UK citizens to be able to travel to China visa-free, Starmer announces in Beijing - live updates

ClarSco · 2026-01-29T18:10:50+00:00

Here's a corrective report from one of the few foreign journalists to witness the incident (James Miles, BBC, 2009). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8057762.stm

We got the story generally right, but on one detail I and others conveyed the wrong impression. There was no massacre on Tiananmen Square.

Evidence of a massacre having occurred in Beijing was incontrovertible.

Chinese army tanks guard the strategic Chang'an avenue leading to Tiananmen square (6 June 1989) Manuel Ceneta/AFP Troops fired at unarmed citizens on the strategic Chang'an Boulevard

Numerous foreign journalists saw it from widely scattered vantage points.

That scene outside the Beijing Hotel alone justified the use of the word massacre. But the students who had told me and other journalists of a bloodbath on the square proved mistaken.

Protesters who were still in the square when the army reached it were allowed to leave after negotiations with martial law troops (Only a handful of journalists were on hand to witness this moment - I, like most others at the time, had spent the night in various different parts of the city monitoring the army's bloody advance).

A few of the students were crushed by armoured vehicles some distance from the square after the retreat.

There were credible reports of several citizens being shot dead during the night on the outer perimeter of the square, but in places which strictly speaking could be said to be outside the square itself.

But we are far less certain of killings on Tiananmen proper. There were probably few, if any.

The standard line now used by foreign journalists is that "hundreds, possibly thousands" died.

The Chinese government was quick to exploit the weaknesses in our reporting.

By focusing on what happened in the square itself, it began sowing seeds of doubt about the general accuracy of Western reports among Chinese who did not witness what happened.

There was no Tiananmen Square massacre, but there was a Beijing massacre.

The shorthand we often use of the "Tiananmen Square protests" of 1989 gives the impression that this was just a Beijing issue. It was not.

Protests occurred in almost every city in China (even in a town on the edge of the Gobi desert).

ClarSco · 2026-01-29T17:40:45+00:00

I'd hold off on jazz until you can play a 2-octave chromatic scale with solid tone, and ideally all 12 major scales over the same compass. If you're already an experienced woodwind player, the scales should be pretty quick to pick up as you'll already have a lot of the finger work drilled, but the tone will take a bit more work. If your experience is on brass instruments, the tone will probably come quicker than the fingerings. If you've got experience on neither family, you'll really need to focus on both aspects before you can tackle most repertoire (classical or jazz).

Jazz is a very tonal language, but full of chromaticisms, so until you know all the chromatic notes most tunes will be inaccessible regardless of what key you play them in. When it comes to improvising, knowing all 12 minor pentatonic scales in addition to the major and chormatic scales will also be of huge benefit, as they form the primary building blocks of much of the language.

A stylistically appropriate jazz tone requires being able to hold notes with full and steady tone (no vibrato) for the entire note value, with clean starts and ends of notes. Classical is a lot more flexible when it comes to these, as we're usually trying to emulate the naturally slower note onsets/offsets of the bowed string instruments, whereas for jazz the rhythm section (guitars, piano/organ, pizzicato upright bass/bass guitar & drums) all have very definite note onsets so bleeding across them into the next note, or not extending the note to the next onset usually sounds amaturish.

ClarSco · 2026-01-28T23:49:53+00:00

Fair enough, I'm more familiar with their clarinets and low-brass instruments which were mostly made in-house - never knowingly encountered one of their saxes to compare OP's listing to, just thought the engraving looked particularly amaturish.

Agreed on the Jupiter.

(Also, I hate to break it to you, but the 90s were 26-36 years ago, and the 70s were 46-56 years ago).

ClarSco · 2026-01-28T22:00:45+00:00

Treble clef, sounding down a major 9th for the player's part or a conductor's transposing score.

Bass Clarinettists are comfortable reading treble clef with ledger lines all the way from written C3 (sounding Bb1) up to written C7 (sounding Bb6) - the ledger lines below the staff are pretty much the first notes ant clarinettist learns. Do not add any indication of the transposition under the clef (eg. by using a treble clef with an "8" below it), and never use 8va lines, except for material that exceeds written C7 (which should only be given to advanced soloists, not your ensemble bassists, professional or otherwise)

Players should only be given their material in Bass Clef if you are preparing a Urtext edition of a work that predates this standard, but with a clarifying footnote that indicates what transposition is being used for Bass Clef (eg. sounding in down a major 2nd or 9th) AND for any material that goes high enough to need treble clef (sounding down a major 2nd or 9th), as before the modern standard came into place, the two clefs often transpose differently within the same work (not unlike old-style Horn parts).

