You can hardly turn on the TV news without hearing about some kind of new scam. The advice is usually to just to hang up when a scammer calls, never give personal information in response to unsolicited communication, never wire money, etc.
Usually the scammer comes to the victim, but i have seen several instances of people literally walking right into a scam, and not knowing it. Welcome to the world of violin dealing.
Before you read further, read the disclaimer below.
DISCLAIMER: I am not mentioning any specific shops or people, and I don't intend to make you believe that all violin dealers are rip off artists. Most people in the trade are fair, honest people who will not try to rip you off or decieve you. Further, this post may not cover all the possible ways you can get duped in a violin deal, as scam artists are always innovating. Sometimes, a bad deal can be an honest mistake, which any good shop will always work to make right.
Online sales sites (for example, Ebay) constitute a great world for scam artists. All you see of the instrument is usually some pictures, and what the seller has to say about it. Sellers sometimes inflate an instrument's credentials, or just plain lie about what it is or where it has been. At this point it is hard to prove what the seller is saying. You simply don't know. If the price is low enough, you might decide to make the wager, and you might come out OK.
A popular Ebay trick consists of a seller colluding with someone else (or using a second account) to place a highly inflated bid on the instrument, only to have it fall through. The seller may tell you that the high bidder had an emergency and couldn't come up with the money. That seller will then let it go to you for a lower price and make you think you got a good deal. If you find yourself on the receiving end of this kind of "miracle," just back away and hold on to your money.
As easy as it is for scammers to do their dirty work online, they can still operate between the four walls of a shop. A salesman can tell you stories about an instrument and sound believable. They will accompany the story with bringing this "special" instrument from deep in the bowels of the shop. There is usually no price tag, and they may just make up a number and a story to match.
Even buying a brand new instrument can be frought with problems. Here there is really no history or provenance that goes into the price, and you will know who built it and when. In fact, you're probably buying it from the maker. It is up to the maker to decide what to charge. I have seen where people have paid way too much for problematic instruments. If the seller will let you take in on trial, bring it to an independent luthier or professional violinist, and ask their opinion on what its worth, and what they think of the sound and construction. Watch out for instruments that are carved down too thin. This makes them sound dark and resonant when new (thus inflating the price), but brings many structural problems down the line. Also, watch for labels that try to make the maker's name or place sound foreign or exotic. That is usually just a trick.
Sometimes, shops misidentify instruments, but some will attempt to deceive. Some shops have been known to insert fake labels into instruments in order to give them provenance that they don't have. It may be impossible to prove that label authentic or not. If the instrument seems old, take the label with a grain of salt, and don't drop a whole lot of money unless you're sure what the instrument is actually worth.
Whether it's an unsolicited phone call, or a violin deal, if you're suspicious, walk away with your money!
Thursday, June 1, 2017
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Cheap Violins are NOT a Good Deal!
In the violin shop, I see so many people who have purchased a very cheap violin for themselves or their children. I can't even keep track of how many of these instruments I've seen. People think they got a great deal in buying a violin (with a case and bow) for 50 bucks. These "great deals" start to turn sour when the instrument will not stay in tune, the bow doesn't tighten, or something flat out breaks.
One of the biggest issues with cheap violin outfits is the bow. The bows that come in these packages are trouble waiting to happen, They usually have minimal camber (the inward curve the stick), and therefore don't have the strength to make a string vibrate. The hair is the cheapest available, and the craftsmanship is usually substandard. At minimum, a rehair will be necessary to make such a bow playable.
Cheap violins use the cheapest accessories and fittings known to the industry. The biggest problem lies in the pegs and scroll. Cheap pegs made of maple or another common hardwood never hold the string tension on account of their softness. The scroll and pegbox are usually also comprised of some other substandard wood. The pegs are tapered in matching holes, and when they are pushed in, cheap wood just compresses and you don't get the presure necessary to hold the string.
