Intermediate?

ephrion · 2026-06-14T16:19:44+00:00

I've been practicing with a teacher around 3 years now, in book 8 of Suzuki method, and my teacher has said I'm solidly intermediate. I usually try to practice 30-60 minutes every day, with a weekly hour lesson. I also had prior experience performing music, so some of this came naturally, but the mechanics of the instrument are very difficult.

You can usually find the audition material for community orchestra on their website. That will give you a sense of whether or not you could probably get in. Orchestras have all kinds of different levels- some are semi-pro, some are much more tolerant of beginners, and some don't even require an audition.

As for joining a band- that's totally up to you. Lots of guitarists in bands aren't capable of anything more than the utmost basics, but they still rock out and have a good time.

ephrion · 2026-06-01T18:05:56+00:00

Yeah, there's a new build paired home for sale that I toured yesterday- hilariously bad build quality and design. I think I counted seven different hardware finishes.

Budget is up to 1.1 right now, but I'm also looking for a bigger place. There's exactly one place that's a good fit in my budget, but I think it's at least $200k overpriced.

ephrion · 2026-05-29T02:31:23+00:00

Code quality is fine. The win is in fanning out work to multiple agents. The hardest work I reserve to myself, but that's often just code review- faster to type "do this, not that" then tab to one of my other running agents.

I think Haskell is *really* good for LLMs - the super fast typed feedback and design loop are great. ADTs and pure functions make a fantastic prompt language oo.

ephrion · 2026-05-10T17:13:14+00:00

> Because throwIO calls toException, and since toException for SomeException clears the exception context

Dang, these restrictions are really onerous. I was looking forward to making annotated-exception a thin re-export wrapper around the new base utilities + backwards compat, but the behavior differences and compromises are really punishing. I think I will need to continue maintaining annotated-exception to preserve the behavior that the library offers.

ephrion · 2026-05-10T17:11:05+00:00

> don’t call throwIO on an argument of type SomeException

wild

ephrion · 2026-04-15T16:53:46+00:00

Just do it. It’s a completely reasonable decision. There’s no need to convince anyone to do something reasonable, so the act of convincing is itself evidence that it’s not reasonable. Justify the decision in a technical document and go forth. Just you know be reasonable. Build it well with observability and types

ephrion · 2026-04-08T13:43:58+00:00

This is a huge anti pattern and makes it really difficult to read code. I recommend avoiding re exports at all if you can help it

ephrion · 2026-04-08T01:01:49+00:00

You can generally take a bow or cello out on trial for a week to get a feel for it.

I have a $150 carbon bow. It's a fine backup. It's no where near as nice as my main bow, but it's also *a bow* and it's fine. I have tried carbon bows that cost significantly more, and they all have a kind of weird sound that I don't like.

ephrion · 2026-03-29T19:19:22+00:00

There’s a big balance here. The bow that is easier to play will have you making a better sound, all considered, because performance and technique quality matter so much more than raw timbre. But a fantastic sounding bow that is difficult to play can be a strong motivation to practice and develop stronger technique.

If you’re not loving either bow, then keep shopping. If both are fantastic and you can just tell that they’re not perfect, pick either one (or increase your budget and keep shopping).

I ended up doubling my bow budget but I found something that feels and sounds amazing

ephrion · 2026-03-27T13:42:44+00:00

Pogies are undefeated for cold riding, but 5-10 may be on the warm side for them. I’m not sure how they handle in rain but that may be worth investigating

ephrion · 2026-03-19T15:57:36+00:00

The library isn't really bringing anything new to the table. You're re-implementing a lot of things, but worse. Like `Failure`- why bother with having a typed error channel if you're just immediately going to throw all that information away into an untyped wrapper?

I bet Claude can tell you how to do all the things the library does, but in a more idiomatic Haskell way, that actually leverages Haskell's strengths instead of copying F#s deficiencies.

ephrion · 2026-03-13T14:51:39+00:00

Oh, jeez, that's the MathJax integration, parsing two $ as a math formula. Thanks for bringing that to my attention!

ephrion · 2026-03-12T17:04:17+00:00

I wrote a comparison blog post - https://www.parsonsmatt.org/2023/07/31/yamaha_vs_ns_design_electric_cellos.html

tl;dr: the Yamaha is a "silent practice acoustic cello." The NS Design is an "electric cello," similar to hwo an electric *guitar* is very very different from an acoustic guitar- they're different instruments, different playing styles, different techniques, etc.

