Tamar

I just got braces, on the outside of my bottom teeth. It hasn't gone well; at my first meal I bit down and one of the front pieces came off, and I can't close my jaw at all so my molars cannot connect together which is very frustrating and I cannot chew anything.

I am really unhappy with this. I don't remember the orthodontist saying anything about not being able to bite fully, otherwise I would have gone for the more expensive braces that go on the inside. Do you think there is any chance of having the braces removed and getting my money back?

In French at school we were always taught that a negative statement has "ne" verb "pas". Je ne sais pas. But I've been reading a French book and they keep saying "Je sais pas", or "Je l'aime pas", or stuff like that.

Is the "ne" optional? Is it all right to drop it?

Sometimes if I'm driving along and I need to stop quickly (a frequent occurrence on country roads) I brake hard, and feel a bit of a crunching feeling through the brake pedal. What causes this? It's not the wheels skidding, is it?

I'm thinking about buying a nicer clarinet. I have a 7-year old Yamaha 650 Bb clarinet, how much do you reckon I sell that for?

I would like a book about the history of France. For pleasure reading rather than for academic study, but I would like something more than a basic introduction. If possible I'd like to cover a range from the revolution to the present day.

Thank you in advance!

Why doesn't the bell point forwards? I imagine it would look like a flugelhorn but rounder and more complex.

Tubas and euphoniums point up, and trumpets and trombones point forwards, but why do French horns point backwards? They point away from the audience. Why? I'm not saying you can't hear them the way they are, but it would save the horn players a lot of effort. It would also help amateur horn players - since the horn is such a difficult instrument to play, they often have to play quite quietly, and when you add the fact that the bell points backwards, the French horns can be among the most underwhelming features of an amateur orchestra. Let 'em shout, I say.

What piano music would you pick for a late-night concert? Close friends, slightly dimmed lighting, all that. What piano pieces, and if you like, small chamber pieces, would you pick?

I reckon I couldn't do without Chopin's nocturnes op.9 (especially the first one), and Schubert's moments musicaux. I have been swooning to the Moment Musical No.2 for days.

Consider pieces that are quiet and subdued, but still have passion and heart in them.

I've got to know a harpist and I'm trying to increase my knowledge of harp music. I know Dussek's harp sonatas, and Dittersdorf and Gliere's harp concertos. Dittersdorf and Gliere are absolutely GODLY. Can anyone recommend me some more music with harp soloists - solo or accompanied, I don't mind?

Tell me this isn't gorgeously sweet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOyFxOKZjU4

So the old rule is that if you're making a cafètiere of coffee, then you shouldn't pour boiling water on the ground coffee beans, you should wait a moment so the water is just off the boil.

But what about a traditional espresso maker? If you're forcing hot steam through the ground coffee beans, isn't that too hot?

Hello,

I have taken vocal score music for Voi Che Sapete and arranged it for a clarinet and a harp. I'm not really a harpist but I know that there are certain limitations to do with accidentals and also the ability of the harpist to move their hands and fingers around, compared to how a piano can play.

Can anyone please take a look at this score and see if a harpist could play it? It has several accidentals in it and I don't know how playable they are. I have made several alterations to the original piano score to avoid difficult hand movements, but I don't know so much about the accidentals.

Here it is.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/214627828/Voi-Che-Sapete

Thank you!

Hello, I have recently got to know a harpist and I would love to play some music with her. I'm aware that you cannot simply give piano music to a harpist and expect them to be able to play it; so I need some music specifically written for harp and soloist. I don't mind too much what instrument the solo part is - I play the clarinet but I can transpose it.

Specifically I'm looking for Voi Che Sapete, from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Can anyone direct me to a version arranged for harp and soloist?

Also, can anyone recommend any other nice harp and soloist pieces?

Thanks!

-Tamar

It's a simple little thing but it's really bugging me on a document I want to look just right. For some reason the footnotes on this doc have ended up being formatted so that there is a gap between the footnote separator and the footnotes. On all my other documents the footnote separator is just above the footnotes, no gap. So how can I get rid of the gap? I've found how to remove the separator, and change it, but I haven't found how to move it or get rid of the gap.

