Arco
or Pizzicato…Just Strum It!
by: Radhanath Thialan
by: Radhanath Thialan
What
is a Cello? Have you ever seen or played a cello? Even if you have not, I can assure that the
classical guitar is more familiar to you.
The cello is commonly mistaken for ‘the big violin’ or a double
bass. Playing a musical
instrument benefits an individual in many aspects, from increasing the memory
capacity in our brain to relieving stress. “Learning to play a musical
instrument has definite benefits and can increase IQ by seven points, in both
children and adults,” said Lutz Jäncke, a psychologist at the University of
Zurich (Alleyne). Given an option, which string
instruments would you choose, the guitar or the cello? Playing
the classical guitar and the cello can benefit the player in many ways, but
there are a few options one will want to consider before acquiring either one
of the instruments.
Cello and the classical
guitar are from the string family, meaning they use strings to produce
sound. Both of these classical
instruments are made of various types of high quality woods, and the price of
these instruments is determined by the choice of wood used. Besides, two of these classic string
instruments come in various sizes to enable little players having a chance to
start early, in becoming the star of tomorrow.
These string instruments produce addictive sound when played well and
are often seen in modern orchestras. The
guitar was only introduced to the orchestra in the twentieth century, whereas
the cello was introduced during the Renaissance period (1520 - 1600), which
presented in Chamber music that was not intended for church and theatre. Even though they have much in common musically,
there are some big differences in their prices, difficulty level in learning
the instruments and their portability.
The beauty of the elegant,
hourglass shaped cello is nice to look at and produces amazing sounds when the
player bows the strings with correct technique.
The cost of owning the cello compared to the guitar is vastly different. The cello may look and sound seductive, but
the price of purchasing and maintaining it will not be as inviting when you are
considering your wallet. A single string
of the cello can cost as much as five times the price of a full set of the
guitar strings of six. Cello cases and
all other accessories will always be more expensive than the guitar of the same
quality. It is also more costly to take
cello classes as compared to classical guitar because cello is considered a
rarely studied instrument. When equating
the two instruments’ prices to cars, a good cello will be the price of a BMW
seven series, while the guitar of equal quality will be the price of a BMW
three series, a difference of almost seven thousand dollars.
Learning to play the guitar
is way easier than learning the cello as there are frets on the fingerboard to
distinguish the different notes. The cello,
on the other hand, has no frets on its charcoal black fingerboard. Musicians are required to have perfect pitch
to play the notes correctly and somehow memorize the positions on the
fingerboard. Furthermore, playing the
cello can be uncomfortable as it is to be placed in the correct position between
your thighs. In addition, you will have
to coordinate your hands by bowing its horsetail-hair made bow in order to
produce the mellow, doleful sound of a cello.
Holding the bow and learning the correct bowing technique itself can
take you weeks to perfect. This is due to bowing the strings in certain
strength and angle is required in order to produce different tone quality,
which is coming out from its beautifully carved ‘f’ sound holes. As a matter of fact, guitars do not have to
be bowed but easily plucked or strummed to produce its romantic, cascading
tone. The volume can be adjusted by
applying different weight of our fingers, while giving the strings a few
strokes and sounds will be produced and amplified through its round,
smooth-edged, sound hole. The classical
guitar is able to play various types of songs from Classical to Spanish or even
pop music, whereas the cello mainly produces tones suitable for Classical or
Jazz music.
The
well-structured size of the guitar makes it a portable and playable string
instrument worldwide. Have you ever seen
people having a sling on the cello to their back, strumming that bulging
instrument? The heavy weighted cello and
its huge size, however, makes it less portable and space consuming when
traveling. Therefore, it is more common
to see travelers bringing their guitar around because there will be an extra
fee to check in a cello. Guitars in
average weigh about 10 pounds while the cello normally weighs more than 25pounds. Extra care has to be made when handling the cello
because with a little shift or jerk on the bridge or the sound post in the
cello will have significant effect on the resonance produced. Moreover, the thick strong strings on the
cello make it harder to tune. Unlike the guitar, it does not need any pressure
while turning the pegs when tuning.
The two finest instruments
listed above surely have some aspects in common and differences to be aware
of. If an individual wants to pursue
either the cello or the guitar, one should make sure that they are financially
capable in paying the fees, that will increased with every higher grades; know
your level of patience and persistence plus the genre of music that is in your
favor, so as portability wise. It will
be a waste if an individual just placed such a well-carved classical artwork in
the living room, or anywhere as a matter, to lay dust and not allowing it the
opportunity to reveal its finest secret - musical tone.
Work Cited
Alleyne, Richard. "Playing a Musical Instrument Makes You Brainier." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 27 Oct 2009. Web. 13 July 2014. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6447588/Playing-a-musical- instrument-makes-you-brainier.html>.
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