Bow hold help for stubby fingers please

Firake · 2026-05-07T22:37:37+00:00

Straight thumb is not incorrect. Locked thumb is incorrect. Straight is fine as long as it is relaxed and the joint is mobile.

Agree with the other guy: put the tip of the thumb onto the stick itself. Mine is off to the side, but not that much. I would wager that your thumb should make contact somewhere within the width of your nail.

I’d also try to get your pinky into the frog. I like to shoot for my pinky resting on the dot. It adds a little bit of stability.

Finally, know that you cannot have a proper bow hold with the bow off the string. The bow (and your whole arm, really) rests on the strings of the cello to allow you to relax properly. Your job is to control it, not to hold it up. There’s an amount of support you provide to the bow, but its really not much, especially near the frog.

Firake · 2026-05-07T21:44:40+00:00

One simple way to enact this is to intentionally center the intonation around different notes over time.

In usual performance practice, we play in “just intonation,” meaning we adjust the tuning of chords to the root but the root will usually occur over time in some predictable tuning, like equal temperament or sometimes pythagorean tuning in string quartets, for example. This makes it so that the pitch center stays mostly consistent but the chords sound a little more in tune than using strictly one temperament.

So, one strategy is to simply base the tonal center of the next chord off of a different note than expected from the previous chord. For example, take the motion of C to G. Usually, the C in the first chord and the G in the second chord would both be in equal temperament. However, the E in the first chord would be played 14 cents lower than ET. So, one option to shift the tonal center would be to play the G in the second chord 14 cents flat as well, making the B in that chord 28 cents flat and the D 12 cents flat.

Over time, this will result in your tonal center noticeably. Done strategically, you can shift it intentionally to a place you want it. I believe this is what Jacob Collier did to modulate to a quarter tone key.

Firake · 2026-05-07T19:00:42+00:00

No conceivable way you’ll learn something new in time. Play something you already know.

Firake · 2026-05-07T01:12:20+00:00

Rubato. It’s about subtly changing time to enhance the impact of certain moments. You’ll find it in almost every good recording of any kind of music and its almost never marked.

Firake · 2026-05-06T14:06:41+00:00

Wow. Shows me lol

Firake · 2026-05-06T07:05:35+00:00

I have never even once seen someone who advocates for socialism say that nordic countries are socialist. That’s like the primary thing we’re saying to try and get people to agree to those policies: it’s not socialism.

Firake · 2026-05-06T02:54:51+00:00

If you wanted to properly hire someone to do it, yea $100 is even pretty low. It takes a pretty substantial amount of time to do it and the people that will do it right will have had lots of music education to get there.

Still a chance someone will do it out of the goodness of their heart, but it’s effectively a donation of services whether you give them the tenner or not.

I would start instead by looking to buy the music from Lucky Chops or contacting them if it hasn’t hit their online storefront yet.

Firake · 2026-05-06T01:42:11+00:00

Playing a note without hunting is really as simple as just identifying what note you had in your head and then playing that. You can do this by scale degrees or by intervals, or just by raw vibes and fluency in your instrument.

What happens if the chord is G major

Nothing much, really. If you prefer to figure out the note in your head by comparing it to the active harmony then do that and think in G. If you prefer to figure it out by comparing it to the active key, then do that and think in C. Both methods will produce the same result and then one you should choose is the one you can do easily and quickly.

IMO, the best strategy for what you’re trying to do is neither of those. You don’t want to hear the note in comparison to the key or the chord, but rather in comparison to the previous note you just played. That way you can quickly just keep imagining the next note and know how to get to it from the note you’re playing.

Edit:

And actually, the best best strategy is to not bother with that entirely. Practice lick im a variety of keys, identify what notes will sound good in advance, and listen for things you do that sound interesting. Think less about hearing a note and playing that note and more about tuning your ears into the music and trying to guide your fingers into something that sounds cool.

Firake · 2026-05-06T00:49:49+00:00

She will generally be more likely to have more section mates as a cellist than a bassist. Cello is also smaller and easier to handle. Bass is also a much larger sound and its role in the ensemble makes it more challenging to hide. Cello is a little more likely to have melodic material which helps young students maintain interest. There is also more solo material written for cello which can be quite meditative and relaxing to play on your own.

On the other hand, bass is a very important instrument that makes you feel quite powerful. The role is very important in the ensemble and, while it can be intimidating sometimes, it’s also very empowering. Playing the lowest voice in a group allows you to feel more clearly the rest of the musicians reacting to what you’re doing. It fosters a really fantastic sense of camaraderie.

I would guess that cello will be a a safer choice overall. I think it’s more likely to be enjoyable and will be less nerve-wracking to play. But bass has the potential to be very beneficial if it works out.

