TromboneChat

A spider has built a web under the fingerboard of my cello.

I play it every day but... there she is.

Now I have to worry about leaving the case open so my spider doesn't go hungry.



Several years ago there was a cat that would drop by every day and listen to me practice on the porch...

Audience can be important, to prompt those little unnecessary adjustments one makes on being heard, which do not in fact help, so as to remind oneself to identify and resolve them.

My cello spider is gone! I am very disappointed by this.

I looked forward to seeing her under my fingerboard every day. She rarely commented on my playing and never revealed her name but sometimes she would crawl out and wave a spare leg at a me.

I hope she's OK. I hope she's just left for better hunting grounds. I don't attract as many flies as I used to and when i tossed a mosquito into her web she seemed uninterested.

If anyone knows of a spider looking for a position, I have an opening.

Since my air conditioner died about a month and a half ago, my whole neighborhood has become my audience. No bullet holes in the house yet, and a couple of "Hey, are you guys professionals?". It doesn't fully make up for the air conditioning being out, but it felt pretty good.

My grandfather played banjo in a very rural band growing up. The rhythms he learned to play strictly followed vocal lines rather than formal meters. When he retired, he made his own banjo, and when he played it, his German Shepherd would sit beside him and sing. My grandmother, a conservatory trained pianist, would leave the house.