Review: Magic Rosin 3G Ultra

Before I start this review, I want to thank Sarah West for her sample of Magic Rosin's 3G Ultra (click here). This was unexpected but I am so thankful you sent them to me try test out! Now I have another review for you guys out there and thanks to a few anonymous viewers, I have a few changes to my post I want to see if it helps you guys out. For those who aren't regulars and would like to see more from the blog I will have a new post out over the weekend with a contest! So don't forget to checking in!!

Now, let's break down how I conducted my test. Like I said before with Magic Rosin's 3G rosin, I started out with the rosin the testers used regularly by playing a scale and something that they knew off the top of their heads and after running my absorbent microfiber cloth over their strings and bow I applied a generous amount of the Magic Rosin to their bow and they played the same thing. This time however, when it came to the bass players, we had a little debate over which was the best so we had to have a blind audition and I'll explain how that works later.

Since I was unable to get in touch with one of my violinist I used to test the 3G ultra I decided to not to test them for the time being but I feel that it might be too strong a rosin for them. Whenever I get a hold of them I will update the post with the results.

I got a hold of one of the violist I used to test the 3G and after we went through it I feel that it might have been border line between strong rosin and too much bite for them, but it all depends on the player's style and taste. The player and I both liked it a lot like that but I do know how one of the others is with their rosin and that probably wouldn't suit those style of players well. I would recommend this for an electric violist or someone who likes to play electric viola. I give it a 4/5 for viola.

Now, going into my personal range of specialty I spent almost a week testing the rosin with my cello and I think this IS the best rosin for cellos I've tried, which ranges from student quality to $35-40 professional rosin. I found this to give me the clarity I need while also projecting well and sticking to the strings. I ran this by a couple of other cellos and I was hearing the same results from them as I was from myself. This rosin is made for cellos except for students or cellist who use very sensitive strings. I give it a 5/5 for cello.

Finally, we have our tests from the bass players! I found this series of test (yes, it took multiple trials to get through all of the tests and make a well rounded decision!). We started out with the usual method of testing rosin and discovered the huge differences between other commercial rosins and Magic Rosin. The first is the clarity of rosin, which most are either gritty, muddy or don't give the projection that is desired. Magic Rosin went and not only made it clear but it also gave us a lot of projection that the other rosin's gave us. After a few tests like this we got to the point that we thought we were hearing things so we had a blind study between Magic Rosin 3G Ultra, Magic Rosin 3G, and two competitors rosin and acquired four identical bows. We went and rosined all of them up with some rosin and had a random person write down the bows rosin to when they handed it to us and hands down we felt the Rosin 3G Ultra had everything else beat. I give it a 5/5 for bass.

It is hard to believe that there is rosin that can be used for all four instruments but it really exists! And for the price of a few cakes of Magic Rosin, you are making a wise investment into not only yourself but your students if you teach privately or in public schools. For more about the rosin click on the link above. If you would like to follow the blog, follow me on Twitter (click here), Facebook (click here) or email me directly! I want everyone to message me by any (or all) of those methods above and tell me one thing you want to see changed or one thing you like about the blog and share this with a friend!

How to Practice Episode 5: Play outside your box

Alfred 00-0483S Suzuki Cello School Cello Part- Volume 3 - Music Book

Hello and welcome back to his segment of How to Practice. This time I have a different (or at least less commonly thought about) technique for helping you practice; Practice outside your comfort zone. This means a few different things; like playing harder music or playing different music than what your use to. I say that you should do all of that and more!

Many people who don't like being outside the box are afraid of messing up and looking stupid when they do. Don't be afraid to make mistakes when you’re playing! Just believe in what you’re playing and if you mess up, then say "Ah well" and shake it off. That is easier said than done, I know but sometimes you have to get out of that block. As long as you’re not on stage giving a concert then it shouldn't matter whether you make a mistake or two. The point is as long as you’re learning something new and pushing your limits then you will be fine! Challenges come and go all the time and the courage is in trying to push your own limits because you are only limited to the extension of your imagination and technical know-how. If that means you are just starting out and know only how to produce a few "noises" or you are like what I did the other day at the SC Cello Choir and was the only 1st chair player in a couple of the rehearsals sight reading material and techniques I had never seen before. The point is you need to not be limited to what your mind knows what to do, but you should do what your mind thinks you can't do because that is the only way to learn anything but especially music.