The tailpiece and its fine tuners commonly vex the buyers of cheap violins. The fine tuning mechanism is comprised of a pivoting arm which holds the string, and a screw that moves the arm. Sometimes, the arm comes out of alignment, and the screw no longer hits it. If you notice that the screw is stiff, and turning it doesn't do anything, the arm probably has slipped out from under the screw. High quality tailpieces don't usually have this issue.
Another big problem with cheap violins is the bridge. Sometimes, the bridge isn't even set up. The manufacturer leaves this step up to a novice player who probably doesn't know how to handle a violin yet. Worse still, the bridge feet may not fit the top of the instrument at all, which hinders sound, and might break something if it is bad enough. Yet another problem I see with bridges on cheap violins is that there are no proper string grooves. Many of these instruments have the strings unevenly spaced across the top of the bridge, which results in major playability issues. I still haven't mentioned that cheap bridges are made out of the worst wood, and will definitely warp or break at some point.
The strings that come with most cheap outfits can do no justice to any instrument. They will sound metallic and squeaky, and they will probably break. I bought a cheap outfit for myself (if it gets damaged at an outdoor gig, it's not a big deal) and all the strings broke within a year. I replaced them with strings that I burned up on my concert instrument, and they sound better than the originals!
Before you buy a cheap violin, consider the extra cost associated with getting it fixed to make it playable. You will be well served to spend a little more upfront and not have to deal with the hassle and cost later. It can be frustrating for a new violinist to deal with an instrument that plays horribly and doesn't hold pitch at all. As a violin technician and an experienced player, I can deal with pretty much anything one of these cheap violins can throw at me, but someone with no experience will have a lot of trouble.
On the bright side, the case is usually servicable.
When purchasing a violin, it is well to go to a specialized string shop. There are many different shops around the United States, so most people will have one within a reasonable distance. It is great to talk to someone face to face who has knowledge of the field. If you must buy online, buy from a reputable violin retailer such as Shar Music. Chances are, the lowest price you find on Amazon or Ebay is simply not a good deal.
The tailpiece and its fine tuners commonly vex the buyers of cheap violins. The fine tuning mechanism is comprised of a pivoting arm which holds the string, and a screw that moves the arm. Sometimes, the arm comes out of alignment, and the screw no longer hits it. If you notice that the screw is stiff, and turning it doesn't do anything, the arm probably has slipped out from under the screw. High quality tailpieces don't usually have this issue.
Another big problem with cheap violins is the bridge. Sometimes, the bridge isn't even set up. The manufacturer leaves this step up to a novice player who probably doesn't know how to handle a violin yet. Worse still, the bridge feet may not fit the top of the instrument at all, which hinders sound, and might break something if it is bad enough. Yet another problem I see with bridges on cheap violins is that there are no proper string grooves. Many of these instruments have the strings unevenly spaced across the top of the bridge, which results in major playability issues. I still haven't mentioned that cheap bridges are made out of the worst wood, and will definitely warp or break at some point.
The strings that come with most cheap outfits can do no justice to any instrument. They will sound metallic and squeaky, and they will probably break. I bought a cheap outfit for myself (if it gets damaged at an outdoor gig, it's not a big deal) and all the strings broke within a year. I replaced them with strings that I burned up on my concert instrument, and they sound better than the originals!
Before you buy a cheap violin, consider the extra cost associated with getting it fixed to make it playable. You will be well served to spend a little more upfront and not have to deal with the hassle and cost later. It can be frustrating for a new violinist to deal with an instrument that plays horribly and doesn't hold pitch at all. As a violin technician and an experienced player, I can deal with pretty much anything one of these cheap violins can throw at me, but someone with no experience will have a lot of trouble.
On the bright side, the case is usually servicable.
When purchasing a violin, it is well to go to a specialized string shop. There are many different shops around the United States, so most people will have one within a reasonable distance. It is great to talk to someone face to face who has knowledge of the field. If you must buy online, buy from a reputable violin retailer such as Shar Music. Chances are, the lowest price you find on Amazon or Ebay is simply not a good deal.
