Teacher who can't play violin?

I don't play violin, but I love it. I have been to all of my children's music lessons taking notes and asking questions to the teachers. I've learned a lot from each of them. When I was a child I played piano for about five years, so I can read music if it's not too difficult, but that's about it.
I tell my son all the things that his teacher told him to do. A lot of time, he can't remember the details of the lessons because he is so caught up in a moment. That's why I take notes and videotape the lessons and listen to the music he's working on. Fortunately, I have a very good memory, so I can remember how his teacher demonstrated certain parts of the piece even without the video (of course I watch the videotape to make sure if everything I remember is correct). After 6 years of violin lessons for my son, I think I finally got what the right posture is and what needs to be watched for tone, phrasing and so on. Mr. K even jokingly told me if anyone in my area wants to take a violin lesson, he would recommend me:) knowing that I can't play violin. I took my son's violin and try to play simple G scale. I couldn't do it. It is sooo hard!!! I can tell my left hand is tensed and my bow not straight, but my body won't listen to me. I even tried to play "Twinkle" with a lot of out-of-tune notes. I didn't tell my son, but it is way easier to tell him what to do than doing it myself:)
I may try to learn it again when my confidence comes back:) But till then, I think I'll remain my son's at-home teacher who can't play violin:)

New Violin

This summer, my son finally moved up to a full size violin. After listening to my son play on ebay-Chinese violin, my son's teacher probably felt really bad for him. He arranged to let my son borrow his friend's violin for awhile since he had a performance scheduled. It was one hundred steps up from what he was playing. While I was wracking my brain what to do with his violin in case he cannot keep this one for long, Mr. K (my son's teacher) called. As I expected, the owner of the violin wanted it back. I was ready to give my son his Chinese violin back, but Mr. K proceeded to tell me he found the organization that will let him use one of their violins. It was already in a violin shop not far from Mr. K's apartment. Since he was on tour, he said he was going to pick it up as soon as he's back in town. He tried to calm me down by saying "We don't know if this violin is good or not yet. We'll have to see when I get back. " and I replied "But I'm sure it is better than his Chinese violin, don't you think?" He giggled and said "I assume so:)"
A few weeks later at the lesson, Mr. K pulled out the violin saying "It is gooooood." Indeed it was! It was even better than Mr. K's friend's. Projection was better, sound was warmer and deeper. My son instantly fell in love with it. It is an old British violin from late 1800's. It seems easier to play than the violin he had or borrowed. Especially the G string's depth is outstanding. I decided to put on Vision Solo since Mr. K recommended on this violin. When we received the violin, it had Dominant on it. Since we switched to Vision Solo, the sound is even deeper and more complex. Only downside is they unravel fairly quickly. It may be due to my son's playing, but I'm not sure. I might try other strings in the future just to see if the sound gets even better than now.

Violin Tune-up

This morning, I took my son's violin to have it adjusted. According to the person who will adjust his violin, it is recommended to have it adjusted once a year. If you play a lot, it might be necessary to have it adjusted 2-3 times a year. I got this violin for my son about two years ago. Since then, I haven't had anything done to it aside from the fingerboard blued back in when my son dropped the violin and the fingerboard came off which happened in a small town of Italy shortly after he received it. The guy took a look at the violin this morning and told me that the fingerboard was not fitted properly. The neck of the violin and the fingerboard are supposed to be smooth to the touch. You shouldn't feel any gap or roughness where they are glued. He will adjust the sound post. It seems to be a little bit too far from the bridge. Then he will touch up on the varnish where there are few scratch marks. I can't wait to get it back to see if the adjustment will make a significant improvement in the sound. His violin has mellow sweet sound, yet the projection is not the greatest. I wonder if it will change?

Humidifier for Violin

The other day, I took my son's 3/4 size bow for rehair to the local repair person/teacher. He trained in Moenning & Son years ago, so he must be good. He took a look at the bow and told me I have to make sure that the room has at least 50% humidity around this time of the year. We moved from humid Florida a little while ago, so I never thought of humidity. I don't even have a humidifier. I said may be I should boil some water in a kettle. He said it should work. When I got home, I thought of what to do with his violin. I didn't want to wait too long and see a cracked violin, so I came up with quick and easy solution. I wet the paper towel and squeezed the excess water to make sure it doesn't drip. Then put it in the ziplock sandwich bag and left the bag about an inch unzipped and placed in the case. It is cheap and keeps the violin safe from getting wet. I would love to hear some other alternatives other people are using!

