The Art of Cello Blog

Part One:

It seems cellists of all ages and abilities are a buzz over the Netflix Series ''Wednesday'' concerning the cello performances of Wednesday, played by Jenna Ortega. The piece most discussed is an arrangement of the Rolling Stones - 'Paint it Black'.

First of all, full credit to Wednesday, played by Jenna Ortega, who took lessons for 2 months before filming, to get to the point where she makes a convincing effort of playing the cello to the point where there are many well synchronised sections . No easy accomplishment.

But here is what you will find coming up in the debates:

1) Cellist Wendy Law does a great job of breaking down her performance of ''Paint it Black'' explaining why   Wednesday (Ortega) is actually not playing the cello, plus spotting an unusual neck position which no cellist would be able to hold without eventual serious injury. I assume Ortega's teacher knew this but perhaps for the sake of art (Netflix), Wednesday needed to look more tortured when playing!

Wendy's fascinating Video on Youtube can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoQm0pZKFZc&t=528s

Then there is a really entertaining challenge from Jeremy Tai who placed a challenge on TikTok to pay $250 to the cellist who can play the "impossible Arpeggios'' from Paint if Black. His VDO is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6pa95JnHsY

And the impossible arpeggios look like this:

However, you will find some very good performances of these arpeggios being played including, presumably after the competition, Jeremy's own version which is impressive. So clearly not ''impossible''.

Part Two: I will share with you who actually is playing the tune 'Paint it Black'.

Wendy asks - is this Ortega or a professional cellist that performed the above? And she concludes that Wednesday is not playing, leaving the only other option - a professional cellist.

I will prove below that it was not Ortega or a professional Cellist but a musician who created the music in a music studio.

No Cellist actually played this - Here is why...

Step 1 - was to  transcribe the audio from this clip and notate it in my music notation software..

Step 2 export the notation file to a MIDI file format.

The whole transcript of this sample will be available HERE for download soon.)

Step 3 - import the MIDI file into a Digital Audio Workstation (Logic Pro)

Step 4 Create a perfect copy of the original audio from the original movie Netflix clip above.....and here it is:

What do you think? Does my version sound like the Netflix version above?