Monday, January 23, 2017
Acoustics in the Practice Room: Is Deader Better?
Many musicians think that a reverberant room makes them sound better. This is true to some extent, but it points to a bigger question of how room acoustics impact practicing. Most people I know think a "lively" equals "friendly," and "dead" equals "unfriendly." Generalizations like this one are dangerous, because they totally neglect the intimate relationship between the instrument, the player, and the room.
How do various kinds of rooms affect our practice? That is the question we should ask. Different rooms and acoustics allow players to hear different facets of their playing, and practicing in all types of spaces gives the most complete picture of sound, articulation, phrasing, and intonation.
There are many different classes of practicing spaces that should be used in combination to full advantage. Specific types of spaces I will mention are small rooms, large live rooms, large dead rooms, concert halls, and outdoors.
The worst type of room for practicing is the typical college practice room. Often, these rooms are small drywall boxes with acoustic treatment on one wall, and carpet on the floor. They are neither live nor dead, and their size does not allow the sound to spread out. Lots of hearing damage happens in these rooms, because the sound level is so high. On top of all this, these rooms give the musician absolutely no idea how the sound will disperse in a bigger space.
Many musicians think that practicing in a reverberant space is bad because it makes them sound artificially good. Quite the opposite is true when practicing certain passages with lots of arpeggios. How can this be? Since the notes blend together somewhat, you can hear each note stacking up to make a chord, which reveals intonation problems. I remember a attending a masterclass several years ago with a brass quintet. One of the members pointed out how reverberant the space was, and told the student group that intonation was especially important with notes hanging around for a long time. The student quintet was not particularly in tune, so the sour notes and chords rang in the room for all to hear. A large gymnasium is a great live space for practice. There is plenty of reverb to keep notes hanging around. You can also put a recorder far away in order to hear how articulate and clean you sound actually is. Very often, passages can sound sloppy at a distance even though it sounds fine up close.
A good place to practice is a large rehearsal room. This kind of space is usually heavily treated with acoustic material, so the sound is pretty dead. The large space enables the sound to disperse, and not destroy your hearing as quickly. There is no "beautification" of tone from reverb, so you will get a real picture of your sound, especially if you record yourself from a good distance. Large rooms are my preferred place for practicing, but they are often hard to get, and colleges are often weird about one individual reserving a lot of time in the large rehearsal spaces.
A concert hall is probably where musicians spend the least time, but practicing in performance spaces is essential. The sound and feeling of playing in a performance space is nothing like the sound and feeling of any other space. It can feel foreign and throw off the best prepared performances. It doesn't take much time to get the feeling of a space, but if you are giving a performance, take advantage of any time in the room you have available. If you are playing in a chamber group, take as much time as you can to find good seating positions. You will be surprised at how hard it can be to hear other people on stage, and moving just a bit can make all the difference. Recital halls at colleges can be fickle, because architects design fancy looking but acoustically poor spaces, and because budgets often impose "value engineering" (read "cheapening") of the materials and construction.
The last type of space is outdoors. By reading this paragraph, you agree that I am not liable for any damage that might result from playing your instrument outside. Practicing outside allows the musician to hear only what the instrument is doing. There is no interference or help from a room, and the sound has virtually infinite space to disperse. You hear exactly what you are doing and what you are not doing. There is no accumulation of sound that artificially helps phrasing. Shapes tend to disappear, so they will need to be exaggerated, and tone will seem emptier since there is no feedback from a room. If you are adventurous, throw a recorder up on a stand a few feet away. You will get the most brutally honest picture of your playing.
I am not putting any practicing space above any other, except that small closets are bad. Alas, these small closets often have one qualification that other spaces don't--they're available. Always give a thought to how the space is affecting what you hear. Deader is not always better! No two spaces give you the same picture of your playing, so move around and take advantage of it.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
4 Ways Smartphones Harm Musicians
Smartphones are killing classical music. OK, these little deices can't do anything on their own, but the way we use them poses serious dangers to the future of classical music. This list will not include the well-known phenomenon of phones ringing in concerts. I am concentrating on how people, musicians in specific, are changing because of these devices.