Trying New Violins

As I stated in the previous post, I brought two violins home from a local luthier, one 3/4 size and one 7/8 size. Next day, my husband took my son and the violins to the lesson. I have to note that the luthier told me that the 3/4 violin wasn't quite ready (set-up and things), but I thought my son wasn't quite ready for a 7/8 yet, so I told him I really needed a 3/4. Anyway, my son's teacher took a look at it. As I suspected, although it had a beautiful tone compared to the 3/4 size, the 7/8 was too big for my son to handle. The 3/4 size was just a struggle to play like his usual 3/4 size. It needs some getting used to. Maybe because it wasn't ready, the sound was not like my son's own violin which is warm and had lot more color. He had to rehearse with his youth orchestra the next day for his solo performance, so his teacher urged my husband to get his violin back in time. We got the violin back that afternoon. We have to agree, my son plays better with it and sounds better although those new violins had more projection. I think we will stick with his current violin for now until he's ready to move up. Next time, we will try as many violins as my son can until he finds a perfect match for himself. He was cleaning his violin extra carefully that night:) I guess he missed it very much.

I Didn't Mean to Buy It.......

I called a local luthier last week to see if he had a time to adjust my son's violin. I haven't done really anything to it since we bought it. I asked him if he had a spare violin my son could borrow while he worked on the violin. Unfortunately, he didn't have it that week, 3/4 size that is.... He told me he could arrange to bring one to his shop the following week. We agreed to call each other. Then he called me this morning and told me he has a couple of violins with him that my son can use, one 3/4 and the other is 7/8 which he just finished. When I got to his shop, he showed me his 7/8 size violin. It is golden yellow varnish and definitely bigger compared to my son's 3/4 size. I asked him to show me the 3/4 size, but seemed like he left it at home by accident. There are bunch of violins hanging on the wall. He is looking. He grabbed one, but warned me that it was not ready. Well, it sounds decent enough for practice, but he wasn't totally happy with it yet for sale. I asked him if I could take both with me and show them to my son's teacher at the next lesson. He kindly let me....
As soon as my son got home, I asked him to try them. First, he tried 3/4 size. Now, I understood why he said it wasn't ready yet. While it had a robust sound for a 3/4 size, it is lacking in depth like my son's current violin (which I wish it has more of a bigger sound). I kind of discounted the 7/8 size, thinking he would be too small for it. Oh, boy....He is liking it and it doesn't look too big for him to play either. There are nice enough bending on the elbow. Sound is noticeably different from the 3/4. (I think my son is more keen to the difference.) He came to my room with it and said "I like this one!" Well, I really didn't mean to buy him one...... I don't want to make a decision without talking to his teacher. Even though it looks fine to me, I am a novice. What do I know? We'll see, tomorrow what his teacher says.

Violin Strings

It is true that the type of strings you use on your violin changes the tone & sound of your violin tremendously. The very first set of strings I put on my son's violin (1/4 size) was Thomastik Dominant. It is said that Dominant is versatile strings that could work with most of the violins. Plus it is one of the few that comes in fractional sizes. Its sound is warm and fairly quick to settle in. But I got a little ambitious and wanted to try other strings and see if they would make significant differences in sound on my son's violin. He has now moved on to a 3/4 size violin since then. With his current violin, we started with Dominant which was already put on by the luthier. After a few months when the string started to show signs of deterioration, I put on Infeld Red which was a full size set. I'm not sure if I should've done this, but we liked it. It has more depth to the sound, but I haven't kept them on his violin. I may be in a quest to impossible, but I wanted to find the perfect matching strings for his violin. I have sound in my head. That deep cello like G string and soprano like E string. So, after the Infeld Red lost its projection, I tried Larsen Tzigane. My son's teacher (Current teacher's wife) noticed immediately and asked me "Did you change strings?" I said "Yes." Well, she didn't like it. Maybe it wasn't matching with my son's violin. My son liked them though. They didn't last long. After a month or so, the sound changed quite a bit. Now, I put on Obligato. My son loved it. It had more color and warmth. Only thing was this, too, didn't last long. The sound just died after awhile. At this point, I started to wonder if the strings make such a big difference for my son's violin. Maybe this is as good as it gets? But I am naturally a curious person, so I tried Warchal Ametyst. Their website explains that Ametyst was developed especially for fractional violins in mind to provide quality sound. My son and I both loved it. It really made my son's violin sound like a full size violin with lots of color, warm tone and the good projection. Although it didn't make cello like G string sound it was really mature sound. Maybe I am asking too much to want cello like sound for a 3/4 size violin.....A few weeks before my son's solo recital, I wanted to put on a new set of Warchal, but the 3/4 size was out of stock. A guy suggested Thomastick Vision was equivalent to Warchal. Since I didn't have much time, I went along with his suggestion although I didn't find a whole lot of difference from Dominant when I tried on my son's 1/2 size long time ago. I thought maybe his 3/4 size may respond differently. It was OK. I still liked the Warchal better, but now I have new set of Thomastick Vision on his violin and a spare set just in case. I put them on at the end of October. It's been almost two months. I don't know what happned, but the sound started to change for the better for the last few days. It is really robust and deepened sound. I don't understand. I didn't think it would take this long to break in. But my son noticed it and told me that his violin sounded better. He seems to enjoy his practice time much better which is a wonderful surprise for both of us.

