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Christopher Tasker

Violin Resonance - Violin,

Strings or both?
March 25, 2016 at 06:50 PM · Hi All,

As a new adult learner, I am improving :-) And noticing things and have
questions.

When my intonation hits the right note (at times and particularly 3rd finger D
on A string in first position), I get a wondrous resonance (Sympathetic?).

Is this resonance a factor of the violin itself (ie do some violins resonate better
than others) or is it simply a factor of the violin vibrating the note produced on
the other strings (as relevant). Or is it both? Using this resonance to find better
intonation (for those notes which cause the highest levels of the resonance) and
better tone has been a eye opener for me. And given that it is still somewhat
rare for me, it is all the more enjoyable when it happens. But what causes it to
happen?

Replies (11)

Adrian Heath

March 25, 2016 at 07:46 PM · The vibrations that set off sympathetic
resonance (including those of external sources) come via the
wood. The string has too small a surface to radiate or receive
enough sound energy directly. Think of the tiny sound of an electric violin with
the amplification turned off..

Paul Deck

March 25, 2016 at 08:02 PM · The

strings resonate, but all of that
resonance is conveyed and amplified via the structure of your
violin.

You can test this experimentally. Play that wonderful ringing D (A string, third
finger) and then listen to what happens when you shut off the sympathetic
vibration of the D string by touching it lightly. Or just *watch* your D string
and you may actually see it vibrating.

Now what you want to do is test this by playing ALL of the fingered notes that
have the same name as your open strings. Play the G on the E string (2nd
finger) and see if you can test the sympathetic vibration on the G string. That's
a two-octave harmonic. Play E with your first finger on the D string and test the

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Violin Resonance - Violin, Strings or both? https://www.violinist.com/discussion/archive/27735/

sympathetic vibration of the E string. That's an octave but in the other

direction. And so on.

These "ringing" pitches are the basis of a secure and accurate intonation, so Violinist.com is made possible by...
learning to hear them is a very critical part of learning to play the violin. The
more "ring tones" there are in a scale, for example, the easier it should be to Shar Music
play the scale in tune because you have more calibration points. That's why you
start with G major and A major, because those have a lot of ring tones and you
can easily reach all the notes of a two-octave scale in first position.

Christopher Tasker

March 25, 2016 at 09:07 PM · Thanks Paul and Adrian, Yamaha Violin Finder

And apologies - I did find some other threads from a few years
back that covered this topic as well :-(

Is the presence of such resonance an indication of good violin quality or

design? I am finding that amongst my violins, that some have a much stronger
form of resonance than others. From previous threads I found that there was Pirastro Strings
discussion about the sound styles and there were references to resonance as a
design feature.

How much influence do strings have on the resonance characteristic of a

violin? I could experiment (and probably will) but if anyone has experience, I
am interested to hear it.

Corilon Violins
Jessy Ringquist

March 25, 2016 at 09:20 PM · This

is of interest to me as well, as I truly
fell in love with the violin when I began hearing those harmonics.
This means that I am obsessive about getting them.

Now that I am considering getting a new violin, the relative resonance is first in
Tomplay
my mind as a factor. Is resonance easier to draw from a better violin? Is it
clearer? Do you not have to fight as much to get it?

Jessy

Andrew Victor

March 25, 2016 at 10:25 PM · Figure 1 in this 2004 article ( Warchal Strings
http://josephcurtinstudios.com/article/a-world-apart/ ) by
Joseph Curtin and Martin Schlesky shows peaks and valleys of the
amplitude (loudness) spectrum of a typical violin response to
input vibrations (either from the strings or from a vibrating "driver" to the
bridge. The actual locations and magnitudes of the amplitude varies from
instrument to instrument. Violinists use vibrato to equalize the tonal qualities
that emerge from the instrument. Even a fairly poor instrument can be made to
Dimitri Musafia
sound amazing by a fine violinist - but it takes more work than one would want
to apply (or have to live with).

