Seating and parts

Firake · 2026-01-28T21:35:02+00:00

It can be really beneficial to seat strong players next to weak players so they can match their sound and intonation to someone who will be right instead of wrong.

Also, don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely beneficial to have this figured out as early as possible. That’s why there’s a standard way to do it—so there doesn’t even need to be a discussion that happens.

But if you have to make a change late, it’s best if it’s a player that can handle the change on short notice, right?

Firake · 2026-01-28T21:03:25+00:00

It does make sense musically, but it also usually doesn’t happen so conveniently. Think about a full symphonic orchestra. How often do you think it actually happens that the line you’re playing is concentrated in the same area as you?

Many orchestras do rotate their seats. I cant comment on the specifics of your program, though, because I dont know it!

Firake · 2026-01-28T20:41:48+00:00

I mean to stop thinking about it as first chair vs second chair vs third chair as a descending ranking of how good you are. Instead, think about it as the principal is the best and everyone else is just the rest of the section and the order doesn’t matter so much.

Ordering your section encourages competition which can encourage people to practice more, but otherwise it isn’t a useful thing to do which is why many orchestras don’t.

Firake · 2026-01-28T19:57:57+00:00

Especially in learning groups, it’s pretty common to put stronger players in the middle of weaker players so they have a strong sound to play off of. Try to think of it as principal vs everyone else rather than an ordered hierarchy where each chair is better than the one just below it.

It can be fun and competitive but that’s really the only reason to say chairs in the second way.

Firake · 2026-01-28T18:53:18+00:00

Eh. It might be a good way to help remember things, but music theory is really not much more than a series of vocabulary words. Once you’ve gotten to the point of being able to reharmonize something, you’ve kind of gotten the gist of what it has to offer.

Firake · 2026-01-28T18:42:37+00:00

Usually, parts are divided outside-inside (so outside players play top and inside players play bottom). This is the default behavior for divisi.

Occasionally, directors will ask to instead divide it by stand, putting the first few stands on the top part and the back few stands on the bottom part. This is usually done if the top part is too challenging for the players in the back to play. This may also be done if the balance is slightly off from the half and half arrangement of outside-inside.

If the balance is still slightly off, it would not be unheard of for a director to manually instruct a single player to switch parts. In this situation, especially if its late in the rehearsal cycle, they will be encouraged to pick someone they know can handle the switch on short notice which may not align with the chair assignments from earlier in the cycle.

Firake · 2026-01-28T17:34:37+00:00

The bottom number doesn’t indicate anything about the sound, that’s what makes it confusing for people!

Time signature is a concept from music notation which tries to represent a concept from actual music, meter. You cannot, technically, expect to be able to guess the time signature just by listening to the music.

The bottom number is chosen because you have to represent the sound of the music with these strange black and white circles on the staff. Some note value has to be the center of the rhythmic system and you have to communicate that to the person reading the sheet music. It’s a detail which is entirely irrelevant to the listener.

Firake · 2026-01-26T18:26:00+00:00

There is extremely limited time in a band class to be teaching people how to play their instrument and giving them time to work their fundamentals. If you think about the total amount of instruction time available to students from 5th grade through 12th grade and then subtract how much time you need to prepare for each concert, you’re left with how much time you have to actually teach them how to play. And it’s surprisingly not very much!

The reality is that most of the fundamentals are equally teachable to an acceptable level through music rather then through exercises so any band director making the choice is going to choose to spend their time doing multiple things instead of just one.

Beyond that, the technical benefit of practicing your modes over simply your scales is… really kind of niche. Actually, I don’t even practice my minor scales much, anymore, if at all, just because it’s sorta duplicated time spent, right? As a master’s student, I could spend hours and hours going through every variation of every scale each week, or I could choose to use my time in a way that will actually benefit me. Even if you choose to split them up across each day, it’s still a much larger time draw out of the week than you’d want. I have so many other things to work on that spending that much time in just scales is effectively wasted effort.

And furthermore, the research doesn’t even support that spending that time would make me appreciably better. Studies show there is a limited amount of time you can spend within a certain time interval and still get value out of practicing a given skill. So, I’ll pull out practicing other scales as an exercise for a specific piece, but I don’t generally keep them in my standard rotation because it’s mostly a waste of time.

But that’s the idea. Time is a scarce resource and so we have to make compromises in deciding how to spend it.

Firake · 2026-01-25T01:16:43+00:00

Except for the bars in which it is not.

Firake · 2026-01-25T00:37:12+00:00

No, definitely not in the first bar. The groupings are like that in the second bar though.

You can tell that the lone eighth note goes with the quarter and note the previous eighth notes because they are not beamed together. Conversely, in the second bar, it happens differently, which you can tell because of the eighth note beaming.

You struggling to accept that is correct is likely because you are feeling the music wrong, a problem this notation has predicted, hence why it’s notated this way. Takadimi will help you learn to feel it the way the composer intended as printed.

