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.

“Butterfly Dreams” 梦叠蝶梦 – Dance Musical was performed on 25 July (3pm and 8pm at Victoria Theatre) and I was involved as one of the violinists in the live string ensemble. The dance troupe is Dance Ensemble Singapore (DES) and Music Director (with an acting role thrown in as well) was Jiu Jian – a singer in the 90’s and more recently known for being SuperBand08’s judge. Nick Shen was cast as one of the main actors – his stardom apparent when his female teen fans somehow managed to barge get into the backstage area after the Matinée. Also, my long-time friend (since Primary School!) YST composition graduate Chen Zhangyi, caused the string players some mind-numbness at first with not-so-friendly rhythms in his “contemporary” music arrangements, yet which amazingly could exude charming and unique sonorities. The entire music group was composed of a string ensemble (6 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos and a double bass), a pipa, a chinese flute, a piano, 2 guitars, a keyboard and percussion. (The pipa is increasingly used nowadays with electronic music to provide a “fusion” effect) Singers from Echo Music provided (back-up) vocals. For the music, much re-working was needed to accomodate script changes (and the other way round as well). Late nights were common fare. An interesting, yet extremely tiring, experience.

Photos by Ace, made available by Jiu Jian:

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