Why Your Equipment Matters
My little family and I are just settling into the tight confines of a modern day commercial airline ‘coach’ seat. On our way down to Tampa for meetings.
What better time to pound out a brief newsletter.
A few days ago my friend Jason, from out LA way, inquired about the ‘instrument factor’ in auditions. Yes, the sound of your fiddle does make a difference.
But beyond that, you’re going to play with greater confidence on a quality fiddle.
Imagine yourself showing up for an interview dressed in the latest designer clothes from Versace versus what you might wear to mow the lawn.
You’ll feel different, and you’ll act different.
And on the other side of the screen – usually auditions today are conducted behind a screen until the final round – the audition committee cannot avoid being influenced by the basic tone coming from an instrument.
They’re not going to be too inspired by a tiny, tinny, pinched sounding factory violin.
Mind you, if you’re head and shoulders above the competition in all other respects, you might get a break. But why give anybody an excuse to pass you over.
Now let’s suppose you don’t have a performance grade instrument, and you can’t beg, borrow or steal the tens to hundreds of thousands to acquire an old Italian with a good pedigree.
You do have some options. A) Borrow from a friend or teacher, or B) go to a reputable dealer and act as though you’re buying.
Usually you can an instrument on trial for a week or two without a problem. Besides, if you win the audition the dealer may get a sale out of it.
It’s very common at major auditions for players to bring instruments they don’t actually own. Once through the audition process they may even qualify to play one of the orchestra’s fiddles.
In fact there are members of major symphonies today who’ve never purchased a fine violin simply because the orchestra has supplied one to them.
Now, just because I talked about fine old Italian violin above doesn’t mean you can’t buy a very GOOD sounding violin at a surprisingly low amount. Some of the finer Chinese violins being made today are excellent, and there are many, many good domestic makers out there.
One thing that comes to mind is to go to the Violin Society’s website – do a search for it – get a list of makers in your area and go play their instruments.
The other type of fine instrument to keep an eye out for is the ‘diamond in the rough.’ That’s an old, great sounding instrument that doesn’t have a maker’s name associated with it, or is not in the best condition. You won’t do as well when comes time to sell, with a violin like this, but you’ll have a great tool in the meantime.
All the best,
Clayton Haslop
P.S. In just over a week I’ll be presenting a full recital for the attendees of my upcoming master class. Will finish with the 24th Caprice of Paganini. And you can bet I’m making good use of all the practice tips found in my course Paganini for Violin Virtuosity, Vol. 1. Why not get the best practice techniques working for you?