I don't like the patterns of behavior these devices promote, and hopefully reading this article will help you combat them. I am not asking you to just get rid of your phone, but a few changes in how we musicians interact with electronics can help us improve our practice and performance.
The Internet is designed to bombard us with many little individual baits vying for our attention. Have you ever been watching a YouTube video you thought was the greatest, then a suggestion comes up, and you just have to click on it? You mean you couldn't devote five minutes of attention to the video you were watching? How would you ever listen to a Mahler Symphony, let alone play one?
These devices even get into our practice time. It is always so tempting to check something on your device when you have a lull in your practicing action, but minutes can pass very quickly like this, and suddenly you've wasted a lot of time. With your device around, it's probably beckoning and distracting you whether or not it's in your hand.
How do we help this situation? Set aside practice time where your phone and other devices are nowhere near. Tell yourself it can wait a couple of hours until you get back. Nothing will blow up. If you have a Galaxy Note 7, your phone might just blow up, but that's beside the point. Structuring your time is also essential to maintaining attention through a practicing session. The other thing we need to do is practice giving longer blocks of undivided attention. Reading a book, going to a concert, and practicing your instrument can all be good exercises for this.
Even WebMD has a page on smartphone addiction. Given the high percentages of people who pick up their phones not even knowing why they are picking up their phone, we are going to see problems in the future. There is even a name for feelings of anxiety associated with not having your phone: Nomophobia. I see people freak out when they don't have their phone, and I really wonder if it is full blown withdrawal.
Addictions tend to push out everything else out. If we're all addicted to our phones, where does music go?
Addictions start with the brain receiving pleasurable sensations, like alcohol, nicotine, other drugs, and checking a phone. When you do any of these things once, you get some of the pleasurable feeling, and it feels good, but the next time, that pleasure isn't enough. Your tolerance to the sensations builds up, and eventually no amount of pleasure will satisfy you. Your brain will compensate by cutting the number of dopamine receptors in the brain. That means more dopamine is needed to produce the same high. This not only makes you want to be with your phone more and more, but it also takes away from other good things in life.
There are many things in life that rightfully make us happy, and trigger the reward systems in our brains. Figuring out a solution to a tough problem, spending time with friends, eating good food, doing good work, going out and enjoying nature, and good practice sessions all bring joy and dignity to our lives, as well as some dopamine to our brains. With any addiction, your reward pathways need more and more stimulation to create good feelings--stronger drugs, more alcohol, more phone checking. These artificial things light up our reward pathways to the max and then some, making the truly good things in life suddenly seem just blah.
This one may be hard to get out of. The road out may not be pleasant, but it can be traveled. If you are tempted to pick up your phone, just for once, don't pick it up, then observe how nothing bad happened. You can also go for a set time without your phone. Put it in another room for an hour, and do something healthy like practicing your instrument or reading a book. Keep increasing the time you can go without your phone. You can force your brain to adjust to its new normal.
No matter how extroverted you are, you will eventually need some alone time. Before phones, it was hard to reach people and be reached. We were connected to the environment and people right around us, and that is how we are meant to live.
Being connected is not a bad thing, but being connected continuously is. Do I want to be accessible when I practice my violin, take a walk in the woods, or bike around my neighborhood? Absolutely not. I want to be present in the moment and in what I'm doing. All the problems I have to deal with will be right there when I get back to civilization. At home, it is important to peel yourself away from the outside so you can spend a healthy balance of time with family, friends, and your instrument. Getting away from the electronics regularly is also a good way to stave off their addictive effects.
In addition to the time you spend on your phone not sleeping, you are bombarding your eyes with the bluish light from the screen. Blue light triggers the awakening part of our brain and keeps us from getting to sleep even when we do pry ourselves away from the phone and go to bed. The blue light also blocks production of the sleep hormone melatonin. The effect can be compared to caffeine.
