I attended a concert recently at the Center for the Performing Arts.  It was a fabulous concert featuring the D-major violin concerto by Beethoven.  The audience clapped at the end of the first movement – traditionally a “no-no” in the classical music world.  It got me thinking about this topic again and then, lo and behold, my friend Vince Lee (the Associate Conductor of the ISO) posted these comments on Facebook: “I’ve been musing/mulling over this subject for a while (and my opinion on this was largely settled) but after last night’s ISO concert, I am now even more convinced: applause between movements of a work is awesome. Forget all of the historical/factual reasons for this (which, in a nutshell, are the late 1800s German Romantics who created this idea of the concert hall as hallowed ground, followed by the recording-minded maestros of the early 1900s.) Forget that, otherwise, the breaks between movements are an awkward combination of silence, rustling programs/page turns, shifting bodies, and unpleasant ambient sounds from orchestra and audience alike. (SERIOUSLY, hearing applause after last night’s Beethoven 5 1st movement was so refreshing, compared to the standard clearing of throats and turning of pages that usually fills

BAM France is a manufacturer of cases for musical instruments.  In the string world, they are well known for their “Hightech” line of cases.  Most of the cellists I know either own, or aspire to own, a case from the Hightech line because of their strength and weight.  One of the secrets to the success of this line is the construction technique used for the outer shell.  Instead of a single layer of material – fiberglass or carbon fiber, for example – there is a sandwich of a composite material with a closed-cell foam core.  When I hear “foam”, I think of Styrofoam packing peanuts.  This is decidedly NOT the kind of foam found in the BAM cases.  The foam core is very similar to the core of a helicopter blade.  It is extremely light, very strong, and provides a measure of thermal insulation.  The rest of the hardware and fixtures of the case are similarly high-quality and contribute to the excellent function of the cases. BAM is also known for putting some interesting and beautiful designs on the exterior of their cases.  They release special edition patterns and some of them are quite wild! The other thing BAM cases

I hadn’t planned on writing a blog post about Sloane tuning gears for the bass, but after seeing the first set installed on a customer’s bass, I had to change my plans.  String players are used to tuning their instrument every time they play, so they interact with the tuning mechanisms (pegs, machines, fine tuners…) constantly.  We rarely think about the tuning mechanism bringing us joy, but I think that’s exactly what Sloane tuning gears do for bass players who use them.  The extremely tight manufacturing tolerances, high tooth count, and silky smooth feel make tuning a bass something you might actually relish. Although the bass in the picture is slated to be delivered to a customer, we will have basses equipped with these tuners in stock by the end of January.  Come and visit!

When you stop and think about it, there aren’t very many opportunities for a string musician to accessorize their instrument.  Unless the player was involved in the commission of the instrument, the maker decides the wood, the outline, the varnish, and usually selects the fittings (tailpiece, pegs, endpin, etc) that are originally installed on the instrument.  If a player is fortunate enough to own an historically significant instrument, the fittings are sometimes part of the “story” of the instrument and can’t be changed.  For the reset of us, the fittings are one area in which we can put our personal stamp on our instrument. We just received three sets of cello fittings from Bogaro & Clemente, an Italian firm making some of the most beautiful fittings you can acquire.  These three sets are in beautiful, but subtle, Palisander wood.  Palisander (dalbergia baronii) is a rosewood variant from Madagascar.  It is difficult to capture the grain in a photograph, so I used flash to highlight the beautiful variation in color (but it’s still a terrible picture!).  Please visit us and see them for yourself!

One of the most frequent questions I hear in the shop when discussing various price levels of violins is, “what’s the difference between more and less expensive violins?”  Here’s an answer I composed to help the rest of our sales staff address this important question: The primary reasons for the difference in cost in NEW violins (the name and repute of the maker, and the condition are the greatest factors for OLD violins) are time and material. All well-made instruments go through roughly the same steps of construction – wood selection, rough shaping, final graduation (the thickness of the plates), assembly, varnishing, and setup.       It is the time spent at each step of construction that adds cost to the violin. All things being equal, a more expensive new violin will have taken more time to build than a less expensive instrument.       The additional time spent allows the luthier to more carefully remove unnecessary wood (but not too much, compromising the structure) and to pay more attention to the craftsmanship of aspects like f-hole carving, purfling inlay, scroll carving, and general level of detail in the workmanship. The end result is a more beautiful, more