The open strings on an instrument vibrate at frequencies related to the

Gliga Violins
"physics of a vibrating string" and these frequencies are "quantized" into
integral divisions of each string (1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, etc. (so when you play
an open string, all those overtone frequencies are also produced and heard as
the sound of an open string on that instrument - and if you play a fingered note
the same phenomenon occurs, but with different overtones than for the open Metzler Violin Shop
string). If a note is played on another string that corresponds to frequency of
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one of these subdivisions of any of the open strings there will be some vibration
of that open string and that will be amplified by the violin in proportion to the Bobelock Cases
amount of vibration that occurs in the responding string AND how sensitive
the instrument is to that frequency (as indicated by figure 1 in the linked Fiddlerman.com
document).
Fiddlershop
My experience is that better violins are more responsive and contribute more
Nazareth Gevorkian Violins
tonally to the sound - and more easily produce more natural harmonics ( 1/2,
1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6 of the string length) and fingered harmonics - and their Los Angeles Violin Shop
related response to vibrato can be amazing (I remember the one great Strad I

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ever got to try, and that was over 50 years ago - OMG!) Pluhar Violins

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Carmen Tanzio

March 26, 2016 at 02:23 AM · An

open string has multiple natural
modes of vibration: the tuned frequency and additional
frequencies, called overtones, which are integer multiples of the
base frequency.

Using your example, the open D string will have natural modes of vibration at
294hz, 588hz (2x294), 882hz (3x294) etc.

When you play another string at a frequency close to one of these natural
modes, then the open string will also start to vibrate at that frequency,
resulting in a loud, resonant tone.

As you "get close" to the 3rd finger D on the A string, the open D will start
vibrating louder and louder at the fingered frequency until it peaks when you
hit 588hz. So one of the things you need to be aware of is that getting close to
that 3rd finger D may fool you into thinking you hit it because the open D starts
amplifying the slightly off fingered D.

The violin body works in a very similar fashion. It has many natural modes of
vibration. When a string is bowed/fingered, its frequency and any of its
overtones will excite any body modes that are "close" to what the string is
playing.

Great violins have concentrations of body modes in certain frequency bands

that color the tone of the vibrating string by picking up overtones and
amplifying them. These modes also vibrate very vigorously.

Violin makers constantly struggle with getting concentrations of flexible body

modes in frequency bands that make the notes on all strings and from all
positions resonate richly. Think of them as concentrations of "open strings"
wanting to pickup string frequencies and overtones.

Frequently, violins will have dead zones where certain notes sound dull or
muted. This is due to the lack of body modes close to the note frequency and its
overtones.

Many violins also suffer from so called "wolf tones": howling, buzzing or just
plain dull, unfocused timbre. This is commonly caused by a particulary flexible
body mode that has one of its vibration peaks too close to a bridge foot. This
causes a feedback into the bridge and interferes with the string vibration. C to
C# notes can be a real problem for violins.

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Paul Deck

March 27, 2016 at 03:54 AM · Another test that you can do is to just
hold your violin in your hand (e.g., by the neck) and ask your
teacher to play a few slow, loud scales on his or her violin. You'll
feel the resonance points of your instrument in your hand when
certain notes are played on your teacher's violin. To exclude the effect of your
violin's strings, just mute them with your other hand.

Christopher Tasker

March 27, 2016 at 12:31 PM · Thank you all - great information!

I like this forum.

Steve Jones

November 20, 2016 at 10:47 AM · I came late to this discussion, but does
anyone else find that a violin can show too much sympathetic
resonance? For example, when a phrase ends on D (A string) and
a new phrase quickly starts in a different key, I often find it
necessary to stop the resonance of the D string with a "spare" finger to avoid
dissonance (probably more evident to me than to an outside listener). I'm also
sometimes unhappy at the change of timbre that occurs between consecutive
notes when a phrase moves from a resonant note to a less resonant one or vice
versa. Two of my 5 violins show this effect much more than the others; these
happen to be the most expensive and the cheapest, so it's not simply the case
that resonant instruments are always the best. Can anyone suggest a remedy?

Kevin Cheung

November 20, 2016 at 02:23 PM · Don't end such a phrase on an open

string?

Scott Cole

November 20, 2016 at 03:50 PM · I think Steven said a phrase that ends
on a stopped D on the A string that caused the D string to
resonate.

This is common and it becomes second nature to stop notes occasionally,

especially in the orchestra.

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