Lack of sleep has been linked to weight gain, depression, and a whole lot of other things that are best avoided. These things will mess up your ability to make music and interact with others. Depression causes loss of interest in things that you liked before, and making music is not immune. It doesn't take a doctor to tell you that not sleeping = feeling bad = poor productivity.
This article isn't intended to scare you or make you get rid of your phone. My hope is that you will examine how you interact with electronics, and weigh their pros and cons in your life.
I don't like the patterns of behavior these devices promote, and hopefully reading this article will help you combat them. I am not asking you to just get rid of your phone, but a few changes in how we musicians interact with electronics can help us improve our practice and performance.
1. They shorten our attention spans
This is the scariest one of them all. It affects musicians. It affects audiences. A piece of classical music requires attention from performers and audience members alike. We all need to stay with it to get it. The piece can take a whole hour or more, so it takes commitment. Smart devices take us away from those long blocks of undivided attention. Without attention, classical music means nothing.The Internet is designed to bombard us with many little individual baits vying for our attention. Have you ever been watching a YouTube video you thought was the greatest, then a suggestion comes up, and you just have to click on it? You mean you couldn't devote five minutes of attention to the video you were watching? How would you ever listen to a Mahler Symphony, let alone play one?
These devices even get into our practice time. It is always so tempting to check something on your device when you have a lull in your practicing action, but minutes can pass very quickly like this, and suddenly you've wasted a lot of time. With your device around, it's probably beckoning and distracting you whether or not it's in your hand.
How do we help this situation? Set aside practice time where your phone and other devices are nowhere near. Tell yourself it can wait a couple of hours until you get back. Nothing will blow up. If you have a Galaxy Note 7, your phone might just blow up, but that's beside the point. Structuring your time is also essential to maintaining attention through a practicing session. The other thing we need to do is practice giving longer blocks of undivided attention. Reading a book, going to a concert, and practicing your instrument can all be good exercises for this.
2. They are addictive and burn out our brains' reward systems
Every time you get an email from a friend, a notification you might have been waiting for, or even when you pick up your device, you get a hit of pleasure hormones like serotonin and dopamine. These are the same chemicals released when drug addicts get a fix of their preferred drugs. Saying technology is a drug is not far from the truth.Even WebMD has a page on smartphone addiction. Given the high percentages of people who pick up their phones not even knowing why they are picking up their phone, we are going to see problems in the future. There is even a name for feelings of anxiety associated with not having your phone: Nomophobia. I see people freak out when they don't have their phone, and I really wonder if it is full blown withdrawal.
Addictions tend to push out everything else out. If we're all addicted to our phones, where does music go?
Addictions start with the brain receiving pleasurable sensations, like alcohol, nicotine, other drugs, and checking a phone. When you do any of these things once, you get some of the pleasurable feeling, and it feels good, but the next time, that pleasure isn't enough. Your tolerance to the sensations builds up, and eventually no amount of pleasure will satisfy you. Your brain will compensate by cutting the number of dopamine receptors in the brain. That means more dopamine is needed to produce the same high. This not only makes you want to be with your phone more and more, but it also takes away from other good things in life.
There are many things in life that rightfully make us happy, and trigger the reward systems in our brains. Figuring out a solution to a tough problem, spending time with friends, eating good food, doing good work, going out and enjoying nature, and good practice sessions all bring joy and dignity to our lives, as well as some dopamine to our brains. With any addiction, your reward pathways need more and more stimulation to create good feelings--stronger drugs, more alcohol, more phone checking. These artificial things light up our reward pathways to the max and then some, making the truly good things in life suddenly seem just blah.
This one may be hard to get out of. The road out may not be pleasant, but it can be traveled. If you are tempted to pick up your phone, just for once, don't pick it up, then observe how nothing bad happened. You can also go for a set time without your phone. Put it in another room for an hour, and do something healthy like practicing your instrument or reading a book. Keep increasing the time you can go without your phone. You can force your brain to adjust to its new normal.
