Was trying out my violins (let’s call them: mr. lousy, ms. ok and mr. good) again tonight and the uncanny feeling hit me yet again – why does it feel so much easier to play in tune on mr. lousy and ms. ok, compared to mr. good? (mr. lousy bought for experimenting and lending to students; trained on ms. ok for most part of my life; mr. good is on loan since last year) Then it just hit upon me to measure the string lengths, and voila,  mr. good violin has a longer string length (most probably due to my own adjustment of the bridge when experimenting with different strings) compared to mr. lousy and ms. ok. Went online for more information and with great relief, adjusted mr. good’s string length to the “standard” 328mm.

Links for future reference:

Joseph Curtin Studios: Set-up and Adjustments

Violins & Violinist, Stop – Neck – and String Length

As usual, got distracted by other articles, and uncovered these gems for “preservation” as well.

But now, and finally, what of the teaching of appreciation? My answer is that for the sake of the children and of music do not try to teach it; although you might try to educate it. That is, don’t try to describe it or to explain it into the children, but try to bring it out of the children.

…

“Appreciation,” says Plato, “is not capable of expression like other branches of study; but after long intercourse with the thing itself, and after it has been lived with, suddenly, as when the fire leaps up and the light kindles, it is found in the soul and feeds itself there.”

The Teaching of Appreciation of Music
By Max Schoen, Ph.D., Carnegie Institute of Technology

Having been diligently learning and improving, the time might come for a student to seek an instrument that can provide more – response, playability, tonal colours, dynamics  - allowing him/herself to better express his/her music. Or it could be a young learner looking for an size upgrade, a milestone in his/her learning – the first full-sized violin.

Which then predictably gives rise to a common question that I get – what violin?

I currently have two students using Jay Haide violins, and personally cannot resist trying them out from time to time. Although the Jay Haide violins are recommended for advancing students, one of my students using the Jay Haide is actually a beginner at the violin. However she does have a discerning ear and recognises the excellent tonal quality of the instrument.

The violins have a full-bodied, rich and complex tone, allowing the player to express a wide range of musical moods. Looks-wise, the antiquing is tastefully done (to my taste, that is) and the workmanship beautiful. As the violins are hand-made, tone and appearance differ slightly from one another, though quality is consistently high.

Pictures from IfshinViolins.com:

Some late-night (after all that teaching..) online research has revealed that the Jay Haide line is a product of U.S.-based violin shop – Ifshin Violins. There are some positive reviews on the Violinist.com forum too.

Jay Haide Instruments – Introduction from Ifshin Violins

STRINGS Magazine article about the founders of the Jay Haide line – A Tale of Two Makers

Discussion at Violinist.com about Jay Haide violins

Good STRINGS magazine article about China-made violins – how quality and perceptions are changing

Based on the quality of the tone, workmanship and aesthetics, I am confident recommending the Jay Haide violin for advancing students.

Having played the violin for a good number of years, I never questioned myself as to why I solely use Thomastik-Infeld’s Dominant violin strings – it was just what I was told to use. Anyway, they are reliable and sound well on almost any instrument. However, things started to change last Christmas when my student Kyong gave me a set of Pirastro’s Obligato strings (thanks!). I started to discover a world of possibilties, with mixed feelings of surprise (that the tone could be completely changed), disbelief (why didn’t I know this earlier?), and bewilderment (variety of possible combinations).

So if you are interested, here’s something to get you started: http://www.violinist.com/wiki/violin-strings/

How do we describe/compare the tonal qualities of different strings? Something useful I found from an article from Fisher Violins:

Tone Color

The tone produced by any particular set of violin strings varies according to the instrument, the player, the listener’s tastes, and the acoustics of the room. Explaining what one hears or likes is often difficult; nevertheless, there are a few standard terms which have come to be used by musicians to describe important tonal characteristics of violin strings and instruments:

• Dark vs. Bright/Brilliant . . . Violin strings that are described as dark tend to be stronger in the mid to lower “bass” frequencies. Brilliance or brightness is associated with strong upper frequencies (like turning up the trebble knob on your stereo) and sometimes with greater overall volume.
• Complex vs. Focused . . . Violin Strings that produce strong and varied overtones are said to produce a complex tone, whereas violin strings that have a stronger fundamental pitch and relatively simple, quiet harmonics are said to sound focused. Steel violin strings tend to give a very straightforward focused tone. Synthetic and particularly gut violin strings are more complex.
• Dynamic range . . . Some violin strings produce sound in a wide range of volume, allowing strong, emphatic playing as well as more quiet, subtle performance. These violin strings are said to have a great dynamic range. Violin strings with a poor dynamic range fail to sound when played lightly and produce a feeble or constricted tone when played with a heavier bow stroke.
• Response . . . Violin strings that produce a sound quickly with the lightest of touches are said to be responsive or to have a quick response. A string which is responsive also reacts to subtle changes in the players motions with changes in tone. Less responsive violin strings require more effort from the player and produce a less nuanced tone.
• Quality . . . All other things being equal, some violin strings just sound better than others. This has to do with resonance, frequency distribution, and a hundred other important, but hard to quantify tonal attributes. Cheap violin strings are often described as sounding “nasal”. Fine violin strings are said to “come alive”.

And also, the “whistling” E problem that many of us experience:

“Until now, all E strings have been solid pieces of wire,” he says. “If you play an open E, you hear a high-frequency whistling sound caused by the torsional properties of the string. I made a wound string on a stranded core, which lowered the frequency and eliminated the problem.”

excerpt from The Tao of Strings

There are lots of sheet music / scores available on the Internet, but you may want to read the article on Violinist.com first, and check out the links there. Here are some other links I use. (let me know if you come across any good ones!)

International Music Score Library Project
Contributed by fellow NUSSO violinist Chong Han. Huge collection of classical scores.

The Mutopia Project: Free sheet music for everyone

The Violin Site
Has some sheet music and links to more sheet music sites

Share Music Sheet
Mainly a pop collection. Note that even if the score is meant for piano, we can still play the melody line (the top stave) on the violin! Hurrah. Go find your favourite movie/broadway themes, ballads, christmas songs.

For pop music, there are also many compilations and “fake books” which we can buy off the shelves locally. Besides the fresh smell and the motivational feel-good factor of a new book, it may be more convenient than searching, downloading, printing and filing the sheets together. Your call.

Since we’re on the topic of sheet music for pop, I’m currently using this for my students:

The good thing about it is that every song is graded, making choosing easier. Check out the list of songs contained in this book, then let me know is it going to be Bryan Adams or Abba for our next lesson.

Games are an interactive and fun way to learn. Here are some online games:

The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, by Benjamin Britten
Where instruments become animals in a safari! Very detailed, so get prepared to take some time to finish.

Music Learning Community
Individual games to teach specific music concepts, and comes with difficulty levels.

Note Trainer
Quick and easy – just identify the note shown

Jayde Musica
Slightly more challenging than Note Trainer – hit the note before time’s up!

Dallas Symphony Orchestra – Kids
Quite funny – the Conductor Jump (can someone tell me what’s the point about it?)