by musicsorb | Oct 31, 2014 | Curiosities, Guitar talks, Wood Instruments
The Unofficial Martin Guitar forum is a mine of interesting and inspiring information for anyone who owns a Martin guitar. Until you check out the thread on the worst guitar accidents. That’s just a collection of guitar horror stories, nightmares and worst-case...
by musicsorb | Oct 30, 2014 | Curiosities, Guitar talks
So your guitar is dead. Humidity has bent the wood, heat has melted the glue and you dropped it down the stairs as a you were running from screaming fans — or just knocked it off the table while you were reaching for your water. What do you do now? Here are five ways...
by musicsorb | Jun 24, 2014 | Curiosities, Violin talks, Wood Instruments
When a cynic wants to suggest that a situation isn’t as sad as it looks, he rubs his index and middle finger against his thumb. The gesture, intended to suggest the playing of the smallest violin in the world, is meant to show only the tiniest degree of...
by musicsorb | May 10, 2014 | Curiosities, Violin talks, Wood Instruments
Could you tell a 300-year-old, seven-figure Stradivarius violin from a brand-new, five-figure instrument? If you can, you’ve got a better ear than a number of renowned soloists. In a recent study, ten professional violinists were given 75 minutes in a rehearsal room... by musicsorb | May 9, 2014 | Curiosities
“I didn’t realize how beautiful a child actually sounds.” It’s an incredible line from an interview with Joanne Milne. The 40-year-old British woman, deaf since birth, had just received a cochlear implant. The only thing more moving than the interview was the video...
by musicsorb | May 4, 2014 | Cello talks, Curiosities, Wood Instruments
Sex has ruined César Franck for Richard Brody. Writing in The New Yorker, the magazine’s movie critic explains how the first movement of the composer’s violin concerto, transposed for cello, is “now accursedly associated with the clumsiness of the filming and the...