From BandLab to DaVinci Resolve

BandLab can be a remarkably useful online multitrack recording platform for remote chamber music collaboration, but has its quirks too. I made a series of BandLab video tutorials for the Worcester Chamber Music Society’s ChamberFest summer chamber music workshop; these were current as of June 2020. But my teaching needs have changed since then, mainly the need to have my Brandeis chamber music students see each other and be visible from remote locations, playing chamber music the way it ought to be done, aurally and physically communicating the pulse without a click track or metronome.

As they aren’t necessarily equipped for a low latency but Ethernet requiring solution like SoundJack, the next best solution is for them to record their individual parts independently using the ShurePlus MOTIV video app on their phones (using Shure’s easy interface with adjustable mic levels), after we map out the score to determine the sections, expression/musical character, phrasing, voicing, and recording order. They upload their videos to awesomely huge, easy to use Google Drive, I download them, create a project on DaVinci Resolve, and load them into DaVinci Resolve’s media bin, trim them on the media viewer, load them into the edit timeline, and work in an audio setup that lets you focus on getting the music to line up while bringing the video clips along for the ride (and there are plenty of tools for both audio and video like crossfades, resizing and positioning clips for the popular mosaic effect, etc.). The edit window has it’s own audio mixer, and can handle multiple tracks in the free version - I’m not sure how many maximum, but for chamber music it has plenty. Windows can be customized, and I use just two of what’s available (Edit and Deliver, the latter of which can upload a rendered video straight to YouTube and other locations). I find the layout easier to organize and navigate than Final Cut Pro.

By having students record on their own devices instead of the cloud, there’s less likelihood of digital dropouts during the recording stage, which is a problem in BandLab. The downside of this process is the lag time while students wait to view the leader of a given section to post their video so they can add their tracks next. If BandLab offered the ability to upload video tracks into the Mix Editor in the cloud, or if DR16 offered a cloud app version, some of this process could be done more quickly. For my personal audio-only editing I’m sticking with the combo of Reaper/CohlerClassical, but for video this setup works for me right now, and the best part about DaVinci Resolve: it’s free!

Screen Shot 2020-11-12 at 12.40.19 AM.png

Useful apps for practicing intonation

in

I often get asked to recommend apps for practicing intonation. Different apps have different strengths, and the most useful app is the one most relevant to your need while being easy to use. I'm an iPhone user with an ancient iPhone 6, but it still works great for practicing music, so here's an short list of intonation apps:

All-in-one: TE Tuner (Tonal Energy Tuner, iOS only) is my Swiss Army knife app which includes:

  • a tuner that uses the iPhone mic to listen to and measure your tuning

  • a tone generator that allows you to sustain up to 6 drone tones simultaneously

  • the ability to record either a sequence of the above drone tones or your own live sound

  • waveform pitch analysis (to show how much fundamental there is in the pitch for more focus)

  • metronome with tap tool and lots of subdivisions, even programmable tempo changes

  • a practice loop tool for slowing down excerpts of audio tracks, similar to apps like the Amazing Slow Downer (I already have that particular app, which has a better interface)

My favorite part of TE Tuner is the tone generator, which looks like a pitch pipe wheel and can cover all octaves necessary. You can use it with earphones, the iPhone's built-in speaker (not very loud), or an external speaker (Bluetooth or wired). If for example you're faced with a difficult shift, then you can play drone tones for both the starting and ending pitch, providing your ear with a sonic model before you play it on the cello. You also can change settings from equal temperament to Pythagorean tuning, just intonation, etc..

Tuner-only apps:

  • iStrobosoft (iOS and Android) has a display big enough for a whole chamber group to see it if you put it up on a music stand. No drone tones, but it's made by the company that makes Peterson Tuners, so a very solid measuring tool.

  • ClearTune is a perennial favorite for both iOS and Android, and is especially helpful if you need to find quarter tones and other microtuned pitches between the standard 12 tones (ex., the music of Ben Johnston). It can play one drone tone at a time.

