Scan 19
Chats to violin students on how to study the violin, 1895
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 3. See the scan on archive.org.
1it is necessary to refer to the gauge and not to trust to the eye. The tested strings are in every way better and more dependable than any others and are more likely to give satisfaction. They are a great boon to public performers, for before they were to be obtained I have personally spent a whole day (or more) in selecting a satisfactory set of strings, when preparing for a public performance. To test a string in order to find out if it is true or false in its vibrations in its whole length, take it between the finger and thumb of each hand at each end and twang it with a finger of the right hand; if it shows two lines only when this is done it is a true string, but sometimes it will show a conflicting multiplicity of lines, in which case it vibrates falsely and is useless.*
3The violin is tuned in fifths which must be perfectly true and are tested by pressing the two neighbouring strings at that interval and sounding them in various positions. It is absolutely necessary to test them together as each may be in tune by itself but not when played in fifths. This can be accounted for by the unequal vibrations of the strings.†
5* In testing a length of string this way, it should be held so that it is seen against a dark background. All strings should be first examined in this manner, particularly if intended for solo use, as, if the unequal vibrations are very apparent, the tone will be of an unendurably "rattling" nature. Such strings should be instantly consigned to oblivion.—ED.
7† This method of testing by fifths should be applied to all strings, as it occasionally happens that a length giving perfectly even vibrations under the preliminary test described above, will be slightly false when subjected to the greater tension of being "tuned up." Conversely it is possible for a string giving slightly uneven vibrations in the hand to be true at the higher tension.—ED.
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