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A few months ago, I wrote a post expressing interest in doing some research on how to clean your strings. The response was a resounding chorus of crickets. But that’s okay, because time has been getting more and more scarce these days. Having a newborn baby around will do that.

So I haven’t found the time, tools, or funds to do my own research. But I did the next best thing: I asked Google for the answer.

I was surprised at what I found. Apparently the Warchal string company ran their own set of experiments similar to what I had in mind. It was like Christmas came early for me. In one photo, they added green dye to rubbing alcohol and used it to clean the rosin off the string. When they cut open the string, the core was dyed green. It’s really cool! I’ll link to their article at the end of my own here. But first, I’ll spoil the ending for everyone.

What To Do

The short answer for how to clean your strings is this:

1. Wipe the strings down with a microfiber cloth after playing.
2. When microfiber won’t do the trick anymore, gently scratch off the rosin build-up with an old credit card.
3. That’s it. No other maintenance is needed.

What Not To Do

It’s good to know the right way to do it. But it’s just as important to know what not to do and why. Their article has some wonderful high-definition close-up pictures. It’s well worth checking them out. But the cheat-sheet version is this:

• Do not use liquid solvents (i.e. rubbing alcohol) on the strings.
• Do not clean the strings using steel wool. (I tried this myself out of curiosity. I had to replace the strings afterward.)
• Do not scratch the rosin off using cork.

So without further ado, head on over to the Warchal site to see their photos for yourself: https://shop.warchal.com/blogs/what-s-the-best-way-to-care-for-our-strings

In my last post about Art vs. Craft, I got this comment:

To learn the craftsmanship you need a teacher for sure. But what is the teacher’s role in developing the artist within a violinist?

Never mind that the comment came from my wife (hi honey!) and that we talked about it later that night. And never mind that she’s a scientist, not a musician. It’s still a great question, deserving of its own post.

Learning vs. Being Taught

To start with, I think that artistry is learned. I don’t think it can exactly be taught. Yet I’ve had several teachers along the way help me grow as an artist. And in turn, I’ve helped several young musicians play more musically.

So why don’t I think it’s directly teachable? To answer this, I’d like to bring up the case of a violinist I knew in college. Let’s call her Susan to protect the innocent.

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I’ve already alluded to this in the 3 Layers of a Musician. But I think it’s worth revisiting.

What is the difference between an art and a craft? Let’s look at home building as an example. The architect is an artist. They look at an empty plot of land, and they dream up something new. Something both functional and beautiful. And then they take that idea, and they draw up a blueprint.

Once that’s done, they hand it off to a construction crew. The construction crew are not artists. They’re craftsmen. Their job is to faithfully execute on the architect’s idea. 

And so when they’re pouring a foundation or framing a house, there are certain techniques. There are right and wrong ways to do these things. Anybody can learn to do them if they have the time, energy, and a teacher to show them how.

To put it another way, art is about creativity and imagination. Craftsmanship is about following certain techniques with care and attention to detail.

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I remember once visiting my brother in New York while he was studying at the Juilliard School of Music. He took me to a recital of one of his classmates playing the Franck Violin Sonata. In one passage, the violinist threw his hand up into a high position for a change of color. It was such an effortless easy motion, that you might think it was as natural as breathing. Unless you play the violin, that is. Then your eyes bugged out and you suddenly had a change of color yourself. I went a bit green with envy. That recital was seventeen years ago now. And I still remember that one moment. Not because he was able to do it. But because he did it with such ease.

One of our goals in playing the violin is to use the least amount of effort to achieve the desired effect. We never get there, of course, but it’s still our goal. Why should this be something to strive for? Well, holding excess tension is very tiring. It causes us to stiffen up, which gets in the way of our freedom of motion. Our tone becomes more wooden and one-dimensional. Our vibrato becomes stiff and mechanical. And worst of all, we become prone to overuse injuries and muscle aches and pains. It’s hard to have a long career if you’re in constant pain.

Some musicians think that the solution is to first learn to play a piece and then to learn to do it with more ease. This is putting the cart before the horse. It’s much harder to unlearn tension than it is to start from a state of rest, adding only the tension that you need. Part of playing a piece is recreating the same muscular tensions that you had as you learned it. Excess tension, then, is a learned habit that’s an equal part of playing a piece as the notes and rhythms and phrasing. This is why it’s so important to start with ease, rather than to start with excess tension. I’ll explain more about how I do this in a bit. But first, let’s discuss how muscles work.

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Last week I talked a bit about how I memorize music. Then I realized that I completely brushed past an important point. One of the foundations of my aural approach to memorization is playing by ear. But not every classical musician can do that. So this week I want to share with you the story of how I developed my ear as a musician. I think it would illustrate the importance of ear training, and how my playing and my career have benefitted from it.

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Your teacher has just assigned you the task of memorizing a piece of music. And here you are at home, sitting in your practice room. You know what your goal is. But what in the heck is step number one? How do you actually go about memorizing music on purpose?

This post is meant to be your practical guide to memorizing music. It contains the bulk of what I know about memorizing a new piece of music.

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Friends, I have some experiments I’d like to run. But I know I’m in over my head to explore them completely on my own. So I’ll need some help. But first, let me tell you what I have in mind. I think many of you might be curious and willing to lend me a hand.

Experiment 1: What is the best way to clean the rosin off your strings?

A quick internet search will tell you about half a dozen ways to clean the rosin off your strings. But I’ve also heard that some of these will damage your strings beyond all usefulness. There’s using rubbing alcohol on a cloth to dissolve the rosin, for example. Sounds workable (though extremely risky to the varnish on the violin!). But I’ve been told that the dissolved rosin sinks down between the windings of the string into the core. Then it hardens, ruining your string. Or there’s extra fine steel wool. I’ve tried it, and it really does remove the rosin faster than anything else. And quietly, too! But my friend and I both found that the string becomes less responsive. Does it polish the metal of the strings? Or are we imagining things?

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At long last, it’s finally finished! This here is my first ever YouTube video that I scripted, shot, and edited (other than simply playing a piece and trimming the content). It’s the sequel to my post on how the violin works.

In all my years of taking lessons, tone production was never explicitly taught like this. For that I have Simon Fischer to thank, for his wonderful book The Violin Lesson. If I had learned this back in middle school or high school, I would have gotten a lot better sooner.

If you liked this video, share it with a friend! I don’t believe in keeping this a secret. There’s room in the world for all of us to play beautifully.

I remember watching the movie Shrek when I was in high school. At one point, Shrek was explaining to his donkey companion how ogres like himself are complex creatures. They have layers. Like an onion. The donkey kindly extended the analogy, pointing out that onions and ogres can both make you cry. And they smell bad. No no, said Shrek. It’s the layers. That’s how they were similar.

Musicians are also like onions. A good one can bring a tear to your eye. And if you lock yourself in the practice room, neglecting mundane chores like laundry… Well, you can start to smell like an ogre then, too.

But my main point in bringing up the onion analogy is the layers. Because the way I see it, musicians have three layers to them. And if your goal is to become a great musician, then understanding this point will help you avoid some obstacles to your success.

Introducing: The Three Layers

1. Artist (Musician)
2. Craftsman (Violinist)
3. Human Being

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When I was young, I thought of the violin as a sort of magical box of mystery. To be honest, I still do just a bit. But as they say, magic is just science that we don’t yet understand. The purpose of this post is to kill a little of the magic by helping you understand how the violin works. Because nothing would bring me greater joy than helping you see the world in a less magical way.

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