Any answers would be really appreciated please! I have tried to find the answer, but wit no success.

So I'm on a strong, prescribed acne medication called Isotretinoin. Actually my face is quite clear, the acne is on my back and my shoulders. But the medication is acting very powerfully on my face - the skin around my mouth and my chin is totally dried out and peeling. Drastically.

The moisturiser I use can no longer deal with it - even applying every half hour or so, which is ridiculous, doesn't stop it from peeling and flaking off. Now I don't mind too much what it looks like, although it looks pretty embarrassing, I don't mind too much having flakes of skin like I have bad dandruff coming off everywhere, although that's pretty irritating, and I don't mind too much that it stings when I put on the moisturiser, although that is fairly painful.

I'm most worried that it will get worse and damage my skin, leading to actual skin breaks (I do NOT want blood all over my face) and scarring. Due to the nature of the medication I don't want to stop taking it until the doctor tells me to, but this is causing me some worry - I am actually going to see the doctor on Wednesday, but it would give me good peace of mind to have some advice and opinion before then.

It seriously sounds like every single boogie woogie song is a rehash of exactly the same thing. Tight swung quavers, and easy triplet improv over the top. With some straight quavers every now and then for a bit of contrast.

I mean, come on! It sounds awesome but I can't believe it's a whole genre. Is there some more varied stuff? Can anyone point me to it?

I've pulled my old alto saxophone out of the attic. After fixing up a couple of keys that weren't covering properly, and it doesn't actually sound too bad - apart from the tuning. It's horribly sharp down the lower end of the instrument - when you put more fingers down. Is there a fix for this? Or is it central to the instrument, and I'll need a new one?

I could well believe it if temperature cycles in the attic had ruined it. See if I ever leave a saxophone in my attic again.

I am going to graduate this summer, and to clear my head a bit, I would like to go on a short holiday by myself in France. I'll take lots of books, but I would like something to do while I'm there too. An old village to look around, a market to browse, something like that.

I know Brittany fairly well, and I'm very fond of St-Malo. But I'd like to explore a very different area of France, like Provence - I loved the films 'La Gloire de mon père' and 'Le Château de ma mère'!

I love seafood and French café culture, and I also like the look of the medieval stone villages you see in films like Au Revoir les Enfants or Chocolat as well as charming seaside villages with fresh huîtres.

I admit it, I'm a Francophile ... but where should I go? I speak acceptable French, but far from perfect.

What classical music would you choose to depict someone's brain melting down into total insanity? My choice would be Shostakovich's 4th Symphony, Presto of the 1st movement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjK2pPqh3cQ

Manky teeth are nasty, and bad breath is an instant turn-off. But being forgetful, lazy, or just too busy often gets in the way of brushing my teeth!

How can I force myself to brush my teeth regularly?

I have been playing the clarinet for fourteen years now and I love it, but I am once again feeling the lure of the saxophone.

Years ago I played the alto saxophone as well as the clarinet. It was fun but in the end I dropped it, because the sax made my embrasure very lazy and made the clarinet hard work - and I liked my clarinet more, so I dropped the sax and focussed on the clarinet. But now I want to try again (I still have the alto, though it's been unplayed for a long time).

So, a few questions. Firstly, now that I'm older and stronger, will I have the same problem I had before of lazy sax embrasure affecting my clarinet again? Secondly, would getting a stronger sax reed help to combat that?

And thirdly, would swapping my alto saxophone for a soprano saxophone mean there was less difference between the clarinet and the soprano sax? I quite like the idea of a curved soprano anyway, I think they look quite cool and sound lovely. And if it was more similar to the clarinet in embrasure, then that would make my life a lot easier.

I really want to get into the jazz scene at my university, and for some reason they're not interested in clarinet jazz (which I think is criminal, but there you go). But a soprano sax could really be my way in.

Thanks!

Come on, it can't be just me. 2nd Symphony, 3rd Movement, there is a very blatant instance of that famous theme from The Lord of the Rings. I'm not calling Howard Shore a plagiarist - in fact, I think it's quite a cool reference! But whenever I hear it in Mahler 2, I think of the Shire...

The motif appears a variety of times, first instance at 1:53.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRsA5_BEDjw