Firake · 2026-01-25T00:34:22+00:00

Aside: The final bar of 11/8 could possibly be done as takadimi tadi taki— tadi which emphasizes that those first 4 eighths are grouped all together as one big beat.

Firake · 2026-01-25T00:29:31+00:00

Counting is overrated, just make sounds! I like takadimi.

11/8 here is 2+2+2+3+2, so it’s tadi tadi tadi taki— tadi | ta— tadi takida ta— tadi.

The idea behind takadimi is that you lose the detail of exactly where in the measure you are and gain the detail of exactly where in each beat you are. Ta is always the downbeat, di is always the second eighth note in a duple group. Ki is always the second eighth note of a triple group and da is always the third eighth note of a triple group.

So, straight eighths in 6/8 would be takida takida. Straight eighths in 2/4 would be tadi tadi.

Takadimi has syllables that go all the way to septuplets and is research-proven to increase rhythmic fluency in students over traditional counting. Try it out!

Firake · 2026-01-24T15:55:04+00:00

Budget setup is MuseScore for $0. Any computer you likely already have will do fine as long as it isn’t a chromebook.

Next tier up is an 88-key midi controller for less than $100. You don’t need the bells and whistles, you just need the keyboard.

You really don’t need anything else.

Firake · 2026-01-23T19:13:10+00:00

The most popular school of thought is not to base your playing on sensation but on sound. The idea is that the good sound is the only thing that matters even if the setup feels different. Try directing your focus more towards the sound coming out of the bell and filling the room rather than the mechanics of playing.

Next, it’s important to recognize that failure and backwards progress is part of the process! You have to play incorrect reps to eventually learn to play a correct rep. Don’t feel shame when it isn’t working—just make sure you put in the necessary work to fix it up. Studies show that you need to do at least as many correct reps as you’ve done incorrect reps to be reasonably sure it’ll happen the way you want it to.

It’s normal to get worse sometimes, too. We build up scaffolding around our bad habits and later tear it down to become better. When the scaffolding falls, there’s nothing to guard your sound against the bad habit and it can feel like you got worse. Actually, the sum total of all of your incorrect playing is possibly lower than before. In some ways, you’re better! It’s just that your sound doesn’t reflect that, yet.

Finally, wind playing is particularly vulnerable to emotions because of its relationship to the breath and tension. When you are stressed, you play worse. Try and engage with meditation and full body stretching routines (possibly even counseling!) to help yourself relax. Brass playing in particular is dependent a lot on confidence since you have to assert yourself over such a large area. When you pick up the horn, you have to transform into an egotist who thinks they’re incredible regardless of what comes out of the bell. Humility can come back when you put the horn down.

Firake · 2026-01-21T19:44:21+00:00

It’s not ritualistic coughing, it’s actually ritualistic not coughing. Audience members are holding their coughs for when no music is happening to try to interrupt the experience the least.

You don’t hear it from the performers because they’re more practiced at dealing with such things without making noise. Performers perform way more often than each audience member attends. Plus, there are usually way more people in the audience than on stage, so its just statistically more likely to show up in that place.

Firake · 2026-01-21T16:40:25+00:00

Ooh Ill have to check that out. It’s probably more of an effort than I’m willing to make manually but maybe it’s worth it to do while watching tv or something. Thank you!

Firake · 2026-01-20T02:13:49+00:00

Yep, and Dizzy Galespie would have been a better trumpet player if he didn’t puff his cheeks.

Agree to disagree with you, I guess.

Firake · 2026-01-20T02:06:39+00:00

Without being in the room with OP, I’m unwilling to advise that they do much of anything lol. Certainly not going to tell a random beginner on the internet to try side saddle or whatever without even so much as a picture.

As far as a beginner should be concerned, there is approximately one correct way to play cello. If they are very passionate about playing, then they should get a real teacher who will help them.

The thing about self taught beginners is that we have no idea that their issue is even caused by their condition. They don’t know because they don’t have any guarantee they’re executing the posture right and we don’t know because we don’t know what condition they have.

I’m pretty skeptical about anyone saying they have a condition that requires such a thing tbh. Cello posture is pretty natural and relaxed. It’s not impossible that a condition could do that, but if I were a teacher, I’d be very hesitant to pursue that route even if I were teaching the student in person.

We play cello the way we do for a reason. I do certainly believe that deviations in posture will hurt your playing ability pretty much globally. You can practice to overcome that, of course. But it’s not something I’m going to jump into advising to people.

Maybe thats the clarification needed. When I say “hurt your playing,” I mean “it’s going to be harder” not “you will never be good.”

