Violin Forum/Message Board

[John Cadd]

Continuous vibrato on every note can quickly become tiresome. It needs variation to suit the music.
Being too energetic with vibrato produces something even more tiresome. Pushing the fingers to the extreme ends of vibrato makes a kind of knocking sound . I noticed this on a video demonstrating a fine violin. Quickly my ears just heard the knocking and not the violin tone . I was rude enough to comment about that on the video .But less energy would make a huge improvement .Is there a way to fine tune the vibrato to remove the abrupt sound effect ? Just a tapering off at the edges . Maybe energetic is too closely linked with expressive . David Oistrakh never had a knocking sound . Fritz Kreisler did have a slight knock but his collection of other expressive techniques ( a better word than tricks ) kept the expressive train on the rails .

[Michael Darnton]

Good violins do that and having it is good and a sign of more complex tone in a violin. Being unable or unwilling to control it or using it too much is bad. It's just a tool. . . Blame the user for the bad building, not the hammer.
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