I just thought I would mention something about the e-mails I receive about viewers starting cello. Over the last 2 years I’ve received quite a few. There is a wide range of people that start. Some are in in school and some are older adults. I get e-mails from parents asking for advice about their children. I also receive e-mails about restarting cello or some other instrument after taking some years away from it. I really enjoy getting these e-mails. They are very inspiring to me.
There are many questions that I get asked. I try to provide good information and links to resources. If you have a question you can leave a comment below or send e-mail.
There is one topic that I could probably write several blog posts about. It is the unique way something like Cello Journey makes use of the internet. I can mention six things right away.
1. Classical music sounds good recorded live. It does not require much mixing or mastering. This makes it ideal for video.
2. Classical music is abundant. There are several hundred pieces that one can play. There are cello pieces and also music for other instruments which can be transcribed. Much of classical music is in the public domain. A typical pop band has 1 to 3 hit songs. On Cello Journey the repertoire is pretty much unlimited.
3. The distribution of audio and video on the internet. With services like YouTube and iTunes, Cello Journey has been seen over 500,000 times. It can be viewed on computers, iPods, cell phones, Apple TVs, and other media players.
4. Anyone can subscribe to a video podcast like Cello Journey and receive episodes automatically.
5. There is feedback and conversation. It is great that everyone can respond either through comments, e-mails, suggestions, or even by writing on their own blogs.
6. With classical music it is possible to build a relationship with the audience over time. With each episode and each new piece the audience gets to know the musicians better. The musicians get to know the audience better.
Should I write more about this?
Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart a blogger?
Ok, obviously not.
But composers like Mozart did write many letters. In those days this was the usual way to communicate over distances. You can actually read some of them at Project Gutenberg. I just thought it was interesting how Mozart regularly wrote music and also wrote words.
One thing I found fun is how Mozart mentions how pleased he was when someone “recognized him right away.” These were the days before drivers licenses and television.
One of the things I have thought about is identifying a key difference between classical music and pop music. I know that the two genres generally sound very different. There is also a tremendous amount of variety in both genres. But I tried to pin down the one difference that holds true across almost all pop songs and almost all classical music pieces.
There seem to be some obvious answers such as a steady tempo. But there are many classical pieces with a steady tempo. You might say that it is the instrumentation. But there are pop songs for voice and piano. You might say complexity. But there are complex pop songs and classical music pieces with very simple melodies and textures. The differences I’ve mentioned so far seem to have all kinds of exceptions.
But there is one difference which seems more consistent. I am referring to repetition. In both genres you have a meter which repeats. But in pop music there is a different balance between new material and repetition. There is usually more repetition. There is a drum track. There is a kind of melodic or harmonic groove that can last throughout large sections of a song or the entire song. In classical music something is usually only repeated three times, then the composer writes different material. The overall balance is more towards new material and less towards repetition.
Maybe there are some other consistent differences that I am missing.