A cello open-string warmup exercise (free pdf)

in

Here is a simple bowing exercise inspired by the teaching of George Neikrug. The point is to be aware of how the curve of the bow can be utilized to pull the string in either direction, and how it should take advantage of the cylindrical cross-section of the string to maximize the tonal output for the leverage which the bow-arm, shoulders, back, torso, and hips put into that string, taking into account the angle required by the string's position on the bridge. The angle of the bow is exaggerated in the graphics here, but the idea is to almost but not actually touch the adjacent string at either end of the bow stroke when using the whole bow to roll over on either side of the string (but you can start by playing a double stop with the adjacent string to get used to moving from one side of the string to the other, then work on avoiding it). 

One other thing not on this sheet: I generally prefer to play on the edge of the hair with the stick turned towards me, even at the tip. If you want consistency in your foundation tone, the string expects the same degree of focus at any point in the bow, so rather than play flat hair at the tip which can lead to a harder edged sound, I engage the core of my back muscles and rotate around my spine to help maintain strength and leverage (remember the baseball slugger on this blog?), and keep the same narrow amount of string under the bow hair to maximize how much of the string is vibrating. Of course, with variety of musical expression there should be variety of tone color, so in actual music making one needs to be flexible in bow usage, but this is a good way to start a practice session.

Open string bowing exercise, free pdf download

A project and to-do list, Eisenhower matrix style (free pdf)

Like many musicians and other creative people, I'm can always stand to be more business-minded. In an effort to get more organized, I customized a version of the famous task list matrix first thought up by President Eisenhower. My wife wisely encouraged me to make it so that I have to write items in by hand, for that extra cognitive connection to the mind (it's been proven). Along with the standard 4 quadrant list [Urgent and Important, Important but Not Urgent, Urgent but Not Important (Delegate), Not Urgent, Not Important (Delete)], I also included a daily repeat box for things like exercise, going to bed earlier, meditating, etc.. Here's a blank pdf template you can download and print out letter-size; I laid it out so that if you fold it along the dotted lines into two columns across and three sections down, it'll fit in most wallets (at least it does in mine).

Task list matrix pdf, free download

Hold the bow

in ,

This blog will eventually get into much detail about music making, cello playing, and cello technique. For now, as a teaser, here's a look at the bow grips of some of the greatest cellists (and maybe the greatest violinist). If I seem biased towards bow grips with the pinkie on top of the stick: well, yes. But there are always exceptions, and one should be flexible and adaptable.

Jascha Heifetz, whose favorite cellist was... 

Jascha Heifetz, whose favorite cellist was...

 

...Emanuel Feuermann. Their recording of the Brahms Double Concerto is one of the all time great recordings, stupendous playing.

...Emanuel Feuermann. Their recording of the Brahms Double Concerto is one of the all time great recordings, stupendous playing.

Another look at Emanuel Feuermann. Check out his video on YouTube.

Another look at Emanuel Feuermann. Check out his video on YouTube.

A former pupil of Feuermann, George Neikrug became a devoted student and proponent of D.C. Dounis, a legendary teacher who tackled many physical issues of playing.

A former pupil of Feuermann, George Neikrug became a devoted student and proponent of D.C. Dounis, a legendary teacher who tackled many physical issues of playing.

Pablo Casals

Pablo Casals

Mstislav Rostropovich

Mstislav Rostropovich

Jacqueline Du Pre

Jacqueline Du Pre

Anner Bylsma

Anner Bylsma

​

Another baseball analogy

Wouldn't it be cool if you could analyze a motion backwards and forwards, whether a baseball batter making a home run swing or a cellist playing a soaring passage leading to a difficult but heroic sounding shift? Here's the baseball player...

AndresTorres_10.10.30_WS_Game3_CF_HR_ToRF_R.gif

Some baseball analogies

Josh at bat

Josh at bat

We all know Alex Rodriguez has had a rough year, but you can still learn from studying him in his prime, even about cello playing. This article made the front page of the New York Times in the spring of 2007. I keep this graphic from it taped to the wall outside my studio. Regardless of how you might feel about baseball, it is worth looking at some of the physical parallels between the motion and efficient body movement required to swing a baseball bat and that which is required to pull a cello bow across a string in either direction, or move the left hand up and down the fingerboard. The principle of rotating around a stationary spine was revelatory for me as a cellist, and has helped me be much more solidly planted while dealing with both bow-arm movement and left hand / arm movement. Keeping my head stationary was one of the first suggestions I ever heard from Harvey Shapiro (himself a baseball fan, years later we watched on his TV as the New York Mets won the 1986 World Series final game).

A web page devoted to the subject of rotational hitting can be found here.