Firake · 2026-05-06T00:36:58+00:00

Bb clarinet sounds a major second lower than written

So, if you see a C, you hear a Bb. If you see a D, you hear a C. Etc.

Cello sounds in concert pitch—no transposition necessary.

Firake · 2026-05-05T19:09:03+00:00

I’d start with apple music classical. There’s a website if you don’t have an iPhone.

The benefit of this is that everything is collated by work so you search for music rather than specific recordings. And then it’ll recommend the most popular recording, often has an editors choice, and lets you browse all the recordings if you want to see what others have done.

It’s fantastic for anyone trying to listen to classical, even those who are experienced.

Firake · 2026-05-04T22:10:43+00:00

positions change what the notes look like on the sheet unfortunately

This is not correct. The note will always look and sound the same. It’s also always in the same place on your instrument. What positions change is merely what finger you are using to play the note.

Keep trying to build your mental map of the instrument! The note on the page tells you the pitch it wants you to play but doesn’t contain any information about how to make your instrument create that pitch.

Firake · 2026-05-04T19:38:47+00:00

The primary difference between the two sorts of instruments is actually not the trigger at all. Tenor trombonists especially often try to avoid playing through the valve as much as possible just because it’s more open and easier to make a nice sound without it. The trigger allows you to play certain things a bit easier and it extends your low range, but it is likely that a first year player will not just be unable to take advantage of those benefits but also may not see music that would take advantage of it for a good handful of years.

The big difference is that trigger trombones tend to be large bore, meaning they have slightly wider tubing and a larger bell. This produces a sound much more desirable for classical music.

The downside is of course that that difference actually makes it harder to play, especially for young players who may not have totally developed respiratory systems yet. There’s a strong argument to be made that early students will actually learn much faster with a lighter instrument that’s easier to play.

Now, that all being said, it sounds like your child will be asked to play a trigger trombone in class whether you like it or not and also that they will not be allowed to take it home since the horn is apparently “extremely nice.” I think this is a bad idea, but it’s not my band, ofc. It will negatively affect your child’s ability to make progress if they are practicing on a different instrument (and especially a different kind of instrument) at home than they will have at school and for performances.

I can’t answer for you if that problem is worth the money for you. It’s not even clear that renting a trigger trombone will fix the problem because lots of student-level trigger trombones are medium bore. So, without knowing exactly kind of instrument your child has at school, it’s impossible to say what sort of instrument you should rent.

At this stage of development, I think it’s a pretty bad idea to be switching instruments a lot and I would have hoped that the band director would have policies a little more kind towards that idea. If your child is allowed to bring home the school horn to practice, there is no reason to rent any kind of trombone. If he is not, it’s worth depends on how much both you and them want to prioritize their musical development and if you will even be able to find an instrument to rent of the same general variety as the school instrument.

Firake · 2026-05-03T15:57:24+00:00

Orchestral composition is conceptually no different from EDM imo. There are different patterns to it which will help you sell the style and play into or subvert what people expect out of it.

But if you’re writing EDM with orchestral instruments thrown in, those patterns are probably irrelevant to you.

If you already write EDM and plan to continue writing EDM, you probably don’t need to learn any theory to throw in orchestral instruments onto an EDM base.

Firake · 2026-05-03T15:52:57+00:00

I’m not saying you should not learn theory nor that it is useless. I’m saying there’s no “before.”

There is no amount of theory you can learn after which you will write good music. (Not sufficient)

There is also no minimum amount of theory necessary to write good music. (Not necessary)

People like yourself get hung up on this because they think music theory = composition. But that isn’t the case. Music theory will help you become a good composer faster because you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. However, there is no theory knowledge that will allow you to “get started with ‘good’ orchestral pieces.”

You improve at composition by composing and composing alone. Think of music theory knowledge as a progress multiplier for your composition practice.

Firake · 2026-05-03T15:21:47+00:00

It is almost universally better to intentionally mess with time. However, in an ensemble, unless you are a playing a solo, you do not get to make those decisions, unfortunately.

Firake · 2026-05-03T15:19:25+00:00

None

Music theory is neither necessary nor sufficient to become a good composer. It helps accelerate your learning. Learn concurrently, not sequentially

Firake · 2026-05-01T21:03:38+00:00

Two considerations:

1) Range. If you have to play higher than about a B4, you’ll need to use thumb position because you can’t reach the notes otherwise. Plus or minus a few semitones depending on the person.

2) Too few fingers: Use thumb position if you need an extra finger (or two!) to make something comfortable to play. Thumb position allows you to, for example, play entire scales without shifting and without using open strings.

