About
My name is Jim McGarvey. I live near Rochester, New York and work as an engineer at Kodak. I started to play the cello in November of 2009, at the age of 51. I’m sharing the story of that adventure in hopes it will entertain – and encourage you to pick up the instrument you always wanted to play and give it a try.
I created this blog in May of 2010. I’ve dated the first posts according to the story chronology, not the time of posting. The missing posts will be finished someday!
My other blogs are God is Kind and Retro Telecine.
Please post a comment or email me at…
cello @ godiskind . com
Dianne Cottrill
September 12, 2010 at 9:25 pm
Jim have only read through a couple of these, and scanned several more. Great writing, as I told you before.
I am still in Gurnee, IL–been gone from home since June 3!
Hard to believe. Keep up the good work, writing and the music. I keep telling my husband “you need music in your soul”. For some reason, he does not love music as we do in our family. Cello is one of the most beautiful sounds when played well. Good luck.
Melanie Vanderwege
August 19, 2011 at 8:40 am
Hello Jim,
I just came across the cello after 50 website. I turn 50 in Oct. I studied cello seriously when I was younger. I am trying to get back at it but get discouraged sometimes and think who cares if I can still play (now that I am old)…your website is inspiring me not to give up on it!! Thanks
Talent Teoh
September 7, 2011 at 1:09 am
I came across your blog while researching the quality of the Merano cello that I am considering for my daughter who is starting cello lessons. Are you satisfy with the sound and the quality of the cello? Love to hear what your thoughts are about the Merano cello.
Thanks
jimmymc
September 7, 2011 at 9:04 am
Talent Teoh…
Well, yes and no. I don’t have any complaints about the sound of the Merano cello I have. Especially when my friend Sam plays it, it sounds beautiful!
However, the cello needed some work to be usable, especially for a beginner like me. As I wrote in the blog, the tuning pegs were difficult and I replaced them with bass guitar heads. You could more easily replace them with Wittner or PegHeads, that would go right in the existing peg holes.
More significantly, I sanded down the fingerboard at the bridge end and lowered the bridge and nut, because the fingerboard was deeply scooped and the strings were too high to finger easily. That kind of work is not hard if you are careful and have some woodworking skills, but if you have to pay a luthier to do it, then you haven’t saved any money on the cello!
In short, I wanted a low cost cello to experiment with, and I wasn’t hesitant to work on it, since it was so cheap. But if you are not up to that kind of work yourself, I wouldn’t recommend it. I think your daughter could be quite frustrated with it.
Howard Bowers
December 11, 2011 at 2:41 am
Good job Jim, is a very good article and I enjoyed it very much, Thanks .I am about a year behind you , but am going down the same path. 61 years now and learning to play . The sound of a well played cello is like the sound of a mother humming a tune to a child needing sleep, maybe that’s why we find the sound of the cello so comforting and easy to listen to. write when you can my friend. HB
Joyce
December 25, 2011 at 7:54 am
Have thoroughly enjoyed your blog.:) I have hit the 1/2 century mark as well, and started up the cello, so it was fun to read of your adventures. Thank you for taking the time to share what you have learned!
Walter Hadley
March 3, 2012 at 1:04 am
What an excellent description of your Cello journey. At 62 I bought myself an old German Cello and started lessons Mid January. My goal likewise is hymns, etc and you have
Given me Hope in addition to the Trepidation I have had.
And then to find you might have some help with the thousands of feet of Super -8 film I have that need to be digitized……Wow.
Great site, well presented and very entertaining, thanks much
WGH