3. They make us accessible all the time
Being accessible all the time is a good thing, right? Not really. Sometimes we need to get away, even if it is uncomfortable being unreachable. Being connected all the time gives us no time for ourselves and those closest to us. When we are practicing alone, the outside world shouldn't matter, and being alone should be a welcome contrast to the hustle and bustle of life. Getting rid of the phones also enhances music making with others. Imagine a string quartet rehearsal where everyone just plays with their phones. The quartet members are together but lonely. Loneliness is unheard of in a lively quartet rehearsal.No matter how extroverted you are, you will eventually need some alone time. Before phones, it was hard to reach people and be reached. We were connected to the environment and people right around us, and that is how we are meant to live.
Being connected is not a bad thing, but being connected continuously is. Do I want to be accessible when I practice my violin, take a walk in the woods, or bike around my neighborhood? Absolutely not. I want to be present in the moment and in what I'm doing. All the problems I have to deal with will be right there when I get back to civilization. At home, it is important to peel yourself away from the outside so you can spend a healthy balance of time with family, friends, and your instrument. Getting away from the electronics regularly is also a good way to stave off their addictive effects.
4. They keep us up at night
Just one more video. Just one more level of this stupid game. Just one more check of Facebook. After a few of these, it's five hours before you have to wake up to get to work. Sometimes, you might have a good reason that you need to be up taking care of something, but chances are you can put down your phone at a set time each night, and nothing bad will happen.In addition to the time you spend on your phone not sleeping, you are bombarding your eyes with the bluish light from the screen. Blue light triggers the awakening part of our brain and keeps us from getting to sleep even when we do pry ourselves away from the phone and go to bed. The blue light also blocks production of the sleep hormone melatonin. The effect can be compared to caffeine.
Lack of sleep has been linked to weight gain, depression, and a whole lot of other things that are best avoided. These things will mess up your ability to make music and interact with others. Depression causes loss of interest in things that you liked before, and making music is not immune. It doesn't take a doctor to tell you that not sleeping = feeling bad = poor productivity.
This article isn't intended to scare you or make you get rid of your phone. My hope is that you will examine how you interact with electronics, and weigh their pros and cons in your life.
Friday, January 13, 2017
Five Funny Fiddle Fails
Performances don't always go right. Things have been going wrong in performances for hundreds of years, and I am certain that there are more fails to come. With a string instrument, there are many things to go wrong, and wrong they go! Let's get failing!
1. Instruments are under a lot of tension. A viola can have 60 pounds or more stretched across it. Strings breaking is pretty common, but this more spectacular fail of the tail gut is (fortunately) rare. The tail gut--the piece of rope-like material that holds the tailpiece to the instrument--bears the totality of the string tension 24/7/365. When this critical piece breaks, it makes for a funny fail. This guy just shrugs it off!
~~~
2. Few string players really think about how they are trusting their entire performances, even careers, to the tiny pieces of wood that hold the hair in their bows. Bow tip blowout is a perennial mode of failure for string players. When it happens in front of people, it can be awkward, but the reactions are priceless. This woman took the "forge ahead no matter what" approach. I love the expression on her face after her bow blew out! In the description of this video, she said that "I uploaded this video to give people a laugh, not to try to convince the world that I'm an excellent violinist." I think she handled the failure with class, and that proves a lot about her musicianship in addition to providing a chuckle.
Click the "Watch this video on YouTube" link to see the video, as the owner of this video disabled playback outside of YouTube.
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4. People drop things, and if you play a string instrument, chances are you've dropped your bow at some point. This is a very dramatic example of bow dropping. That one hit the floor hard, and you can even see the cloud of white dust fly off the hair. Given the fragility of bows, I hope this one is OK!