As I stated before, I was the only cellist in Section I that didn't go to the advanced orchestra rehearsal because I felt like it would be better if I made the pieces I had sound the best I could get them to sound over being in both groups. That is the only exception to my rule: If you don't feel comfortable preforming something in the slightest, then don't add on. That only creates a train wreck. You should push yourself but at the same time know where your limits to your abilities are. You should aim a higher then you did before but not too high. If you’re reading Suzuki Book 4, then aim for the 5th or maybe the 6th, but not anything higher. For those who are learning through the Hal Leonard books, then go one page to about 2 or 3 ahead but no more than that. You don't want to try to push too much.

Now before I leave you I had a question for you. Is there enough regular viewers to start a contest on or what do you guys think I should do? You can email me, tweet me, use my hashtag, or facebook me. If you want to be heard, have a question, want to tell me how I'm doing or just want to make a suggestion on something to talk about or more review ideas. I'm here to talk to you about music! Also, if you want to create fan art I would love to see it! If not I will create a new logo soon enough!

Alfred 00-0481S Suzuki Cello School Cello Part- Volume 2 - Music Book 

Review: Magic Rosin 3G

Hello everyone, here is the long awaited review on "Magic Rosin 3G" by Magic Rosin. I have spent a few weeks working on giving you guys the best review I can by testing everything on all 4 instruments. I was very skeptical at first, but just a heads up I was happily mistaken in that prejudgment.

Here is my method of how I tested the rosin. First I started by taking my Microfiber cloth and cleaned off the strings of the instruments, rubbed it over the bows to knock off any rosin that would lead to a cross contamination. Then the person testing applied the rosin they use normally and played me a scale and a run threw of whatever they wanted to play for me. Afterwards, I ran the rag over the bow and strings and then gave them the Magic Rosin and they played the same thing as before.

First let's start with the violins. I started testing with 5 violins, 2 who have been playing for 3 years and 3 who have been taking private lessons. We started with a simple scale of their pick with the rosin they normally used (mostly Super Sensitive's basic rosin, but one was using a special rosin that we referred to as "star dust" rosin). They played their music and then we cleaned the instruments off and used the Magic Rosin and the first big thing that I noticed was the clarity of the instruments. It sounded so much clearer than the first time! They said they had to use a little more arm to get a louder sound, but just off of my random sampling of the students, if all of the violins used this rosin the clarity would come out. The higher registers weren't over played, and it held it's ground with the everything I could ask of them. The only drawback that they didn't have any for themselves. I rate it a 5/5 for violin.

Now, onward to violas which I will admit now wasn't my best test sample. The people that was ready for the instruments didn't show up, however I had some others to help test this rosin. I had two people test this out on their violas, both of which didn't have too much experience playing. They both used Super Sensitive's basic rosin and they both had the same result as the violins; the clarity and the overall tone came out for the viola. I will need to do an update to this post in the near future when I can get my "expert" to test this stuff for me and give you a better and more detailed review, but I give it a 4.5/5 for viola.

I have personally spent a good couple of weeks tearing into this rosin on my cello and I can tell you, I have never used anything like it! It is in fact some of the best rosin I have used for my cello; it sticks to the strings well but it doesn't make the sound grainy. The only problems I have with it is I had a few moments where it might have been not sticking enough but I tend to play more along the lines of Apocalyptica so I like bite to my playing but that was during my initial testing. Since then I haven't had any problems with it and the same went when I was testing at the school. The students who used it on cello loved it and had the same argument; it wasn't sticking well at first but the issue cleared up after a little bit of use. Overall I think this is a great rosin for cellos, but I will need to test the 3G Ultra to see if it has the problem cleared up for cellos. I give it a 4.5/5 for cello. *UPDATE* I have completed a Magic Rosin 3G Ultra review (click here)

