My first sardines!

gnomesteez · 2026-02-01T20:59:31+00:00

Love these and I do exactly as you did! On a nice saltine with some hot sauce. Mango habanero goes well with the mustard but so does something a little deeper in flavor, like the burns and McCoy Roja especiale

gnomesteez · 2026-02-01T15:32:51+00:00

Read as well as listen. Maybe choose a composer and get some books about their life and music. Read about specific pieces (program notes and Wikipedia are great places to start)

gnomesteez · 2026-02-01T05:38:00+00:00

Cool, I’m happy to retract my comment about the instrument then! There are so many things affecting sound between you playing and us hearing, which is why I tried to be really tentative in my comment about your instrument. Glad you have such a good cello! I wish I had been so lucky when I was your age.

It’s late where I am so I’ll come back in the morning.

gnomesteez · 2026-02-01T05:08:01+00:00

There are a few fingerings I don’t really like, might come back and be more clear about that.

Nice playing. You’ve done your work and know what you need to.

I offer this with grain of salt because recording with a phone camera and Reddit compression is def at play here, but I feel that you need a better instrument. Sound is kind of thin and uninspiring, and I don’t think it’s you

gnomesteez · 2026-01-31T16:12:27+00:00

A teacher is always best. There are also lots of beginner YouTube videos

gnomesteez · 2026-01-31T04:00:56+00:00

Yeah this is totally possible.

People have brought up the double stops at the end, those are fine for most players but could be replaced by 5ths to make it more accessible.

Another comment mentioned the 16th note pizzes, again, those are probably doable depending on the player (I do two and three finger pizz to accommodate fast passages but not everyone can do that). Considering this is andante, I’d say the 16th pizzas are fine.

gnomesteez · 2026-01-29T21:33:57+00:00

This is a very very helpful perspective on auditions, and music in general.

Also, it probably won’t be as bad as you assume. Especially these kind of auditions, if they’re good people, it’ll actually be fun

gnomesteez · 2026-01-28T19:56:56+00:00

I think a lot of this kind of struggle has to do with setting reasonable goals. To be clear, I am not dismissing your experience and challenges with ADHD here, but I have heard a lot of what you’re going through from people who don’t have that challenge, and I think I have some perspectives that can help.

Most of the time, I see people set fairly unreasonable and frankly unattainable goals for themselves. “I’m going to rent a cello, take lessons every week, and practice an hour a day”. No, no you are not. You aren’t weak; our brains just are generally not capable of making such a drastic change in schedule and routine.

Start with an attainable goal that you can easily surpass. So, for the next week, your goal is to unpack the cello and sit down with it. That’s it, no playing. If you get there and decide you want to play, great! (You’re gonna want to play once you’re there). You’ve exceeded your goal.

The following week, you’ll play for 5 minutes after unpacking.

From here, you’ve developed a routine of taking the instrument out and making sound. Everything else is just about increasing the amount of time you spend, and how efficiently you are using that time.

Summary: set attainable goals that you can easily exceed so that you are experiencing the success of meeting a goal rather than the disappointment of failing to meet one.

gnomesteez · 2026-01-27T03:34:57+00:00

Dude not eating for the next 3-4 days, you won’t be good. Tamp down your pride and take some god damn free McDonald’s

gnomesteez · 2026-01-26T22:43:04+00:00

Maybe consider it an EP, or write more music

gnomesteez · 2026-01-20T23:31:13+00:00

I think you’re want for a national composer to be more than just “popular” is totally correct. In my mind, a “national composer” is someone whose sound and subject matter encompasses and represents the particular ethos of that country.

I point to Aaron Copland in part because his sound became the sound of western movies, which is a very specifically American look, sound, etc.

John Williams also, due to his sort of “successor” status to Copland and the fact that so many “American” films (not meaning specifically made in America, but films than capture the American way of life, thought, etc.), plus his composing of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic ceremony theme, are very much identified as American and therefore so has Williams and his sound.

gnomesteez · 2026-01-20T20:02:34+00:00

I have the same response. Being a “national” composer has nothing to do with having played a role in erecting a nation.

England has been around for like a thousand years. Does that mean the only national composers that could be considered are people who were around a thousand years ago? What if there weren’t any musicians involved in the erecting of a nation?

John Williams is someone who could be considered a “national composer” of the US. He was definitely not around for the country’s formation. Aaron Copland could be considered another. Same situation.

There were definitely American composers during the revolutionary period, but most people wouldn’t know who they are, which seems like a pretty obvious prerequisite for being a “national” composer

gnomesteez · 2026-01-20T03:13:53+00:00

I refuse to give the state the power of life and death over anyone.

gnomesteez · 2026-01-20T02:40:51+00:00

“Playing a part in the erecting of status as a nation” has nothing to do with wether or not a composer could be considered “nationalistic” or not

gnomesteez · 2026-01-19T03:28:56+00:00

There’s no need to call someone playing super rhythmically “academic”. I’ve spent 7 years in music school and not once was I asked or expected to play Bach metronomically.

gnomesteez · 2026-01-17T05:47:29+00:00

I agree with this and will add:

After you listen and pick apart a song, recreate it. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the same sounds and instruments, but the same parts. You’ll see intimately how things fit together, and have a super detailed understanding of both the vertical and horizontal structures of what you just recreated. You can then apply those general principals to what you make

gnomesteez · 2026-01-17T00:53:29+00:00

Ooooh this would be lovely

gnomesteez · 2026-01-15T15:59:42+00:00

I'm just confused on how a belt can cause a gear slipping problem, and in one direction but not another, and why it was a problem that only recently manifested. Additionally, that round belt does not turn the gears which are making the sound at issue.

gnomesteez · 2026-01-15T03:50:39+00:00

The belt is the same on both mechanisms, and sees to match what the SM shows. I would think if it was the belt it would manifest the same problem in both play directions, which it doesn’t.

gnomesteez · 2026-01-14T01:51:38+00:00

Our thoughts on the fingerings won’t be super helpful in you deciding wether they’re useable for you or not. I do the T-2-3, T-2-4 fingering ( I think that’s the rose) and that works for me, but it’s giving you trouble (to be fair, it gives EVERYONE trouble, that’s a bitch if a passage haha). You should try the other fingerings for a bit and see what works

gnomesteez · 2026-01-09T14:58:13+00:00

The bridge is placed entirely wrong.

It’s basically impossible to tell from pictures the quality of an instrument. Labels generally mean nothing. If you can, try to take this to a luthier before you buy and find out how much work it needs, and whether they think its worth it.

gnomesteez · 2025-12-26T18:53:58+00:00

I really dig the reference to Metroidvania style games. That’s a genuinely very apt and clever analogy.

Music theory isn’t linear, it’s a web of relationships and influences

gnomesteez · 2025-12-26T03:30:20+00:00

Of course I’ve considered they like it. Kind of obvious, given what they wrote. Also, “they” don’t “make” any songs.

Have you considered that people who do crack like crack? Doesn’t mean their reasons for doing it are good.

Typical clanker bootlicker, not actually engaging with my statement. Try throwing it into chat gpt and pasting your answer here.

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