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My fiddle misbehaved at a jam last week, so it needed to be punished. I put it in its case and left it in the basement for a few days. I didn’t look at it, talk to it, touch it or play it. I left it alone so it could reflect on its bad behavior, and — hopefully — change its attitude.
After three days I brought my fiddle out of its case and held it, strummed it with my fingers a bit, and then played a few notes. The response was quite encouraging. The fiddle sounded good, strong and clear. I played a few of my favorite tunes and was gratified to observe how well it played.
So now I am cautiously optimistic, and happy to give this wonderful fiddle another chance. I’ll treat it gently for a while, playing familiar music and avoiding overly challenging passages and techniques. Then we’ll get back to work and start pushing for greater things.
I’m not normally a punitive or negative person, but I do understand that sometimes corrective action is required. And I am hopeful that this little bit of Tough Love will help us both move forward.
Strabo😏
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Love this! I have done that with my cello, but it just remained on its stand for a few days, no moving to the basement. I thought maybe it was the rest I took, not the cello being given a time out, but maybe the cello did learn to behave, like your violin did.
Onward and forward, Strabo!
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@Strabo -
🤭 Clever!
🤔... discipline - had to think about this.
How about Fiddle Boot Camp for punishment?
GET THAT FIDDLE OUT, MAKE IT DO 100 SCALES & 100 ETUDES (or tunes) FOR EVERY TIME IT MESSES UP!
OR...
More Corporal Punishment - time to
'walk the plank'?
...basement sounds a little too much like a 'fiddle vacation'. 🙄
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Good thought, Emily.
I didn’t think of using forced scales and etudes, though that would likely have made this fiddle pay attention.
However, about the same time I started working seriously on AEAE tuning for music in the key of A.
For the fiddler it’s a bit like building fluency a foreign language -- it’s relatively simple to understand the grammar, but it takes a while to begin to operate intuitively.
But for the fiddle, it might be an unexpected physical shock. I’m sure that, after ~100 years of GDAE, it must feel very strange to have one’s lower elements jacked up by a whole tone.
I think my fiddle at first rebelled against the strange pressures, sometimes refusing to hold tune on the raised lower strings. But once it became clear that we would be sawmilling every day, my fiddle settled in and now seems to retune with ease. I do set it back to standard tuning when the day is done, so everyone gets a good rest.
And, happily, this fiddle is back to singing beautifully, regardless of the language that we’re using.
Strabo
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