1/2 size Neuner Violin

When my son was moving on up from his 1/4 size off-the-internet violin from a half size, we tried about 4 different violins. Three were from David Michie Violins. Just that we were in town for the violin camp in Philadelphia, we decided to pay a visit to his shop after local mom we met at the camp recommended his shop. His shop is located seconds from Curtis, so when we visited his shop, there were a few students bringing in their instruments. David was very helpful in the process. After trying nearly a dozen of violin, we narrowed down to three. One was probably made in the 20's and the other one was brand new Doetsch and the last one I can't recall. We asked him to show us something under $1500, so these were our top three from his shop. We arranged to have first two ship to our home in Florida. When we finally received it, we took them to his teacher and asked her opinion. She played both of them. One of them was very robust, but had nasal sound to it. I believe it was the new one. The other one had mellower tone. Then she asked us how much these would cost. So I told her. She looked at me and said. "He will probably outgrow this one in very short time. You don't have to spend that much yet. Instead, when he needs a full size, I want you to invest a good amount of money on a very good violin."

And she made a phone call to one of the luthiers she uses and asked him if he had any good 1/2 size violin in his shop. This is it. He didn't know anything about this violin, but a few years prior, a gentleman walked into his shop with four violins and wanted to sell them. This was one of them. He told us it was probably a German at least 70 - 100 years old. The bridge had a "Reuning and Sons" stamp on it. I contacted them, but they couldn't help me unless I had a documentation that this violin was sold by them. The reply was it could've just been brought in for some minor adjustment. Some months passed and his G string started to buzz, we took it to a gentleman who sold it to us. He scraped some fingerboard, but no resolution. So we decided to take it to Gainesville Violins. The owner, Jan van Rooyen immediately recognized my son's violin and told us it was made by Neuner & Hornsteiner. "I can tell you the precise year this violin was made." He said. "It was made in 1880 in Mittenwald, Germany." According to him, this violin has plum color which they used in their earlier production and has single lower rib with bee-sting at the bottom center. This method was only used until 1880. That makes this violin 127 years old! And the price? $750.00 :)

My Violin Experience

Zero. This is to say, until my son picked up the violin4 1/2 years ago, I've never seen a real violin in my life. His teacher gave us a list of things to purchase. A violin, a bow and Suzuki Book 1, Nurtured By Love by Dr. Suzuki, Kun shoulder rest and a pitch pipe (G,D,E,A). My ignorance told me "Which pitch pipe should I get? E? A? D? or G?" You fool! It comes all in one! But, I managed to learn a little bit at a time, except how to play it :)
I used to play piano for five years, so I can read music unless it is really difficult. So I was able to help him with intonation and note reading for awhile. (Now, he is almost better in note reading than I am.)
I am originally from Japan, but I've never heard of Suzuki method when I was growing up. Well, I've never seen anyone who played violin in my neighborhood, so it is probably where I grew up. I think the violin was for more financially affluent people's instrument back then. So, just by reading Dr. Suzuki's book was an eye-opener. I don't remember every detail in the book, but one thing I decided after reading the book was to let my son play violin whenever he wants to. I wouldn't complain that it is too noisy or bothering. There was a time when I was sick laying in bed, and my son came to me asking, "Mommy, can I play violin now?" I told him he can play whenever he wanted that it actually made me feel better. (It really did :)) I thought it was very cute of him to ask me.
After several years, that has changed a bit. Now, he has so many other interests. Sometimes, it is hard to focus on practice. But still his love for violin remains. Although he complains about practicing, he never thought of quitting. A lot of people says that especially when a boy enters into his teenage years, he tends to quit instrument because of peer pressure. I have a few years to go to deal with that, but I need to make sure he doesn't lose the love of music.