The Doctor is In…

M!SoSB September 2011

Help! My kid’s violin just exploded–is it his fault? How serious is it? My grandfather’s violin has a label inside that says “Antonius Stradivarius, cremonensis faciebat 1720, made in Germany.” Can we sell it and get a house in Montecito? I was in the wings at the Lobero waiting to go on stage for my solo when my bow fell apart. What do I do now? In over 20 years as a practicing maker and restorer of classical bowed instruments in Santa Barbara, these are but a few of the questions that are asked almost daily and are routine in the course of my work. To the musician, focused on the performance, musical instrument repair events can be stressful and disorienting. In this article, I will attempt to demystify some of the health issues associated with the violin family.

Let’s take the label first. Most makers will thoroughly assess an instrument and form their own opinion regarding origin, maker and condition before peering through the sound hole into the dark recesses of the instrument to find the label and see if they agree with it. If the label says Stradivarius, Guarnerius, or Amati, the chances are almost nil that the instrument is from that maker. The great body of this type of work was mass-produced in Germany for early mail order catalogue sales in the early 20th century. The name on the label generally indicated the pattern which was used for the copy and the customers could assure themselves that they got what they paid for by looking into the sound hole. The value of these instruments today is largely based on issues of condition. They often cost more to repair than they are worth. In good condition, they can make wonderful student instruments in a reasonable price range. However, not worth much in trade for the house in Montecito…

If you are a player, you might take your instrument now and inspect it while you read this article. The exploding violin effect is usually caused by failure of the tail gut. This is the strand that loops around the end button, goes over the saddle (the little black ebony piece on the bottom of the body) and is connected to the tailpiece, the part that holds the strings. The tail gut traditionally is made of gut and can deteriorate and break with time. When it breaks, it makes a loud noise and everything suddenly flies off the violin. It’s traumatic, looks expensive, the kid is crying and saying it’s not their fault, you get the picture… The repair is easy and inexpensive. One of the greatest improvements to the violin since Stradivari is the adjustable synthetic tail gut. These virtually never fail and I routinely replace the old-fashioned gut with synthetic. If yours is black and shiny, you are probably good to go.

Sorry about the bow popping apart before the show. They actually are supposed to do that. If the wooden wedges that hold the hair in place are glued in, it requires carving to remove them and the bow may be unnecessarily damaged. Properly, the wedges are not glued and can occasionally fail, particularly in cases where the pockets are damaged by previous repair. Having a quality second bow that you like as much as your first bow is essential in this case, since the quickie loaner might be a dog and seriously hamper the joy of your performance.

A general visual health inspection of your instrument should be a part of the routine of playing. The bridge should be reasonably upright. otherwise, with time, it will bend and be more likely to fall and should be replaced. Inspect the instrument for cracks. Don’t forget to look under the tailpiece and fingerboard where it hangs over the body. You might even lightly tap around the edges of the top and back with a knuckle to discover open places in the body. You might find a flank of the back flapping open that you never noticed before. Which brings us to the next subject.

Violins cannot be repaired through the sound hole, like guitars, so the violin must be dismantled for more serious repair. This is why hide glue is still the only choice. Made from animal hides and bones and thoroughly time-tested over 500 years of violin making, this glue still holds original joinery together on instruments made in the 16th century. Yet when put under pressure, it easily allows the joint to be opened during repair with minimal impact on the instrument itself. When humidity changes occur, the plates of the top and back can shrink, causing a crack. In most cases, the hide glue joint will fail and the instrument will open instead of cracking, and cause a distressing rattling sound while being played. This is a routine scenario in old violins, and the instrument is not broken. It’s the safety valve of the hide glue at work. A short visit with your trusted violin repair person will fix the problem and the instrument may sound better afterward, since tension in the structure is also relieved in the process.

