I want you to try something, he said. What, I said. Let’s try playing with exact intonation, he said. He played the notes on the piano, I played them on the cello, correcting them until they were exactly right. All I can say is, huge difference. There is a bad habit I have acquired, and that is accepting approximate intonation when I play. If it sounds approximately like the song I’m supposed to be playing, close enough for government work, as they say.
But now that I have heard the difference, I know this to be false. Even if the intonation is very, very close, too close to really hear that the notes aren’t perfect, you’re playing a different instrument. When the intonation is perfect, the cello resonates differently. The body of the cello, and the other strings, resonate with the overtones in that perfect note.
Or something like that. Sounds great, in any case.
Doesn’t sound like such a cheap cello, I said. Even expensive celli are like that, he said. They don’t sound really brilliant until the intonation is perfect. When it is, then you notice the difference.
One of the reasons I no longer call myself a violinist (‘cept I’m Irish, so maybe that’d be ‘fiddler’ anyway), and now concentrate on fretted instruments. On a guitar, intonation is sorted out with a set of tiny little Allen keys :-)
I thought intonation would be the hardest part of playing the cello, since there are no frets (one reason I thought about viola gamba instead, since they seem to have a few frets, but eh). It turns out bowing is my biggest problem, with intonation coming in only second place; although exact intonation is, as I’ve said, still eluding me. But it’s surprising how much you can learn to hear the notes, and how much “visualizing” (hearing?) them before you put your left hand in place can help.
The sound of a fretless bass sends me, but I am too chicken and having enough trouble (and fun) with learning a regular one. My ear doesn’t hear the lowest tones so well, even when I’m hitting them correctly. I guess that part of the sound ocean is too deep for me to hear.
I guess that’s why God made octaves.
I liked the bass a lot, although I was never any good at it. I had a Fender Precision. But then the amp started giving me shocks when I turned it on (very punk) and I started traveling, and sold it. I’d like to get another one, along with an electric cello, and a normal cello, but you can’t have everything.
Those low notes are hard to hear, aren’t the.
y
My trouble is just hearing in general. Let’s just say, I don’t quite have perfect pitch!
“Can’t sing, can’t dance, can handle a sword a little…”
I’m too much of a luddite to figure out how to make digital recordings, man. I’d like to learn, someday, but right now i’m still trying to figure out my mobile phone.
Wonderful harmonic work on fretless bass can be downloaded at:http://www.q-tuner.com
i just got a new cello bout a month ago and every time i played it it just sounded purely like crap (even though im a descent cello player and have been playin fo 2 yrs) i didnt no wut wuz up wit it… i found this website and it talked about wolf notes where ne time you play a note no0 mater wut string u on it sounds bad… i had alot of those but when i really concintrated on hittin the right place it dont sound as loud (the wolf notes i mean) thanx for the tip
There is a device called a “wolf killer” (at least, that’s a literal translation of the German phrase I heard – Wolftoeter). It is a small doodad placed on the inside or outside surface of your cello, in exactly the right spot necessary to dampen the vibrations causing the wolf. I used to have a terrible wolf on my F notes, which was improved significantly by the wolf killer.
i had a wolf note, a pretty bad one, on my E on the G string, it was awful and i didnt know what it was for ages. i just thought i was doing something stupid with the bow, or not pressing my finger down enough, but turns out it only happened when i was perfectly in tune! so i got a thingo called a ‘wolf tone eliminator’ and now it’s gone. i’d really like to know how it works, all the web sites i went to were to complicated. can anyone help me?