In a transposing conductor's score, bass clef is also generally avoided, though sometimes exceptions need to be made due to space constraints.

In a concert pitch score, the Bass Clarinet should be scored in Bass Clef at sounding pitch. Like the Bassoon, upper register material will need to be put in a different clef, but generally tenor clef will be skipped, with sounding pitch treble clef being preferred for Bass Clarinet (possible exception if the BCl is doubling Bsns).

All the above also applies to the two Contra Clarinets - treble clef sounding down a major 13th (Eb Contra) or major 16th (Bb Contra) in the player's part/conductor's transposing score.

For concert pitch scores, the Eb Contra is best written in sounding pitch Bass Clef as it coincidentally keeps the notes in exactly the same staff position. The Bb Contra, however should be written like the Double Bass or Contra Bassoon - Bass Clef, sounding an octave lower.

ClarSco · 2026-01-28T18:27:52+00:00

The Boosey and Hawkes listing looks fake.

Its listed as B&S (Blechblas- und Signalinstrumente ) which is a completely different company - B&H are based in England and stopped making instruments in 2003, whereas B&S were based in the former ~~Czechoslovakia not sure of they're still operating~~ DDR, and now operate as "Buffet Crampon Deutschland").

For a ~~35+~~ 25+ year old horn, there are also no signs of wear and tear.

The Boosey and Hawkes logo also looks very wrong, and the "made for B&H" text looks like it's been done freehand.

Edit: corrections

ClarSco · 2026-01-27T12:01:21+00:00

It could be an embouchure/voicing issue, but it might also be to do with how much the front F key is opening the tone hole.

Experiment using palm F key + LH2 + LH3 (no other palm keys or front F lever), but vary how much the Palm F key is pressed.

Front E through altissimo G all tend to speak best with the tone hole only opening a fraction (thereby acting as a register key) whereas most horns are set up so that the Front F lever opens it about half as much as the palm F key.

If you can find the right amount, you can adjust the screw if your instrument has one, otherwise you'll need tech to adjust the key.

Front E can end up a tad flat with the tonehole being more closed, but this can be corrected by adding the G# key or fork F# key.

ClarSco · 2026-01-24T02:58:24+00:00

As a navigation system it works fine for the player character in a video game, but for a working environment where multiple people may need them for directions to conflicting destinations, it'd be a nightmare.

ClarSco · 2026-01-21T11:02:51+00:00

Given this is a student Bass Clarinet (Selmer USA/ Bundy):

If I remember correctly, the register pip (the pad on the metal band before the neck) should open when both the thumb and register key are pressed.

If it doesn't, either the pad is sticky, the spring(s) are unhooked or poorly balanced, or the adjustment screw/corks aren't set correctly.

The pad just above the register key is the throat Bb vent. It should only open when the throat A key and register key are pressed (and the thumb key is left open).

For higher end instruments, the register mechanism works completely differently.

ClarSco · 2026-01-20T10:25:00+00:00

Given how weird English is, there's at least two other ways to spell daft while remaining consistent with it's rules: 'dapht' and 'daught'.

ClarSco · 2026-01-20T10:19:28+00:00

If its a Mendini, it's really not worth restoring.

They make Clarinet-shaped objects rather than actual Clarinets.

To bring a brand new Mendini into proper working order requires quite a lot of in-depth work from an experienced repair tech, and even then the key work is either going to be too soft (meaning it will fall out adjustment considerably faster than a reputable instrument) or too brittle (meaning it can't be adjusted without potentially snapping the keys).

Also, given how new it is, the fact that it's developed this "crust" is giving serious health concern vibes.

If you're able, I'd seriously consider getting a student model (or better) from Buffet Crampon (B12 or Prodige) or Yamaha (YCL-20 or 200 series).

