• Member Since 19th Mar, 2013
  • offline last seen Dec 5th, 2013

marinepony


T
Source

An Unlikely Duet

With the defeat of the Royal Equestrian Expeditionary Force in Europe during the summer of 1940 and subsequent evacuation of the survivors from Dunkirk Equestrias government now stands alone against the building storm.

The once reserved and proper classical cellist Octavia is approached by a member of a newly formed Equestrian intelligence division and asked to do her part for the nation. In this strange dark world of sabotage, espionage and guerilla warfare Octavia finds a beacon of hope in the friendship of a Jazz pianist. However, despite her years of training some things you can never truly be prepared for and the most important lessons are learned the hard way.

(The cover photo for this story is one I took myself featuring the two cellos I own and have performed on for nearly 18 years)

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 9 )

A dislike? Oh well ya cant win them all. I suspect this will be a story that the impatient wont enjoy reading until its finished and many incorrect assumptions will be made on the direction I intend to take the story. However I dislike the "stereotypical" spy story as much as the next person which is why i intent to stay as far from that as I can.

2748466

Got my instant like to balance out that red.

A favorite and a thumbs up to start with, And WOW those are some beautiful Cellos.. :twilightsmile:

I am saving up some money to buy a cello... prolly a used one to learn on... I love the tone a cello has. Now the real question is... Traditional, or Electric... If I can find one relatively low priced.. electric would likely be best for me because of where I live... and I can play that quietly in a room full of people without buggin them. :D yay headphones.

2787970

Well I happen to be a cello teacher and could offer you a few pointers on which direction to go when looking to learn as well as aquire a cello. Now honestly, the first question is age an d how serious you are about the instrument. That will determine if I could recommend a rental instrument (traditional wood cello) or an electric cello you could start with.

2790269
I'm 26, I cant rent, lack of funding, not that i really have the money to buy one either but when i get a spot of cash ill look deeper into it. I actually am serious about it, i just im in the poor house.

2791736

Alright, so my next question now is what is your musical background? Have you even played an instrument before and can you read music?

2795776
I was In chorus back in high school. Kinda wrecked my voice doing that, I'm a baritone, they made me do bass. @_@ As far as reading music, I would need to take time relearning, since I semi taught myself how to begin with, but mainly in just matching pitch/tone with my voice.
[ to put it simply my family background didnt exactly allow for nurturing musical ability yay foster care]

2795866

As we get older its very difficult to learn a new skill, especially so with an instrument. If perusing the cello is something you really are interested in I can point you in the right direction and how to begin going about things.

Since you dont have too great of a musical background, but have been exposed to it I suggest you first find yourself a community chior group to join. Since a baritone voice and the cello both play within the exact same range in Bass clef, joining a choir group and learning how to proficiently read bass clef and identify the pitches will do wonders for when you eventually pick up the cello.

Once you understand and know how to read music and can identify the pitches associated with a note its a matter of making the mental connection between a string and finger being the equivalent pitch to a note on the page instead of the pitch of your voice. The switch will be easy and you will give yourself a great head start to learning cello.

This could take awhile, but once you have done this the next step would be to rent out a cello and start taking lessons. I highly advise against purchasing/ investing a cello until you know its something you will do regularly for the rest of your life.

A good wooden instrument that does not sound like crap will cost you upwards of $10,000 which is about what I spent on mine. A decent electric cello that also sounds good will cost around $1500-$3000+. You really do get what you pay for and going cheap simply for the sake of owning one is the worst financial decision a musician can ever make. I also will always advise on going to a wooden instrument rather than electric. Electric instruments make good practice instruments and great platforms to perform non traditional music on, however my opinion is that they will never come close to the tamber and perfection that is a wooden cello.

2801377
I greatly appreciate the advice, I'm a long ways off from a $10,000 investment, though maybe someday in the future. I'm interested in the electric for the non-traditional applications. I enjoy the classical blend with electronic feel. I'll look into what I can manage. Right now my income is nada, so rental is out, but I am serious, as much as I've dabbled with random instraments I want to stick this out. Just wish I had a head start on this when I was still a child.

Login or register to comment