Please spread the word!

I'll try to spread the word. But that is my problem..... I don't know any other non-traditional cellists! I wish I did.

Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI USA
paul at pgoelz dot com
www.pgoelz.com

Funny, Paul - I am also a folk cellist and hammered dulcimer player! I just got home after a year in Germany, where I studied the cello and attended concerts.

I have accepted an offer to play at a dulcimer festival in California with Ken Kolodner next month. I will do the noon concert in a small pickup group with Ken on fiddle and me on HD and cello. I am very happy to play cello with singers and guitar players, and I hope to play in a traditional Arab group and a cool jazz group this year.

Anyone else playing jazz or Arab music?

Ken

Hey Ken,
I'm looking to do exactly the same. I want to have a flute/cello/drum trio to do light jazz and world folk music. Do you have any information on arabic music? I've found a few scales, etc, but not too much else.

zen

Wow, small world! Say HI to Ken Kolodner when you see him. It's been years... he may not remember me.

The Arabic music sounds fascinating. Will you play the cello or the Santour?

Paul

Paul Goelz
Rochester Hills, MI USA
paul at pgoelz dot com
www.pgoelz.com

http://www.arabicmusicalscores.com/freesheetmusic.php

Yes, Zen, I have lots of information on Arab music. I go up to UCLA and play in the Arab orchestra there on Thursday nights. I've been away for a year but I hope to rejoin that group soon.

You can find many things by searching the web. Look for free examples of the music and start listening. The scales, or maqqam, include microtones and you have to get their individual sounds in your ear before you can play them.

By the way, the Arab musicians and scholars I hang with use the term "arabic" to describe the language, and the term "arab" to describe the music.

What a great site! Thank You!

funny anecdote- around 1993 I was in Palm Springs walking around at a street fair when I spotted a guy walking around playing an electric cello that looked like a stick connected to some sort of contraption that looked like a breast plate from a Klingon Warrior.... I thought "hold everything, I have GOT to meet this guy!"... I spoke with him briefly and he gave me a card - which I still have pinned up on the wall to this day- depicting him in black leather with low slung cello straddling two bikini clad women who are clinging adoringly to each leg.....This photo is still a regular conversation piece in my house to this day....

anyway that meeting germinated a seed that has been in my brain for a long time relating to playing the cello outside of classical music. This seed has recently sprouted and now I find myself nearly a full time cellist though I rarely perform classical music! I have always wanted to thank Marston for that little push in the right direction and now I can...

Anyway, would love to attend the annual conference someday any chance you might ever have it farther west?

I live north of Taos New Mexico, and actually have an old adobe church on my land with the original oak floor. I am still working on fixing up the building but it is a great space for cello and for small concerts. when I was a kid I took lessons from a woman named Lucinda Breed who lived in an old church ...go figure.

anyway if you are ever out in the Land of Enchantment feel free to give me a call and stop by to jam.

a note about traditional world music check out Zoukfest which happens every year ( I think it is happening right now) here in Taos. They bring in all kinds of great musicians to do workshops - though it is designed around the bozouki, they are very welcome to people bringing other instruments . there is even someone there who plays Irish music on the Pardessus (sp?)

Anyway , thanks again !

Mark

Hey Clayman!! Glad to see another New Mexican. You've got to check out the Albuquerque Folk Festival next year. I went this year and had a blast. Maybe you can come to the Santa Fe Bluegrass Festival as well. Any way, if you find yourself down in central NM, send me a note!! I'll send you a note next time I head up through Taos!

Once you're through growing, you're through. - Benjamin Franklin

This is now my new favorite place on the web!! Thanks to all for making this site happen.

Hello you lovely cellists,

Just thought I would say how good it is to find this site, and meet you all. I hope to have some nice cello-related discussions with you all.

A bit about me, in case anyone is interested. I live in south-east England, and all I do on the cello is free improvisation.

After 30 years of playing electric guitar and various other instruments I took up the cello about two years ago. My instrument is a rather unusual rectangular thing apparently from the 1950's. It has been fitted with a pickup, and I often have to amplify it, as it's not as loud a a "proper" cello.

I haven't had any lessons on the cello, and I haven't made any real attampt to learn conventional cello playing technique. The way I play seems to work very nicely though.

I play in various ad hoc improvising groups, and an improvising string quartet (violin/viola/cello/double bass).

Well that's enough for now.

I hope to be able to contribute something worthwhile here!

Stephen