Friday, April 25, 2014

The Emperor's New Clothes

When we first began the group lesson, it was a huge struggle. I do not play nor study music. But I have always felt moved by some music albeit contemporary ones eg: Maksim's Exodus or Canon, and Dream of Love No.3 from my Cafe Del Mar CD. My sis replaced me on the two occasions I was unable to attend violin class, and she told me to give it up. Well, unless you are the parent, you may not be able to weather the sometimes harsh comments from the teacher. Well, a few parent-kid duos have quit along the way, the remaining ones have somewhat survived or qualifying. You can call me old-school, but I make no apology in appreciating discipline and hard work as many times they do pay off. The teacher has already told us that the kid is not her student, the parent is. Not that now it isn't difficult for me; I have just figured out Etude in book 1 after sweating it out for a few days, and it will take about two weeks for Kiki to pick up the new tune but we grew a little more resilient each time we learn a new piece and I like it when we've learned a new song, but to be bearably good at it takes a lot of practice, patience and faith. I think as long as we could still manage learning, we will continue. Hopefully for a long time to come.

When we first began, I have always wondered if a more expensive violin would produce better sound quality and I tried to find an excuse for the not-so-good performances we've had. But then one day, I was blown over. The teacher was either frustrated with what she was hearing, took over one of the student's violin to try. She broke into very fine tunes. Then every mother / father wanted her to sample their violins which she did. As she sampled, she asked about how much we've paid for the violin. To our surprises, whether it was an old, valuable violin or one that cost a couple of hundreds to the cheapest ones that are slightly over $100, they all sounded very fine. From that demonstration, I had given up blaming the instrument. "I am the instrument", I thought to myself. If the sound is less than perfect, it is surely not the instrument from what I've seen here. Of course I admit that me being a novice, very much rely on a better quality violin to bring out nicer sounds, but an expert violinist could bring out very, very fine sounds regardless. I've learned that there are no lousy violins, only novice violinists.

Recently, I came across an article about a blind test conducted to discover if first-rate, renowned Soloists would necessarily prefer old violins over new ones if they have not been told the specifics of the violins they are sampling. The group of researching Scientists "antiqued" six new violins to give them an aged look and put them together with six old, Italian violins, hence the Soloists were not able to tell what is what. Furthermore, the Soloists were asked to choose one from among the twelve violins; to replace their current violin in a hypothetical concert tour. So, it means that the Soloists were very serious when reviewing the violin of their choice and had graded new violins better for playability, articulation, and projection, and at least equal to old in terms of timbre. In short, the group of renowned Soloists were unable to tell an old branded violin from a brash new one given the unbiased circumstance. (Can I exclaim now?, the emperor has no clothes on him!)