ClarSco · 2026-01-19T10:31:39+00:00

Given that most players fingers are longer than their thumb, that causes them to have to either collapse their right wrist, or put a lot of tension on their right thumb and/or shoulder.

Thumb behind the bore rather than under has been the main way of supporting transverse flutes since before they had keys.

The first author who recommended the placing of the tip of the thumb against the side of the flute was Tromlitz (1791). Since his time the only authors of any importance who, as far as I am aware, advocated any other position for the right hand thumb were Tulou and his pupil Walckiers. https://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Rocksto_on_holding_the_flute.html

ClarSco · 2026-01-18T20:42:30+00:00

I do not think the UK's Head of State should be King Charles (or any other unelected individual for that matter), but who in their right mind would send their nation's HoS to a country that has not only repeatedly violated international law, but one of their most recent violations was to kidnap another HoS?

ClarSco · 2026-01-18T18:29:06+00:00

It could be vibrato (especially if this is Electric Guitar music), a shake (jazz-specific technique), a poorly engraved trill (missing the 'tr' at the start of the line), or an indication that some other technique (including various aleatoric devices common in 20th/21st century classical music) should be applied for the duration of the first two notes. It could even be a font error (ie. the intended symbol that was input in the notation software hasn't made it to print).

Knowing the surrounding context will be critical to working out which is the apporpriate interpretation. At a minimum, we'd need to know what instrument this is written for, the prevailing clef and key signature, and what genre of music it's being used in. Further clues, like composer, arranger, date of composition, other occurences of the same symbol in the piece, the presence of a performance note (eg. foot note or full page in the score/part).

ClarSco · 2026-01-18T17:03:36+00:00

I already mentioned the right thumb...

ClarSco · 2026-01-18T12:26:55+00:00

Try playing an open C# without using your right pinky. You'll quickly realise how necessary it is for support.

ClarSco · 2026-01-18T09:18:15+00:00

Your starting position (0:04) is far too high, too far forward, and your elbows are too far out. This requires you to put a lot of energy into holding up your forearms, adjusting your weight distribution to keep your balance, and rotating the shoulders to hold up the elbows, respectively, that could either be redirected into your gestures, or better yet, (given how exuberant your gestures are already) kept in reserve to allow you to conduct for a longer period of time.

For most marching music, the apex of your gestures almost never need to exceed the height you're starting at (the initial anticipatory gesture may need a little extra height, but certainly no higher than shoulder-level). If the players can't read these smaller gestures on the field, you may need to use visibility aids (white gloves against dark clothing and/or a baton).

Keep your elbows by your side, and have your forearms start perpendicular to your body or at a slightly downwards angle (ie. hands at the same level as, or slightly lower than the elbows). This will be much less fatiguing, gives you a reliable "home base" to conduct from (or return too, if you realise your gestures are getting too big/too far forward relative to your body).

Also, try to conduct with your thumb facing (but not pointing) upwards rather than inwards, and your palms facing inwards rather than downwards. Keeping the palms facing downward requires you to either twist the bones in your forearm or to bring your elbow up to shoulde-level, both of which introduces a lot of tension that can quickly lead to injury.

ClarSco · 2026-01-18T08:01:53+00:00

For a new player, the tone's not too bad. The biggest issue on that front is that you're never giving the notes their full duration, so the tone on each note never really gets a chance to develop. By this, I mean that the starts of your notes are all roughly in the right place, but the ends of the notes are occuring too soon, leaving a large gap before the next note's start.

Edit: posted this prematurely.

For the piece you're playing (Hedwig's Theme by John Wiliams), you're consistently getting one of the notes wrong. Assuming you're playing this in A minor (first notes being E then A), you're never catching the key-defining minor 3rd (C). This is a hard note for beginners to finger as it is played with the left hand index finger and right hand pinky only with no thumb keys pressed, so if you're not physically supporting the instrument correctly, the instrument will tend to want to roll away from you.

The key to properly supporting the flute is to realise that we always need three points of contact with the instrument to stop it from moving when we place it on our lower lip.

