Hello Cello

I guess it was just before my birthday that I got my cello, the culmination of another odd experience of getting to know someone virtually from a Chinese instrument workshop, building up trust and then getting it shipped halfway across the planet. Here 'tis:


In the first few days, I found it pretty discouraging, feeling like none of my skills from the bass/violin/viola would transfer to this new creature. Two weeks in, I had a breakthrough -- even though I see from the video that the fingering was wrong, I started feeling like I could make some music:



Some of those early experiments formed the backbone for a new quartet piece I've been working on since, to be premiered this summer by the faculty of the Strings the Thing camp in Penticton. More on that to come...