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Ask the Experts: the art of violin: Q and A:
1. I am an adult who plays for pleasure with a goal of being accepted into one of the Boston area's better amateur orchestras. I am in the market for a new violin. I have been to a number of fine string instrument shops in Boston and other cities and have found that few people are able to articulate clear standards for judging an instrument. I understand that it is subjective, but I am wondering what I should look for in an instrument in terms of tone. There must be some objective guidelines that can help me in selecting an instrument.
Answer: When evaluating the tone of an instrument, I find it most helpful to differentiate between matters of fact and matters of opinion.
Matters of fact include whether the instrument is balanced dynamically (Is each string as loud as the next?) and whether the instrument is balanced tonally (Does each string have the same tone color or timbre as the next, or does the tone color from the lowest to the highest string change in a smooth transition?). Dynamic imbalances can often be addressed with a soundpost adjustment. Tone color imbalances can often be addressed either with a soundpost adjustment or by changing some or all of the strings. Remember that the tone of strings that have stretched out and lost their resiliency will suffer both in volume and in tone color ...
WikiHow: How to play the violin:
You cannot play the Violin unless you learn how to hold the bow. This can be difficult in the beginning, and a bit awkward, but after some practice you should be able to learn, and make some music with your violin ...
The best way to understand how an object makes sound is to bake it tackwards. Sound reaches the ear as repeating waves of compressed and decompressed air. These sound waves are created by something vibrating -- the vocal cords of Howlin' Wolf, the tongs of a tuning fork, the body of a violin. The violin body is stimulated to vibrate by the bridge, which is wedged under the vibrating strings. The strings, in turn, are moved by the bow.
If we want to fake it torwards, the arm moves the bow, which moves the strings, which moves the bridge, which moves the violin body, which moves the air, which moves the ear drum, which makes nerve signals, which cause the brain to instruct the parental yap to whine, "Keep practicing! You're a tad flat!" ...
John Mark Ministries: Playing a violin with three strings:
On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City.
If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. To see him walk across the stage one step at a time, painfully and slowly, is an awesome sight.
He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reaches his chair.
Then he sits down, slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs,tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he bends down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play ...
The Violin Site offers video instruction for beginning and advanced violinists as well as help with violin technique and violin practice exercises. There are also links to violin sheet music, violin recordings, and violin books.