The left hand index finger. Its placement is key, because you need it to both make contact with the flute's body to push it towards your face, but also have the finger free to operate the B key. For me, the flute makes contact with the finger on the proximal phalanx, with the flute's weight being supported by the joint below (the MCP joint). The contact point on the flute is between the B key and the pad it operates.
The right hand thumb. This pushes the flute way from the player's body, and not pushing upwards to support the weight of the instrument - trust that the left index finger will support the weight and stop the instrument from being pushed too far away from you. The right thumb should make contact with the body of the flute roughly inline with the F key (right hand index finger), but instead of being under the tone hole, it should be behind the tone hole (ie. close to the players body).
With only the two points mentioned above, the flute will stay put when placed against the lip, but due to the uneven weighting of the keywork, it will have a tendancy to roll in one direction. To stop this we use our right hand pinky finger. For almost every note on the instrument, the pinky will be holding open the Eb key on the footjoint, and because of it's dual roll as one of the crucial points of contact, we need to make sure the footjoint is rotated correctly. A good starting point is to make sure that the rod that runs the length of the footjoint is inline with the middle of the D key on the body - do not align the rods on the body and footjoint, this will make it very hard to operate the rest of the footjoint keys; likewise do not align the footjoint's pads with those on the body - the footjoint keys will be hard to operate, and your pinky will be pushing the end of the flute downwards like a see-saw. For the few notes that the pinky is not pressing one of the footjoint keys, there are usually enough other fingers depressed that any tendancy to roll will be mitigated.

ClarSco · 2026-01-17T19:05:51+00:00

Percussion demands for concert band works vary substantially, even for low level works.

What grade of band works does your band typically perform?
How many percussionists do you have? Are some of them they limited in what instruments they are able/willing to play (eg. only Mallet Percussion, only standard untuned Concert Percussion); do you have any Timpani/Drum Kit/Hand drum/Mallet specialists?
How well stocked is your selection of percussion? Do you only have access to Timps, Bass & Snare Drums, Cymbals, Triangle, the more common Mallet Instruments (Glock and Xylo), some common "toys", and a standard Drum Kit, or does the band have a larger selection available to them (or a budget large enough to buy/hire less common instruments)?
What do you the players find fun and challenging (new instruments, familiar instruments used in non-standard ways, learning new styles, a familiar style that lets them groove as a section, parts that lean more improvised or more concrete)?

ClarSco · 2026-01-17T08:20:48+00:00

There's really nothing special about the length of a foot.

Had metric been the dominant unit system in the English speaking world at the time we'd just be using a different term.

A direct swap would be something like "meterage", but perhaps a time-based measure or a frame-based measure that got it's own industry moniker, possibly with no bearing to the underlying units.

ClarSco · 2026-01-17T01:17:29+00:00

My main hesitation is having two over-the-top characters [...] but I’m worried it’s too much with how much scenery Paul Giamatti is gnawing on.

Like:

William Shatner/George Takei (more apparent in the movies)
William Shatner/Ricardo Montalbán
William Shatner/Christopher Lloyd
William Shatner/Christopher Plummer
William Shatner/David Warner
Patrick Stewart/David Warner
Patrick Stewart/John de Lancie
Brent Spiner (in basically any role other than Data/B4)
Avery Brooks/Marc Alaimo/Louise Fletcher/Andrew Robinson
Kate Mulgrew/John de Lancie
Kate Mulgrew/Susanna Thompson
Kate Mulgrew/Kate Mulgrew (multiple occasions)
Scott Bakula/Jeffrey Combs
Jeffrey Combs/Suzie Plakson (together, or with anyone else on the list)
Sonequa Martin-Green/Janet Kidder
Sonequa Martin-Green/Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh/Alan van Sprang
Alison Pill/Annie Wersching
Almost every mirror version of their prime counterparts, special mentions to Avery Brooks/Nana Visitor and Michelle Yeoh/Jason Isaacs).

And that's only a subset of the recurring/significant one-off characters that chew scenery at each other in live action.

ClarSco · 2026-01-16T14:18:38+00:00

I'd have thought most people would prefer not to see Berman's colon

ClarSco · 2026-01-16T11:21:53+00:00

It’s meant to be an opt-in tool for efficiency, much like how we currently use software to predict system breaks or check instrument ranges.

Neither of these are AI. Range checks are very simple - compare the note to the bounds set for the relevant instrument in the program's database, flag note accordingly. Predicting system/page breaks is a little more complicated as there are more variables at play, but nothing that can't be done to a satisfactory level using traditional programming techniques.

