How come violins sometimes sound good and sometimes they sound bad?

Question

I like that "smooth sound" the violin gives off, but it makes alot of.... "creaky" sounds.... Is it because I added too much rosin?

Answer 1

there are a lot of possibilities...

1. amount of rosin
1.a. too much
1.b. too little

2. something's wrong with how you play it
2.a. bow's angle to the strings shifts constantly
2.b. playing to close to the bridge

3. something's wrong with the instrument

regarding 1:
to check whether you have enough rosin on your bow, touch the bow hairs to one of your nails (not your fingers since you'll transfer oil from your hands to the hair. a bad thing i assure you.) you'd know if you have enough if you see thin coat of white "powder" where the hair made contact to your nail. not too much that it covers your whole nail!

regarding 2:
try practicing in front of a mirror. try to keep your bow's angle to the string constant, preferably at a 90-degree angle. also, try to tilt the bow away from the bridge a little. don't overdo it though. again an issue of volume.

although there is a style of playing where you try to produce a "glassy" sound playing very near the bridge, it can rarely be pulled off by a beginner. do not play too far from the bridge though. remember that the farther away from the bridge you are, the lesser the volume.

there is also the whole issue of the helmholtz motion. ( http://plus.maths.org/issue31/features/woodhouse/index.html )

regarding 3:
well, we can;t do anything about that now, can we? one way to test is have a more experienced player (a teacher perhaps or a luthier :P ) try the instrument. then ask them what they think. sometimes the problem will only involve minor details like the bridge, strings, etc.

also remember that in choosing a violin, you should test out the higher hand positions (7th or higher). that's where the true color of the violin can be heard. (no pun intended.)

Answer 2

Those of us who have played the violin realize that you are referring to bowing technique which is a very complex subject. In a nutshell, there are four basic components which produce that "smooth sound" - the speed of the bow moving across the string - the pressure of the bow being pushed down into the string - the tilt of the bow which places different amounts of hair and wood against the string - the location of contact of the bow between the bridge and fingerboard. A technique flaw in any one of those areas can cause a "creaky sound". There are even some little "swooshing sounds" that are only audible if you are less than six inches from the instrument. In most cases, rosin causes the "swoosh" while more serious bowing techniques flaws cause the "creak".

Answer 3

I think what you have is what every musician feels about their own competence and the desire to turn in a perfect performance. You have all this in spades; more extreme than I've heard of before. You've also acknowledged that you actually understand that you play well when you play at your lessons. You haven't said just how long you've been playing. I imagine it's not much longer than the year you've had the problem. One suggestion is to limit your practice sessions to fifteen or twenty minutes. Take a break for an hour or two and do another session. e.g., stop before you get totally frustrated. Another suggestion is to only focus on one aspect of the music per practice session. Accurate notes, phrasing, vibrato, bow technique, one piece of music at a time.

Answer 4

Consistency is the hardest part about playing any instrument. For all bowed (violin, cello, bass) and wind instruments (brass and woodwinds), it takes years to develop a good sound also known as tone. The only way to make it sound better is practice. As far as the amount of rosin, I don't think that would be the problem. It takes a smooth and steady motion in you arm as well as the pressure on the bow to get the "smooth sound" you are looking for. To much pressure... squeaky, too little... squeaky, you're best off finding a good private teacher who can start you on your path, but you'll still need to be patient. It really does take years to sound good on any instrument.

Answer 5

No offense to you, but a lot of it is in the player. My ex owned a Dahl Guarneri (I'm not sure I spelled that right) and I thought it was the worst sounding thing I ever heard, until a more polished player (20 years younger than he was, uh oh!) picked it up. From then on, I had respect for that instrument. Mathias Dahl, incidentally was in the book as "World's Greatest Living Violin Maker" until he died in the 70s. I'm not sure about now, but as of 89 or 90, his shop still existed in Minneapolis, run by one of his students.