~~~
5. Even the gratest seasoned professionals aren't immune to fails! Leonidas Kavakos, one of the best violinists living today, had his violin fail him in a performance of Mozart's Violin Concerto in G Major. When he made his entry with the main theme, he found out quickly that the friction holding his strings in tune had given way yielding a funny result.
It is only the audio here, but it's still funny.
There you have it. Some funny fiddle fails that I hope made you laugh!
1. Instruments are under a lot of tension. A viola can have 60 pounds or more stretched across it. Strings breaking is pretty common, but this more spectacular fail of the tail gut is (fortunately) rare. The tail gut--the piece of rope-like material that holds the tailpiece to the instrument--bears the totality of the string tension 24/7/365. When this critical piece breaks, it makes for a funny fail. This guy just shrugs it off!
~~~
2. Few string players really think about how they are trusting their entire performances, even careers, to the tiny pieces of wood that hold the hair in their bows. Bow tip blowout is a perennial mode of failure for string players. When it happens in front of people, it can be awkward, but the reactions are priceless. This woman took the "forge ahead no matter what" approach. I love the expression on her face after her bow blew out! In the description of this video, she said that "I uploaded this video to give people a laugh, not to try to convince the world that I'm an excellent violinist." I think she handled the failure with class, and that proves a lot about her musicianship in addition to providing a chuckle.
Click the "Watch this video on YouTube" link to see the video, as the owner of this video disabled playback outside of YouTube.
~~~
3. Here is another bow tip blowout. This one happened to a little girl who doesn't have much violin experience. It looks like a pretty low end bow in the video, and I'm surprised it blew out. The cheap bows are usually put together with some kind of goop that is hard to get out when it comes time for a rehair. I've done my share of those--not fun. The look in this girl's eyes is priceless!
~~~
4. People drop things, and if you play a string instrument, chances are you've dropped your bow at some point. This is a very dramatic example of bow dropping. That one hit the floor hard, and you can even see the cloud of white dust fly off the hair. Given the fragility of bows, I hope this one is OK!
~~~
5. Even the gratest seasoned professionals aren't immune to fails! Leonidas Kavakos, one of the best violinists living today, had his violin fail him in a performance of Mozart's Violin Concerto in G Major. When he made his entry with the main theme, he found out quickly that the friction holding his strings in tune had given way yielding a funny result.
It is only the audio here, but it's still funny.
There you have it. Some funny fiddle fails that I hope made you laugh!
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Six Shocking Composer Deaths
Jean Baptiste Lully (died 1687)
Probably the only musician whose death resulted from an occupational injury. He died due to a conducting injury, and no, he didn't stab himself with a baton. Back in the 17th century, conductors beat out time on the ground with a giant stick. One day, Lully hit his toe instead of the ground, and the wound got to be gangrenous. Lully didn't want to have his toe amputated, and he died of blood poisoning two months later.
Mieczysław Karłowicz (died 1909)
This is one of the saddest early deaths on this list. Mieczysław Karłowicz died from being caught in an avalanche while skiing in the Tatra moutains. He was only 32. Since Karłowicz died so young, he didn't have a chance to write much music. If he had lived longer, maybe he would have made a break to major fame, and more people would know his great music. We should be glad he lived to write his Violin Concerto!
Jean-Marie Leclair (died 1764)Just because you're famous doesn't mean you're immune from a violent death. The French Baroque composer and violinist, Jean-Marie Leclair was found stabbed to death in his home. It is strongly suspected that his disgruntled ex-wife had something to do with it, but to this day, no one knows who did it. Leclair brought the violin to prominence in France by writing music that was difficult, interesting, and original. Even today, Leclair's violin music is considered highly chellenging.
Alban Berg (died 1935)
Like Jean Baptiste Lully, Berg died of blood poisoning. The cause was, however, not occupational. Berg received an insect bite on his back which became infected, and eventually killed him. Berg combined the new 12-tone technique with the old romantic lyricism. Despite his breaking out of traditional tonality, Berg's music shows the romantic influence of Gustav Mahler, Richard Wagner, and his first teacher, Arnold Schoenberg. Alban Berg and Anton Webern met as students studying with Schoenberg. The teacher and pupils would maintain a tight relationship through their careers.