My high school English teacher would be so proud…I didn’t end a sentence with a preposition when writing the title for this blog post.  The question I hear most often when talking about the construction of a violin (viola/cello/bass) is “What is it made from?” The short answer is “wood”…but what kind of wood?  The top (or table, or front) of the instrument is most often made from spruce.  Spruce is incredibly strong for its weight.  If you ever get a chance to hold just the top of a violin, you will likely be amazed by how little it weighs.  The top needs to be strong and light so that it can support the pressure of the bridge (helped by the bass bar and sound post) and transmit the vibrations from the strings.  The ribs (or sides) of the violin are almost always made from maple.  The back is also made of maple.  The neck is most often carved from maple as well.  Maple is a strong, durable wood that also has ideal acoustical properties for the task. Maple also comes in many varieties of “figure”.  The striping, or quilting, or birds-eye figure in maple is highly sought after by

Playing a string instrument well is the work of a lifetime.  Making a great instrument is the work of a lifetime.  Doing anything with passion and excellence usually takes a considerable amount of time and energy spread over many years. How do you maintain enthusiasm for a pursuit through the ups and downs, peaks and valleys?  I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking about this as I enter the tenth year of managing Encore Orchestral Strings…and roughly the 25th year of playing the cello.  This post is not meant to be exhaustive or definitive…just a few thoughts that have been floating around between my ears. Don’t be afraid to set goals.  Having both long-term and short-term goals allow you to measure yourself relative to what you want to accomplish.  This adds an element of accountability and enables you to measure progress. Allow yourself to relax in the ups and downs.  When I’m healthy, I don’t think much about the possibility of getting sick.  When I’m sick, it doesn’t seem like I’ll ever feel healthy again.  When we accomplish a great deal in our pursuit it’s easy to feel like the good times will never end.  When things aren’t going well,

If you come to shop for bows at Encore, you’ll likely hear me talk about how much I like carbon fiber bows for certain applications.  When the budget doesn’t allow for a high-quality pernambuco (wood) bow, carbon fiber bows can offer similar performance for lower prices.  As and added bonus, carbon fiber bows are durable.  How durable?  Well, they will certainly withstand being dropped, the occasional smack into a music stand, and a few sword-fighting duels (not recommended).  However, they will NOT survive being close in a car door.  I offer this picture as a word of warning…  

We continue our journey through the parts of the violin and focus on the fingerboard.  The fingerboard is the portion of the neck directly underneath the strings against which the strings are pressed to create different pitches.  In early instruments, the fingerboard was often made of maple or maple with a veneer of another wood.  Those instruments also utilized unwound gut strings which were far less abrasive when pressed against the fingerboard.  In modern instruments utilizing metal-wound strings, the fingerboard is almost always made of ebony.  The hardness and density of ebony allows it to stand up to the friction of the metal windings.  Even so, the strings will eventually wear grooves in the surface of the fingerboard, requiring it to be planed smooth again by a luthier.  The underside of the fingerboard is commonly scooped out to reduce the overall weight of the fingerboard.  In high-performance instruments, the fingerboard is “tuned” during the scooping process to resonate at a frequency that is sympathetic with the rest of the instrument.  Alternate materials are being explored to reduce the dependence on ebony.  High-quality ebony is increasingly difficult to source and is correspondingly expensive.

A more thorough introduction will follow, but I wanted to take a moment and welcome Leilah Smith to the team at Encore Orchestral Strings!  Leilah is a recent graduate of the University in Indianapolis where she studied music education.  She teaches at the Indianapolis Suzuki Academy and performs locally as a cellist.  We are thrilled to have Leilah here and know that our customers will enjoy working with her!