In this article, I’ve attempted to illuminate the most common minor emergencies and help alleviate any worries the player might experience. In a future issue, we’ll delve into the more serious types of damage, which can affect tone, playability and your wallet.

www.jameswimmer.com

Singing is such a deceptive art. For the listener, when it’s done right, it looks and sounds effortless. The singer appears to be completely absorbed in the song, or the character; the sounds issue forth, and it all goes down as easy as a nice glass of sweet tea. For the audience, that’s the way it should be. In all of the arts, the effort of creation is supposed to be hidden, so the observer can receive the artist’s message. We don’t want to see scaffolding in front of the Sistine Chapel, for example.

Singing is perhaps the most accessible of all arts. It is part of being human. Most of us are sung to as babies, we sing in school, in church and synagogue, we hear singing on the radio, tv and all media. It is such a basic part of our lives that maybe in some way we take it for granted. We shouldn’t. Singing well is hard to do. Singing badly isn’t. I often tell my students that as they realize how much physical effort they have to put into creating that effortless effect. Similar to other instruments, a singer must “play” his or her voice. But unlike other instruments, that “playing” also includes words, character, often staging, gestures, etc. And, unlike other instrumentalists, the singer’s body is the instrument she or he is playing, which means a constant physical effort whenever a person is singing. A number of very specific physical elements must be active and balanced for the voice to be free and the singer’s artistic intentions to reach the audience.

So how does a singer do it? I deal with this in my studio every day. Most singers try to control their sound and their voices. Seems logical, doesn’t it? If I want a beautiful sound, I should try to directly control that sound. Wrong!! Controlling the sound of a voice makes as much sense as controlling the light coming out of a lamp. If you want to change that light, you must change one of its components; the bulb, the lampshade, the electrical connection, or the lamp itself. Only in that way can you change the light, because the light is a result of all those components. You wouldn’t wave your hands frantically in front of the lamp, vigorously thinking “CHANGE!!!” But that is precisely how many singers approach singing.

Beautiful sound is the result of a balance of effort and release in specific muscle systems throughout the body. There are four general elements to balanced singing: posture, jaw, breath and tongue. Some of these elements are “structural,” in that they must be actively working during singing, and some are “release” elements, in that the singer must be letting them go and constantly releasing any gathering tension. When this is accomplished, then the voice is released, tension is gone, the sound is beautiful. It takes A LOT of work to get this all together, but when a singer does that work, she or he almost always has a feeling of great ease and freedom, because they suddenly feel that vocally they can do anything, and sing (almost) as long as they like. I never tire of seeing the light in a student’s eyes when that magical synchronicity happening in their bodies.

Now, it is possible to try to control your sound by listening to yourself while you sing, but it’s not advisable for three reasons. The first is that because of the anatomy of the body, you cannot accurately hear yourself. Almost everyone experiences a shock when they first hear their speaking voices on a recording. It’s even more shocking when you hear yourself singing! Secondly, if you listen to yourself sing, then you as a performer are in the past. You are assessing what you have just done, rather than staying in the moment and thinking about what you’re going to do next. And finally, if you control your voice by listening, if you make a stinky sound, even if you correct it, everyone else has already heard it. The horse has already left the barn, so to speak. The only way to be sure that every sound will be great is to know before the sound emerges. How does one do that? By always working to keep the balance of structural and release elements, and trusting that the sound emerging will be beautiful.

Here’s where the Zen comes in. I tell my students that for the singer, singing is pure process. The result is for the audience. My favorite analogy is that of a master chef who creates a beautiful banquet for her guests, but doesn’t eat herself. Of course she has sampled the dishes, she has probably eaten them in the past; she knows all the ingredients and has had many, many hours of practicing her craft. But this meal is for her guests, she does not eat. Likewise when we sing, our attitude should be one of service: to our audience, to our colleagues, to the composer and our art. The only way to do that is to stay present in the body. Once the skill of balancing the four elements is mastered, then the singer can know before making a sound that what is about to emerge will be beautiful. They do this by being present in their bodies, and allowing their artistry, or inspiration, to flow through them just as the electricity flows through the lamp. In this way they can electrify their audiences, who will leave the concert believing that singing is so very easy, and that the singer was “born” singing this way.