Anton Webern (died 1945)
Webern died from a soldier's bullet in WWII. After stepping outside in Mittersill, Austria to smoke a cigar, an Allied soldier shot him upon seeing the flame. The soldier who shot Webern suffered greatly from remorse, and died from alcoholism 10 years later. Webern was known for his concise musical expression. Some of his works come in under a minute, and his complete works recording is a 6-CD set. I would be interested to see what else he would have written had his life not been snuffed out when he lit up.
Ernest Chausson (died 1899)
Maybe it was an accident. Maybe it was suicide. Ernest Chausson died from crashing his bicycle into a brick wall at high speed. He was originally trained in law at the demand of his father, but Chausson's heart was in music. Even though he was a composer to the core, he only leaves us 39 opus numbers. Quality definitely came over quantity. As I would with any other composer who died relatively young, I wonder what Chausson's compositional future would have brought.
Monday, January 2, 2017
What is an instrument?
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By Ainslie - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32009009
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In a previous post, I asked whether a violin has to be made of wood. This post expands on that idea. What can instruments be made of? As I thought about this, I came to the conclusion that materials and techniques don't matter. If music can be made on it, it's an instrument.
Every mainstream instrument we know today was once a crude experiment. Looking at beautiful, elegant, and precise instruments of today, it is hard to imagine that they came from ideas and experiments that I might do in my workshop. Through hundreds of years, the designs and dimensions of these contraptions became standardized, and makers of these things have found ways to show off their skills.
What comes to my mind now is a spike fiddle I built for a college class. It uses materials I found in my basement for the structure, and the strings are made of nylon picture hanging line from a local hardware store. It actually plays. I took things that were never intended to make music, and I can now make music on them. I could have written a paper using information cobbled together from the internet and gotten a fine grade, but it was only through creating this instrument that I found satisfaction.
With enough crafting, music can be made on anything. The Landfill Harmonic in Cateura, Paraguay demonstrates how the oddest materials (like wooden spoons, forks, and oil cans) can be transformed into instruments. Unlike me with my spike fiddle project, these people didn't have the benefit of straight pieces of wood, and other precise materials and tools.
When environmental engineer Favio Chavez saw the children in Cateura, and how few opportunities they had outside of landfill scavenging and drugs, he decided to teach them music. Because of a lack of actual instruments, Chavez enlisted the help of a carpenter to build more. Learning music lifted the children out of the vicious cycle of drugs and violence, and into the world of drums and violins. Suddenly, the kids from an unknown slum gained respect for their creativity.
In addition to respect, the children have a chance at getting an education, and the money the orchestra makes from playing around the world has greatly helped the community. Every human being has the innate creative instinct and capability, and the children of Cateura demonstrate how creativity can effect real improvement in the status of a community. People could have donated a certain amount of money for this community, which could have built some houses and fed people for a time, but that would be a one-time help. Inspiring true creativity has helped this community to make a sustained improvement in their status.
Favio Chavez found the best way to help a community. A shot of money could have helped, but creativity is the only thing that truly improves a community's way of life. Perhaps future humanitarian efforts could emphasize creativity and enterprise, for it is through making things of value that people improve their socioeconomic status, as well as fulfilling their humanity.
If music can be made on it, it's an instrument. This original statement of mine is true, but music is more than mechanical vibrations from mechanical devices. Music is opportunity. It is about creativity, knowledge, and fulfillment. When I built my spike fiddle, it was the creation of the instrument that gave me satisfaction over and above just parroting stuff from the internet. For the kids in the Landfill Harmonic, instruments meant opportunity, which they seized.
Music has been improving the lives of people and communities for thousands of years. No matter how rough the materials are, people can express creativity through making and playing instruments, and creativity will be instrumental (pun intended) in solving the problems humanity faces.
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