So, here we are a while later. My first concert in 8 years or so just completed, I’m feeling a lull in my ambition and drive. Besides, spring has arrived, and after a long winter I just want to be in the gardens for a while! I have made leaps in strength and accuracy, and begun to reform my vibrato. My pinky knuckle still gives me fits, and refuses to move hardly at all in comparison with all the other finger. Woe is me. So I will keep on doing slow and methodical work on my vibrato alongside other goals.
Meanwhile, I am on a side road of discovery. I have dropped my late 18th century violin off at the shop of Douglas Cox, a VT violin maker. In exchange, I am now playing on his “Nightingale” violin for two weeks. As he said, it will take a week for me to get to know the instrument, and another week to discover what I can do with it.
Never before have I given up my fiddle for another. The fascinating part about playing another good instrument, is that it allows you to self examine in a way nothing else will. I played on 8 or so of his violins for a couple of hours. For some reason, this one felt the best. There were others that had a nice tone, but this one played “smoothly”. It has only been a few days, but already I am discovering things about my own playing that surprise me. It turns out, some of my difficulties weren’t actually about me alone! My violin has been secretly fighting me, in a number of ways. Firstly, it is a beast. It’s a large violin, played for generations by men, made for large man hands. This one is only slightly smaller, but I can feel the difference. Secondly, my violin is heavy. This one is lighter. I noticed that going up a D scale on this “Nightingale”, is much more seamless. There is less bounce back, less sound breakage in changing fingers and strings on the way up. It is perhaps a little less rich and dark in it’s tone, and there are new places that I notice some wolfing happening, or deadening of the strings, but overall it is much easier to play.
Something about the way the strings are vibrating makes them behave differently for me under the bow. Maybe the string length is affecting me on my own violin? Playing a different instrument is not all roses of course, and I still have miles to go before I’m satisfied with my own technique regardless of which violin I’m playing. Still, it’s a gift to have a bit more understanding about the challenges I’m facing. I dare not fall in love, yet. The price tag for a new violin for many of us is out of the question. But it’s the start to a journey of discovery that I hope to make. Who knows, maybe I’ll find a few other violins that can teach me. Best of all, I hope to reacquaint myself with my violin with fresh ears and a new sense of discovery.
Happy Practicing!
Fiddling around 