Reply To: Wildwood Flower

[Jocelyn Martens]

Steve, beautiful playing and forms of sharing, thanks for putting it out there in this way, real well rounded. I experienced your enjoyment in playing this song which supported my experience well 🙂 Your keenness is contagious!
As for your inquiry on the sound, I’d be curious if the sound you mention is heard in the recording or if you are also experiencing it in person as you play? I noticed some difference in sound between the two videos. Appears you were in different rooms, which could affect things, and were you using different recording devices for each video?
Overall you had a clear sound and great skills in coordinating the elements for fiddling.
A couple points that you may find help with sound: In this last video, the camera angle is a great visual of your playing, and specifically the bow movement. These recordings are beneficial to continue making, while noticing where the bow is moving on the strings. The parallelability of the bow to the bridge (and parallel to edge of fingerboard) has a good impact on sound, as well as the area one plays in (closer to bridge or towards fingerboard). Keep experimenting with the various ways of this, and in small increments, bring the focus back to general parallel bow and also maintaining bow between bridge and fingerboard. This will always vary some with our playing, though inevitably impacts our sound.
One other idea is to experiment with tightness of bow hair. Try loosening bow hair some and testing playing on strings to see if it is tight enough to not have the stick contact strings. And notice how sound changes with small changes of this.
And finally, the type of violin, type of strings, type of bow, create their own unique sounds. Something that can be worth continuously re-evaluating and trying out various options over time, especially when have opportunity to have our instruments at a violin store, is where we try out different options and configurations. I think your sound is doing well with the setup you have, and it will be interesting to continue experiencing your playing along the journey of evolution, as you choose to share.
Thanks for reaching out for feedback 🎶