Comments

Blogger has changed a lot in the past year, most of which I have not been actively contributing to my blog. I still haven't figured it all out. Right now I am dealing with comments. When I returned, I found about a dozen comments to be moderated. Not a whole lot, but it has taken me a little time to post them and respond to them.

I am not going to post two of them. Both seemed to be from kids. They were critical of one of the other commenters who had admitted that it has taken her a long time to learn the cello. As I recall, they said, more or less, give up the cello if it is so hard for you. (I am not not posting them because they were negative, so much as because they are old and it is unlikely that the original commenter would see them or respond to them.)

The comments reminded me of many YouTube comments by what appear to be 7th graders who are studying the same piece. No matter what virtuoso is playing, they find something to criticize, often by minute-second count. As in, at 1:32, he or she is playing way too fast. Or is out of tune, or missed a note. It is even worse when students critique other students. The criticism is occasionally constructive, but often not.

I have not put any of my own cello playing on YouTube, but I did put a piece by my flute group online, as we were part of a larger festival, and I was putting everyone else online. True, we playing the piece a too slow, but the sole comment: "If you can't play this piece up to tempo, don't play it at all," or words to that effect, seemed a little harsh.

I left that comment up, though I find it embarrassing. But, we are going to keep playing that piece, and one of these days we will get it up to speed. Then--maybe--I will upload another video.