When I first read the rosin online and saw it was for all four instruments I was very skeptical; like most people online reading the same description, so I sat down with some of the more advanced bass players at the school and said, "let's run this rosin down on the basses and see if it really works well on the instruments". So with the bass players we got the rosin they used (Pops and Carlsson) and we spent a good half hour running blind test after blind test and seeing which we liked better. Here is our overall impression with each rosin: Pops gave us the greatest bite between all of them but it tended to sound very grainy at times. Carlsson had some bite but no where as much as Pops but the tone was great. Magic Rosin was the best middle ground for bass in our opinion; more bite than the Carlsson with just as much clarity but not as much bite as the Pops. Something else one of the bass players brought up to me during testing was they had a better coverage of rosin than they did with either brand. The way the Pops worked for me was it gave a lot of slick spots and places on the string that it wouldn't cover very well and would have to fight to get the bow to work. The same thing with the Carlssons; it gave us a lot more coverage but we still kept hitting slick spots on the strings. The Magic Rosin fixed that problem very well and didn't have that problem when testing. I felt like it was good for bass but if you like a lot of bass sounds from your group or yourself try the 3G Ultra. I give it a 4/5 for bass. *UPDATE* I have completed a Magic Rosin 3G Ultra review (click here)

Overall, for the money you get a great grip from the rosin and that does kind of trip me out that it makes the bass sound great without over gripping the violins and viola bows! It really did astonish me while testing, I never thought about this being a possibility and especially for the price! I think this rosin should be in EVERY starting up orchestra classroom if not every classroom. There isn't anything else out there like it on the market that I can find. I give the rosin a 4.5/5. To view my Magic Rosin 3G Ultra review click here.

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Review: Evah Pirazzi and Spirocore Strings

Hello everyone, welcome back to the music theory blog! I have a review for you guys, and I've been testing these products for a few months now to get you the best review I can give! Today I am reviewing Pirastro Evah Pirazzi Soloist A and D and Thomastik Infeld Spirocore G and C on my 1992 Spainhour cello.

To begin let's start with what I was starting with before I changed over. I was using Pirastro Chromcor, which is an ok set for someone starting out but beyond that the strings aren't good at all, not to mention my set was pretty old. Very bland tone, no volume or anything a professional cellist would need for his/her cello to sounds great. The only reason I had them on my cello is because it was what came with my cello when I got it at Christmas from my parents and I wasn't able to afford any new strings. However, with my graduation money I received, and after a lot of reviews, interviews with the professors at Winthrop and a rough decision I decided to go with them and I must say, they are amazing.

The first thing I noticed with the first time I played them on my cello was the amount of volume they produced. I was use to pushing and digging into my cello to get any type of volume from my cello and just keeping the dynamics at around a mezzoforte to what I was use to nearly blew me out of my seat when it came from the new strings. The other major difference is the amount of overall tone color and projection. The Evah's gave me a feeling of warmth and a lot of depth that I love hearing. They didn't overkill the higher register either. When you play most regular notes on a cello, some strings tend to thin out the tone and lead to nasty sounds from the notes. However, the Evahs don't do that, they make more of a rounder, thicker tone. The Spirocores are the same way, but they have a little less tone color than I would like but they make it up in the projection! Whenever you play a note on the C, you feel it! That's what makes Spirocores so popular among cellist; we like the feeling of making sure we are heard as far away as possible, especially on the lower registers!

However the main drawback from these are the price of each set. The Evah mediums are usually around $220 for a whole set, or around $60 for just A and D. The Soloist are about $235 a set or $75 for the two. As for Spirocore, they aren't as bad. A set of Spirocore Chrome is usually around $135 or $100 for the G and C, however the tungsten strings are about $240 for a set or $105 just for the C!

Overall, I say they are a must for a musician who wants to expand his sound quality and if they have already gone for cheaper stuff like Heliocore, I recommend they upgrade to this. The set up I have is a staple in professional orchestras around the world and if you can afford to try them, you should!

Episode 6: Simple and Compound Meter

Alfred 00-16643 Essential Dictionary of Music Theory - Music Book (Google Affiliate Ad)

Hello and welcome back to the Music Theory Blog! Today's long awaited episode is about the difference between Simple and Compound Meter. I am here to help you along with understanding the material better by showing examples of what I am explaining and we'll see if this makes it better to understand!

 Now first, for those who are new comers, you must understand what the time signature is. The Time Signature is the symbol that shows musicians how many notes are in a measure and what note value gets the beat. For Example, 4/4 time means there are 4 notes in a measure that a quarter note gets the beat. If you need more help with understanding this, refer back to episode 4.