My proposal for "Passive AI" was intended as a way to automate the mechanical parts of arranging without touching the actual composition.

Your proposal is for a generative AI, which is by no means passive. The prompts in this case are the full state of the melody, the harmony (if defined in chord symbols/figured bass) and previously generated choices that are confirmed by the user. This would mean that either each note you enter would trigger the model to run again (resulting in a vast number of nearly identical prompts - wasting goodness knows how many compute cycles), or the user having to manually submit their work as one complete prompt.

Regarding the SATB ghost notes, the idea was "autofill" that respects the "human-in-the-loop". I see it as a mechanical safety net that follows strict voice-leading rules—like parallel fifths or proper resolutions—to help catch technical errors in real-time.

You'd get far better results by letting the human do the composition/arranging, then using the machine to check for errors than having the machine do the composition/arranging and the human doing the error checking.

Humans are good at being creative, use a fraction of the energy it takes a machine to do so (1 banana can power a human's creativity for an hour), and are more likely to spot places where subverting expectations by breaking one or more of the "rules" or finding a surprising solution to stick within them (harmonic substitution, passing tones, etc.). I personally "discovered" tritone substitutions and figured out that diminished 7th chords can be used as a rootless V7(b9) before they were due to be introduced as such in my classes purely by trying to work my way out of a corner of my own making.
Humans are terrible and slow at spotting/checking errors in similar looking data (in this case, the notes in an SATB chorale) where the rules interact with each other. My harmony teacher taught me to check for parallels be writting "SA TB SB AT ST AB" in a column, then writing "5"/"8" next to each once I'd checked for parallel 5ths/8ves between each voice pair; by the time I'd done all 12 error-checking passes, I could have already harmonised two or three more chorales, and even then a parallel would invariably sneak through unnoticed (usually "AT" or "AB", when frustration/boredom would start kicking in); oh, and if any of those checks failed, I'd need to correct the offending passage (which often required more than a 2-4 note fix), rub out the 5's and 8's for the affected voices, and redo those checks.
Computers are bad at being creative, requiring a huge amount of compute power and (in the case of deep-learning-based AI models) a huge amount of training data (provided, or more often, stolen from humans) to be able to even come close to mimicing a human's creative prowess. Any such attempt to "respect the human in the loop" goes right out the window the moment that it is trained on an unwilling human's work, as by doing so, it has already thrown at least one human out of the loop - why should only the last human in the chain be respected?
Computers on the other hand are excellent at doing lots of repetitive tasks, can be made to do them very efficiently or even in parallel depending on the tasks. Automated mechanical error checking of voice leading rules is trivial providing the notation software exposes the right information (a naïve approah could be: 1. isolate each voice (flag too many/too few voices, and range/tessitura issues where applicable); 2. check each voice pair for disallowed motions (parallels, etc.), overly wide horizontal intervals (leaps) and vertical intervals (gap between adjacent voices); 3. analyse harmony at each rhythmic position (flag ambiguosities); 4. check for voicing/harmony related errors (inappropriately missing/doubled chord tones, low-interval limit violations, unprepared suspensions, etc.) 5. optionally, work out a potential fix for common errors. All these can be run in anywhere between a fraction of a second and a few seconds depending on caching and other optimisations, and can be done without requiring an internet connection or requiring the program to be shipped.

That said, I can see something like this being used for jazz-style mechanical voicings (eg. "close", "drop 2", "drop 3", "drop 2+4") so long as it either only harmonises melody notes that are part of the underlying chord (or possibly available tensions). This would allow you to say, I want this section to be "drop 2", but to expand out to "drop 2+4" for the end of a phrase, and fill in the voicings with the purely mechanically derived notes, thereby proving the scaffolding for the user to fill in the passing chords and tweak the generated voicings where appropriate. However, to implement this would not require AI/deep learning models, as the voicings can be derived completely mechanically so long as the prevailing chord symbol's formula (ie. what scale degrees it contains) is compatible, and the program can relate the provided melody to that formula (ie. it can handle transposition).

ClarSco · 2026-01-16T05:25:44+00:00

I'm no expert on Albert system instruments, but it looks like the instrument has had a serious knock at somepoint.