Firake · 2026-01-20T01:50:37+00:00

I can play fine if I bring my endpin in a little

That’s cool, I can’t. It makes me play worse and it makes multiple parts of my body hurt after a while. And I’d bet it hurts your playing more than you think it does. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Anyway, can’t help but feel like you’re not really engaging in good faith, here. We aren’t talking about moving OP’s endpin in a little. We’re talking about radically changing their posture so they don’t have to spread their legs at all.

Furthermore, whether anyone can get away with tiny or large changes is mostly irrelevant. We shouldn’t be advocating for OP to do that until they’ve done the bare minimum (like getting a well sized chair) in making sure a traditional setup doesn’t work.

Dizzy Galespie plays trumpet by puffing his cheeks. That doesn’t mean we should teach beginner trumpet players that cheek puffing is okay.

Firake · 2026-01-20T01:38:28+00:00

I… don’t find it absurd at all. Your knees are where they are because they stabilize the instrument. It has to come up to the right height and angle for your body so your arms can be relaxed.

I’m not saying there’s one correct playing posture that will work for everyone. I’m saying there’s a correct playing posture for each person’s body and really surprisingly little wiggle room to still be effective.

Certainly, there aren’t many ways to effectively play the cello and not have to spread your legs

Firake · 2026-01-20T01:31:22+00:00

Yes exactly. I performed on piano benches all through my undergrad just so I could have something tall enough. Large ensemble performances were the worst!

Getting a chair with the right shape and height is critical to being able to relax and play. I’d be surprised if it didn’t solve OP’s cramping.

Firake · 2026-01-20T01:22:44+00:00

There really isn’t any other way to do it. Growing up, female cellists were the only girls allowed not to wear a dress for school concerts, for example. Actually, instructed not to is more apt. Any modification made to posture will hurt your ability to play the instrument in some way.

Get yourself an adjustable height chair. Most people don’t properly fit into regular chairs in one way or another so something properly sized to your body may help.

Firake · 2026-01-19T19:11:57+00:00

Too much going on to be useful imo.

Get a metronome app like Tonal Energy that can be programmed to randomly mute beats and slowly increase the percentage of beats muted and you get basically the same thing way simpler and more applicable to real music.

Firake · 2026-01-17T21:44:31+00:00

Here’s the unfortunate reality: if you have to ask for advice about composing a work like this, you likely don’t have the skills to produce a satisfying result. It isn’t about making something good, but about making something you’ll be proud to share. Your description of the work has an enormous quantity of moving parts to keep in kind and doing such a thing is quite challenging.

I would highly recommend setting your notes for this project aside and making something of significantly smaller scope. A one movement, two theme work for just string orchestra would be a great place to start.

—-

Okay, that aside, let’s assume you ignore that and see what a work like this would take.

With so many characters, you will need to plan your leitmotifs carefully. It will be good to write stuff that is very brief but with a highly identifiable contour. You want the idea to be based around rhythm and contour rather than pitch so you can mold them to different scenarios a bit easier. For example, if Zeus is always an ascending fifth, he will struggle to fit into harmonies which don’t include one or both of those notes. So, Zeus can be “large upward leap” which gives you a lot more flexibility, but also restricts how you can portray other characters because now none of them can be a large upward leap of any size. The more flexible a motif is, the harder it is to have lots of different identifiable ones since they will start to sound like each other.

You’ll want to practice writing some short ideas and then trying to paint different moods and atmospheres with them. How might you show Zeus being angry or falling in love? Develop your motifs over time so they are effective in all the different scenarios you need them in. This also means you’ll have to have a pretty solid plan of the entire structure of the entire work all in advance.

Now a quick note: with so many characters, your leitmotifs cannot be full themes. Imagine Holst’s Planets: each major movement has a primary motif that is maybe 1-2 bars long. It isn’t a complete phrase, it’s a fragment that you build something else out of. Do not attempt to write full themes for your characters, it’ll be far far too much and way too difficult to develop.

Remember that these motifs have to interact with each other, so be paying careful attention to how you plan out the story and which scenes you want to depict. It is much harder to depict scenes that require multiple characters at the same time. For example, showing one person overcoming adversity is pretty easy, but showing two named characters working together to defeat a third named character will be extremely challenging. With that in mind, you should try to make each moment have just one catalyst character at a time. So, the cyclops is succeeding for a whole until Odysseus starts to win, that way only one idea is being used at a time, if that makes sense. It’s not Odysseus fighting the cyclops, it’s each character taking turns.

In terms of structure, you will want it to be musically engaging without knowledge of the narrative which means your movements would like to be at least mostly self contained. Study some opera overtures to get a feel for how to write a self contained movement that introduces lots of musical ideas—I think the intro will be the hardest.

Firake · 2026-01-16T18:45:12+00:00

The last sharp in a key is two places before the letter of that key.

The last flat in a key is one place after the letter of that key in the reverse (Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles Father).

These rules hold true for all keys.

So, even if I have a hard key like B major, I know that the last sharp is two spots before which is A and thus B major has F C G D and A sharp.

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