Parenting music lesson snafu
Kid's gotten interested in playing music & has been trying out various instruments over the last few months. (Yay for rentals!)
The latest is cello. When we got it home he noticed the bridge was off-center. He can replace a string, but we all agreed to wait until his first lesson & let the teacher adjust it.
He had his first lesson yesterday, with the same teacher he took violin from a few months ago. First order of business was to adjust the bridge...
Parenting music lesson snafu
So she immediately had to retool the lesson since he couldn't, you know, play an instrument that was his size (he's tall for his age, but it's all in his legs) and just kind of introduce him to bass clef and the basics of how violin and cello differ.
Amazingly, we were able to make it to the music shop before closing (10 minutes to spare!) and swap it for another one.
So in theory, he can actually practice before the next lesson.
Parenting music lesson snafu
(He wants me to point out that when it happened, he reacted immediately saying "Oh no! SOUND POST!")
Musical instrument acoustics
Interesting: I went to look up exactly what a sound post does for a violin/cello/etc, and it's not so much transmitting vibrations between the top and bottom plates as it is providing a fulcrum so that the bridge can transmit the sideways vibrations of the strings (constrained by the bow pressing on them) to vertical vibrations in the body. Plucked instruments like guitars don't need that because the strings can vibrate in all directions
https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/23613/whats-the-purpose-of-a-sound-post
Parenting music lesson snafu
So the teacher started carefully loosening the strings while holding the bridge (which is held in place entirely by the tension of the strings) until she could shift it into place. And as soon as it moved, we all heard a loud *THUNK* from *inside* the cello.
The sound post, which both provides structural support and transfers vibrations between the front and back of the instrument, had fallen out.
And was rattling around inside the cello.