In order to understand why the two types of time signatures are important, you must understand what they are. A Simple Meter is a meter that's time signature breaks down into two parts. For example, you can divide a whole note into two half notes, a half note into two quarter notes, and so on. This is what most music is written as, which are 4/4, 3/4, and 2/4. Any variation of the signature will work, for example you can say 2/8, 3/2, or 2.16 as long as the measure breaks down into two parts anything is possible. Here is an example of a piece that is in 4/4, "Prelude" from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1. Some other examples of music you might see with a simple meter is Common Time and Cut Time. Common time () is simply another way to write out 4/4 and Cut time () is a simpler way to write 2/2.

Now, the difference from a simple meter to a compound meter is a Compound Meter divides the beat into 3 parts rather than 2. For example a commonly seen compound meter you may rn into is 6/8. There are 6 beats in a measure but most of the time it is felt in two parts and is conducted the same. The most common types of compound meter are 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8 but changing the lower number would work the same. Here is an audible example of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" which is written in 9/8.

If you like the new way I constructed the lessons, let me know by sending me an email, or message me on Twitter.

Update: From the Eyes of College

Hello, and for all of those who have been checking on the page daily thank you so much! I have had a few of you email me about when the next episode will be up and my answer is... I don't know! I am working hard in college and I haven't been having much free time in school or outside of it, but I have a few ideas for you guys and I want all of you to give me your opinions! Here is what I was thinking... What if I created a big "fan supported music demonstration" sort of set that anyone can submit to. Say you wrote out a full song, or just a simple little melody it doesn't matter. Just submit it to me and I will put a link to it in the blog and have it shared. I had one person already submit me something and I will have it on here soon. It is a song for a starting out strings class and has a very driven feel to it that I like a lot. So, if you have any kind of song that you wrote and want advertised on here, then send it to my email and all of your responses to my question. If we get 200 responses, I will post something I've been writting on the side on here for you guys to review for me! So start sending those replies in, and use the header as "From The Eyes Of College" so I can tell why I am being flooded! Thanks, and keep checking in!

How to Practice Episode 4: Practice the Basics

Welcome back everyone! Now I know it can get very annoying to practice scales over and over again but you have to know your basics. There are many reasons why you need to know them, such as:

1). The basic skills of your instrument is what makes you a musician. If you didn't know how to play simple stuff, then how could you play the more complicated? For example how can you play work by Bach and Beethoven when you don't know the simple stuff.

2). There are crucial skills you can practice on scales that makes your whole style of playing better if you practice them on scales. For example, vibrato is a great example that you should practice on scales. Vibrato adds so much tonal flare to music, and is probably the biggest divider between musicians. However, it can be a hassle at times to practice so remember that an hour a week of nothing but good practicing is better than 3 hours a day of bad practice.


3). Practicing the easy stuff helps you be able to do things like improvising from being able to tell the chord progression and scales in the music and being better acquainted with your instrument. That is a huge factor when it comes to improving, because the less you are close to your instrument the more nerve wracking it will be. Your instrument is like your best friend, especially when your alone on a stage that has been lighted up.  

Review: D'Addario Helicore Cello Strings

Now, for those of you who are new to my blog I am a intermediate cellist. I have been playing for almost 7 years, which to most people is just a drop in the bucket but the benefit from my perspective is I am going to college in a few short months (as of now 2 and a few days) so I know where the deals are and know what to get so you get bang for your buck.

Now, for years I've been taught from my teachers that just because you have a cheap cello doesn't mean you have to think it will always sound bad. For people who are just beginning and have a student instrument, there are several changes to your instrument that will improve the tone and overall characteristics of it. The first, and usually the most effective, way to get the sounds you want is to get new strings. For people starting out the best strings you can get for cheap are D'Addario's Helicore. They are made strong, and they are made to last for a long time. Before I changed cellos, they were the only ones I would use on my cello and I never had to worry about strings popping. I kept a set on there for a few years, which is not a good thing to do but when your on a budget it works out well.

This leads me into a lesson on strings, for my stringed musicians on here. The rule of thumb for us is you should change your strings once a year, however there are strings that will last longer. Just keep in mind the longer they stay on your instrument the more they will go "flat" and the more likely they will snap.

Now, what do I mean by a string going flat? Every string is constructed where they have a core, and the metal is wrapped around it. After a while the core will start to get worn out and it causes the string to vibrate less vividly and it gives a "flat" sound to the instrument. Another key feature to know about strings is that there is a break-in period that varies between the strings. The way it works for the Helicore strings is 5-7 days. That is a good time, but you need to remember that if you have a competition, audition, or a performance you need to be able to avoid getting stuck with spotty tuning.

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