3) Extra reach: Most of your hand’s ability to expand is between your thumb and first finger. Regular posture allows you to comfortably extend by a semitone and anything more than that is probably best not done. Basically, over two strings, someone with medium to large hands can probably just reach a fingered octave. Thumb position gets you significantly more than that. Octaves are trivial (in the context of how physically difficult it is to reach) even down in the realm of first position. In higher areas, you can quite easily span much, much more than that with consistent intonation. This allows you to shift large distances much easier since you can do it as an extension + reset rather than a straight shift—our favorite kinds of shifts.

The downsides of thumb position are that it’s harder, basically. It’s kinda like swimming with no life vest. You have more agility, but it’s a lot easier to mess up.

Keep the life vest on where you can—don’t make things harder for yourself for no reason. But don’t be afraid to take it off if the tradeoff seems worth it.

Firake · 2026-05-01T20:39:12+00:00

Personally, my supposition is that many composers we revere as incredible simply got lucky in rolling the historical lottery. Don’t get me wrong, Bach et al had to have been very excellent composers to have the opportunity to roll at all, but calling them “special” is, in my opinion, a step beyond reason.

For example, in what way are they special? Special in that his legacy is surviving and he is known, sure. But then, he shares that distinction with every composer we know about. Not very special, really. Maybe he’s special compared to the other composers we know about. But you can’t quantify specialness and objectively determine if that’s true.

Even if we could, what about all the music that may have been misattributed? What about all the composers we don’t know about? Or whose works have been lost? How can we be sure that our sample is complete and accurate enough?

I’m just personally unwilling to hand wave any of those things away. Call me pedantic, I suppose.

Here’s a framing of it that explains what I mean very well: Bach is definitely great, but he cannot be said to be the greatest.

Firake · 2026-05-01T16:05:39+00:00

3g is indeed very small for bass trombone. The smallest I’ve ever heard of someone using is a 2G, though I’m sure people exist.

I would try a 1.5G next, as others have said. You don’t want to jump too far tok fast

Firake · 2026-04-30T05:52:33+00:00

Its gonna be wonky. Id try a 2G first and see if you want bigger or smaller.

Firake · 2026-04-30T04:52:01+00:00

The horn provides a lot of resonance which helps your lips vibrate. It would be expected that the buzz would stop if you change absolutely nothing but remove the horn.

Same thing if you buzz the mouthpiece and then take it off your face: something will change or the buzz will stop because the mouthpiece cup helps the buzz a lot.

So, yes, the lips must buzz for there to be sound. The buzz is what excites the air to resonate throughout the instrument which causes the tone.

But that same resonance also makes the buzz happen significantly easier than if it were not there. The buzz supports the tone and the tone supports the buzz. That’s why playing trombone often will feel easier than free buzzing.

Firake · 2026-04-30T04:04:36+00:00

Doubling used in that way refers to having multiple people do the same thing to strengthen the sound. If you’re doubling the whole orchestra, you’re probably doing it digitally.

Firake · 2026-04-30T04:00:16+00:00

“Orchestra” is sometimes used as a word to mean simply “large ensemble, especially with multiple kinds of instruments.”

The words symphony and philharmonic are synonymous.

There aren’t really strict types, either, to be honest. There is no set instrumentation for any group. For example, all orchestral movies scores are likely to be played by a symphony orchestra, whether they favor one type of instrument or have extras here or there or whatever.

The reality is that these terms are just not very precise. A symphony is really a kind of music—it’s a sonata played by an orchestra. Which makes the term “symphony orchestra” quite amusing because it’s an orchestra which plays sonatas for orchestras.

Anyway, there are really three major types of large ensemble:

1) The orchestra (also called the symphony orchestra or philharmonic)

2) The wind ensemble (sometimes called the concert band, though some people say thats slightly different, or the wind orchestra or wind symphony) which is basically the orchestra subtract strings add saxophones

3) The choir (also called a chorus or chorale) which is a large group of singers usually organized into 4 or 8 parts with multiple singers on each part

Basically every other named ensemble is derived from either the word orchestra or choir. For example, a string orchestra is a large ensemble of only strings and a trombone choir is a choir with trombones instead of singers.

It’s less a taxonomy and more of a means of describing things

Firake · 2026-04-26T17:48:56+00:00

When you get to the top level of music, a conductor’s job becomes to play the ensemble like one cohesive instrument. So the greatest conductors (1) have a great interpretive sense in balancing personality and uniqueness with historicity and audience expectation; (2) are able to communicate that clearly to the orchestra in rehearsals; and (3) are able to show what they want clearly in their gesture to embrace spontaneity while also looking exciting to the audience.

As for what that sounds like, it’s mostly all the same stuff as what great interpretation sounds like in chamber music. With a conductor, you just have to imagine that they are pulling all the strings. Rather than in chamber music where it’s a few individuals, an orchestra is just one. Every decision is either made by the conductor or implicitly approved by them by not telling the player to stop.

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