my first true love as a musical instrument.

As some inspiration for your daughter, perhaps she can hear this marvelous rendition of the third movement of Rachmaninoff's Sonata for Cello and Piano, third movement. This is a rare performance of two of the greats of the twentieth century: Horowitz and Rostropovich.



Steve

Congratulations on the addition to the family. What's the cello's name?

I call my viola "Pacino" since it has a scar (nonstructural grain flaw parallel to the bridge--looks like it was in a fight). Pacino sends greetings, Howard, too. :-)



The 3rd mvt. of Beethoven's 3rd cello sonata is one of my favorite works in the entirety of Music.

http://youtu.be/dj_Ucj-4g78

Congrats to your family, and have fun!

The Swan from the Carnival of Animals (Saint-Saens) wasn't mentioned yet; guess it's the equivalent of "Fur Elise" for piano and cello.

But it might make you think of nice cold water; maybe that's a refreshing thought for a sunburnt person...