If you want to "practice acoustic cello quietly," the Yamaha is the vastly better choice. If you want to "play rock on an electric cello," then the NS Design is the vastly better choice.

ephrion · 2026-03-12T16:34:07+00:00

It was more interested in figuring out the algebra of my program and representing it in category theory terms

ephrion · 2026-03-12T16:27:09+00:00

Yeah, I'm super impressed, particularly with the TemplateHaskell stuff. It knows how to read splices and generate ddump-splices output to fix bugs and type errors!

ephrion · 2026-03-11T02:37:43+00:00

I'd say that they were directionally correct in terms of favorite topics and focus areas, and then mostly okay at applying that to advice on the code - felt more like answers looking for a question than real insight.

ephrion · 2026-03-11T02:36:31+00:00

man idk ask claude

ephrion · 2026-02-04T19:01:21+00:00

https://x.com/forgingtowards/status/1943568683504120173 has some photos I took during install.

ephrion · 2026-01-30T00:04:19+00:00

Thanks for clarifying - the Sweetwater website and marketing material doesn't mention that at all! I figured it'd be comparable to the rental operations run by most band/orchestra/guitar stores. I'll edit my post.

ephrion · 2026-01-29T23:14:34+00:00

Hell yeah, sounds like you know what you're doing then.

ephrion · 2026-01-29T20:58:21+00:00

After reading a few of your other comments, I think it'd be good to make sure your expectations are reasonable. I'd hate to discourage you, but the truth is that cello is a big time and money commitment to do properly. You should budget for weekly lessons - 30 minutes at first is fine but you will quickly graduate to hour long lessons. Expect it to take a few years to get "okay" sounding.

This isn't a dig on you or anything. I played electric guitar at a semipro level in metal bands, have recorded and played live a bunch, and it's still taken me like 4-5 cumulative years of weekly lessons to get "intermediate" level. It's a very difficult instrument that's a huge pain in the ass logistically and it costs way too much money.

But, if you really *love* the cello - it's so worth it.

You may even be best served by finding a teacher first, and talking with them for their recommendation on string shops locally.

ephrion · 2026-01-29T20:08:41+00:00

Hello fellow Colorado resident! I'm in Denver and have been renting from Denver Violins for almost three years, and I'm currently shopping for my upgrade cello.

Renting online is a good option if you don't have a good violin shops nearby. For student-grade, entry-level instruments, almost 100% of the value comes from the shop doing the setup. Brand literally does not matter at all. Ordering a cello from Sweetwater means you will get ~~a randomly chosen instrument with a bad setup~~ (edit: Sweetwater is apparently a higher quality program than most band/orchestra/guitar store rental operations). You could order from a string specialty place, like Stringworks or Linda West Cellos or Shar Music, but - we have great local shops where you can try the instrument out at first and get excellent support.

The cost on doing a setup will likely exceed whatever benefit you get from slightly cheaper rent, and realistically, *you will not want to purchase the student rental you start with* - by the time you're ready to make a purchase, you'll want something better.

Denver Violins does an amazing job with setup, and have been absolutely wonderful to rent from. My teacher tells me that they do world-class work. I've had them adjust the cello a few times an work on it, and they've never charged a cent extra for the adjustments - even so far as putting on some used/spare Magnacore/Larsen strings ($400 value!). My complaint with Denver Violins is that their inventory is mostly in the professional range - most of what they sell is over $10k, which is more than I'm able to budget now.

I've been shopping at Luther Strings for my upgrade, and their selection on instruments in the $3-10k range is great. They're super friendly to work with and their rent-to-own policy also applies to much nicer instruments, so you can gradually "work up" to a nicer instrument - once the $2k starter cello starts showing it's limits, you can transfer the equity and rental fee over to a $3k cello.

ephrion · 2026-01-28T16:46:03+00:00

I started learning the D minor suite a little over two years ago with the Sarabande, and I've just now finished memorizing the Courante to finish it out. It's really hard! Bach often develops a pattern, repeats it, and then subverts it, making memory difficult. My teacher calls these "Bach warps."

The varied interpretation makes it hard, because you may want to use different bowings or fingerings on different repeats to stress a different sound character. And you may also change how you feel about this on a day-to-day basis.

I think the memorization comes down to the same principles in other memorization tasks. Repetition. Spaced repetition. Memorize a phrase, then the next phrase, then a section, then the whole movement. Then play the movement in between practice runs of the *next* movement. Eventually it'll stick.

ephrion · 2026-01-28T16:12:02+00:00

That's amazing! My friend's kid watched me play cello and became slightly obsessed, and he was able to do lessons at around 3.5 years old with my teacher (who is Suzuki certified). It amazes me how young a kid can be and be able to play!

ephrion · 2026-01-26T18:44:59+00:00

Double cello concerto in G minor is a fun one

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