We’re always on the lookout for new products that make a genuine impact in the performance of our instruments.  The higher the performance level of the instrument, the more it makes sense to invest the time and money needed to optimize its sound and playability. For cellists, nothing can be quite as frustrating as a wolf tone.  I’m happy to go into the principles behind wolf tones in another post, but for now just know that it is the word we use to describe pitches (usually between E and F# on the cello) that do not speak clearly.  There have been many solutions in the past, from wine corks under the tailpiece to brass weights on the afterlength of the strings…and some of these solutions still work well on certain instruments. We received a shipment of Krentz Modulators recently and have been happy with the results.  You can learn a little bit more about the product and how it works by viewing Krentz’s own video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5YznCPjzZM. One positive facet of this product is that it not only helps with the wolf, it also offers some tone-shaping benefits.  We’ve noticed improvement in both the fullness and focus of the lower

As I was thinking about subjects I could tackle as part of the blog, revisiting the parts of a violin seemed like a good place to start.  I’ll try to walk through the various parts of the instrument and share some practical knowledge.  First up, pegs. The pegs of a violin (viola, cello) serve a simple function, but they need to serve it well and reliably.  In the vast majority of instruments, the pegs we use are referred to as “friction pegs”.  The only thing that keeps the peg from slipping, or turning freely, is the friction between the shaft of the peg and the openings in the pegbox.  The shaft of the peg is tapered – the diameter of the peg at the collar is thicker than the diameter of the peg at its end (farthest away from the peg-head).  This means you can “tighten” the fit of the peg in the pegbox by pushing the head (or handle) of the peg towards the pegbox. Pegs can be made successfully from many materials, but dense hardwoods are often preferred.  Ebony, rosewood, African blackwood, various species of boxwood, snakewood, and many others are regularly used.  Once consideration when talking about

Not everyone is full-size…and one size does not fit all.  Violin-family instruments are somewhat unique in that people of all sizes and ages play them, and they are sized to fit the stature of the player.  You rarely see a 3-year-old studying the trombone.  Many would say this is a good thing…probably everyone but practitioners of the trombone. When a 3-year-old, or a 12-year-old, picks up a violin to begin their studies, they play what is referred to as a fractional size instrument.  Violins are sized down from 4/4 (full-size) – 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/10, 1/16, 1/32.  A 1/32 violin is small enough for me to put it in my pants-pocket (don’t try this at home).  While I have never met a 1/32 size violin that made a truly beautiful sound, it is imperative that it is well set up and easy to play. Cellos, violas, and even basses come in fractional sizes small enough for the earliest student.  We stock the smallest sizes and strive to have instruments that are responsive, easy to play, and encouraging for a young student.  We currently have a large stock of high-quality 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 violins that are more advanced options for

I just returned from a trip to North Carolina to see my family.  My dad is nearing retirement and the story of his life is being told in film as part of a documentary.  One of the focuses of the filming this past weekend was the role of music in his life and the lives of his children.  While studying to be a civil engineer, he took a required music appreciation course.  Up until that point in his life, music had barely played any role at all.  During the class he discovered a passion for classical music.  Suddenly, a young Jordanian man from a small town (one of eight children) was devouring Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and just about anything else he could find!  Fast forward almost 30 years and you find me, learning to enjoy classical music at an early age.  I never remember it being forced on me and I can’t even remember it being played very often at home.  What I do remember is the first time I really listened to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  I was in third grade, my dad had just purchased a portable CD player (early adopter!), and I had it hooked up to my

We have the privilege of helping students and professionals acquire bows that match both their instrument and their playing style.  One of the most frequently heard comments from students is, “My teacher told me to buy a wood bow.”  It brings up several points to consider.  What I hear when a student says that is something closer to, “My teacher told me to buy a GOOD bow.”  The gold standard for violin-family bows is still pernambuco, a wood that suffered from over-forestation in recent years.  The scarcity of quality wood has driven the cost of quality pernambuco higher and higher.  Because of this, inexpensive student bows made out of wood are rarely made from quality material.  This results in warping, splitting, or overly flexible sticks.  At Encore, we made the decision to only offer wood bows made from pernambuco of high enough quality to ensure that our customers receive a bow with performance that matches the price tag.  We feel we serve our customers best by offering synthetic bows at introductory prices – fiberglass and carbon-fiber.  Whether the budget is $50 or $5,000, we select the bows that offer the highest value. A note on these pictures – pernambuco is