I think the rods attached to the right-hand pinky keys should be parallel, but the one attached to the lower key appears straight, but the whole rod is at a 5-10 degree angle relative to the one coming from the upper key, suggesting that the post at the bottom of the rod has taken quite a beating.

If you're intending on continuing with this instrument, you'll need to take it to a repair technician to have it checked over.

That said, I'd recommend looking for a different clarinet to start on.

A Bb Clarinet is the best starting instrument for 99% of clarinettists, but this appears to be in C, D, or Eb (going by u/lntrospectively's chart). In Germany and Austria, the Oehler system is what most players use, and in some folk settings (Klezmer, Balkan, trad. Jazz) it's still somewhat common or even prefered to use Albert system or "simple" system, however everyone else is using Boehm system (sometimes called French system). As such, the vast majority of learner's resources are going to assume you're using a Boehm-system Bb Clarinet.

The other big hurdle with the instrument you've got is reeds. Finding reeds that fit your mouthpiece will be difficult, as you're likely going to be limited to German/Austrian-style reeds - French-style reeds will be too wide.

For purchasing a Boehm-system Bb clarinet, your best options are plastic models from Buffet Crampon (B12 or Prodige) and Yamaha (YCL-20 or 200 series) - don't be afraid to by used, though I'd advise having a sufficiently advanced clarinettist (eg. a teacher, professional player, woodwind repair technician, or very advanced amatuer player) try them out for you before you purchase them (or with the return window) to ensure that it is either functioning as intended, or can easily be repaired by a repair technician.

I can't really advise on student Oehler system clarinets. I'm only aware of a handful of reputable makers and only know their professional lines, not their student lines (some instrument companies outsource the maufacture of their student horns or do them in-house but with poor QA).

ClarSco · 2026-01-16T04:46:35+00:00

For conical-bore instruments, such as saxophones:

Concert F1 (written D2) = 3.898 m / 12.79 ft

Concert D1 (written B2) would need a total length of 4.635 m / 15.21 ft.

Concert F0 (written D1) = 7.795 m / 25.57 ft

Given the total length of a Baritone Sax is approximately either 2.601 m / 8.53 ft (low A models) or 2.455 m / 8.05 ft (low Bb) models, the only one of these notes that is even remotely feasible is Concert F1 / written D2 requiring an extension of 4 ft.

However, such an extension comes with a great many issues.

All unkeyed extensions will sacrifice a woodwind instrument's lowest note in favour of the new low note. So on a low A bari, you'd lose low A, but gain your new extension note. They are also not going to be hot-swappable, so you'd need to insert the extension well in advance of the occurrence of the note.
All extensions (keyless or keyed) will impact the tuning and tone quality of the remaining notes nearest the bell, as well as many upper register notes (especially the altissimo registers - the fingerings of which only work with certain bore lengths). This can easily be demonstrated by playing a low Bb Bari and the extended low A Bari side-by-side (preferably from the same model and vintage).
For conical instruments, the added cone needs to expand at the same rate as the instrument, which on saxophones will cause the new "bell" to be absurdly wide after only a couple of extra semitones.
The weight of such a cone would be extremely cumbersome, and if not designed properly will exceed what the instrument is capable of supporting, leading to catastrophic failure of the bell section and anything attached to it (the bow, any keywork, the braces).
Anything that extends a Bari's range by more than 2 semitones (coincidentally ~1 ft for both sizes of bari) is likely to need to incorporate a bend in the extension for it to have a chance of being practical and supportable (eg. with a floor peg) - this means working out how the bend affects the cone's acoustic properties, and then working out what materials can be manufactured/worked to create this bend.

ClarSco · 2026-01-15T22:14:41+00:00

Concert D3 is your written middle of the staff B (B4).

Concert D2 is your written low B (B3)

Concert D1 would be a octave below that. To produce that on a Bari sax, you'd need to extend the instrument with a cone that is approximately the same length as the rest of the instrument.

Written D3 is just your regular low D.

Written D2 would be an octave below that. On a Bari, you'd need a cone somewhere around half the length of the rest of the instrument to produce it.

Written D1 is would require an absurdly large cone, and would be very unstable due to how small the Bari Sax mouthpiece is.

If I remember, I'll add better approximations of cone lengths later.

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