And now for something completely different!

I'm taking up the cello.

I have wanted to for years, and I haven't done it (owing to various reasons, some real and some totally irrational and imagined). At any rate, Patrick is a great enabler of me in all my wonderful and bizarre permutations, so he is encouraging me in this pursuit. I've inquired about obtaining a rental cello, and I should have one by the end of the week.

I can't wait.

I've always wished I'd taken up a string instrument at some point, and I particularly love the deep vibrations a cello makes. It's not as unwieldy as a double bass, and it's much less piercing than a violin. Viola was an option, but I had a strange problem when I took a violin lesson quite some time ago, which was that when I view a string bridge from the angle you must hold them at to play, I see two of them. I have no explanation for this, but it was highly impractical to try learning to play by keeping one eye shut all the time, which was what I had to do in order to only see a single bridge.

I also love how you sort of hug a cello with your legs while you play. I'd thought about an electric cello, since they are much cheaper, but Patrick correctly pointed out that the vibrations wouldn't be there with the big wooden body missing, and that is at least half the point.

Pardon me while I sip some tea - mmmmm...

I've decided to do this instead of ballet classes for the simple reason that we can't easily afford both, and I've wanted to play cello for a much longer time (years) than I've wanted to dance ballet (and I say even that loosely since I weigh too much to ever consider dancing en pointe, and thus would be rather limited in my potential repertoire). I am going to take cello lessons, hopefully once a week, but every two weeks or whatever is affordable will have to suffice. Patrick has some wonderful cello pieces that I can regard as goals in the extremely distant future once I've gained sufficient skill (this is a multi-year task I'm embarking upon, much like finishing The Book of Lost Memories).

I will have to finish relearning bass clef and learn tenor clef to play all cello music. I already know treble clef, and I'm sure the others won't be a problem with sufficient repetition. I also very handily have an expert in tenor and bass clef living right here with me to help me out. *wink*

I am very excited to begin. I'm hopeful I can find some good exercises and very simple pieces to begin with that aren't crap like Hot Cross Buns. If I can't, I will make up my own after I've learned to play scales and then practice those. I can already hear the music inventing itself in my mind. Like the Hogwarts Sorting Hat says, "It's all there in your head." Indeed it is.