How to use the violin

The early violin was translated into "Van Gogh Dumbbell" or "Huai E Ling", and the sound of the violin can be comparable to that of human voice, even not limited to "singing". You can also have superb technology. In the performance, people can not only hear the sweet music, but also see the performer's skills, making the music more vivid.

Although the violin is surprisingly light, it becomes very stressful and tense after tightening the strings. The bearing pressure of the panel is about 1 1 kg. After the E string is adjusted, the tension can reach 9 kg; The g string is 6 kilograms. Four strings add up to more than 30 Jin! However, this integrated piano body is composed of many parts, with more than 70 pieces, among which there is obvious mechanical ingenuity.

Speaking of violin, you will think of famous violinists 300 years ago, such as Strava Di, Amadi, Guanelli and Steiner. Only with these top violinists can the violin play beautiful music. The most noteworthy performers, such as Paganini, have upgraded their violin playing skills and evolved to this day, many of which can be learned by future generations!

Violin is the most important member of the stringed instrument family. Its intonation and timbre are beautiful and easy to express, which makes the expression of feelings very prominent. Because of its flexibility and wide range, it has become the most ideal solo instrument and won the reputation second only to musical instruments. It was recorded with a treble spectrum.

This violin is made up of about 70 different pieces of wood. The swirl head is the uniqueness of the violin. Tapered tuning strings with four strings G, D, A and E are made of durable Qinglong wood or boxwood. The back slope of the axle box tightens the strings across the ebony string pillow. The four hook grooves on the string pillow are used to determine the position of the strings, and the strings are lifted above the fingerboard, so that the fingers of the left hand can press the strings on the cardboard to control the sound. The fingerboard is fixed on the neck, and the whole neck, spiral head and chord box are carved from a piece of maple. The fingerboard is bent to increase the width from the pillow end, so that the strings across the bridge have a gradually widening space to carry the bow.

The frame of the piano body consists of side plates, which are formed by bending six thin maple side plates after heating, and the joints are reinforced with wood blocks. The six side plates constitute the main outline of the violin, namely, the upper side plate, the inwardly bent middle side plate (C side plate) and the wider lower side plate.

The back of the piano is the back of the violin. The backboard is made of one or two matched maple trees, which can be divided into one-piece backboard and two-piece backboard. One-piece backboard can be obtained by "plate cutting" or "radial cutting", while two-piece backboard can be obtained by "radial cutting". In the process of making two backboards, it is very important to have symmetrical patterns in the central seam and horizontal plane. The exact thickness of the middle part of the violin backboard is about 5 mm, and the edge is reduced to about 2.5 mm The height, shape and exact thickness of the bow are the basic factors that determine the sound quality of the violin.

The piano face is also made in this way, but spruce is used, the exact thickness is 3 mm, and there is a narrow inlay on the front and back edges, also called decorative edge, which can be used as decoration to prevent the edge from cracking. There are two sound holes on the piano surface, which are named F holes according to their shapes. The horse rests on the piano surface only by the pressure of strings, and its position is the key to affect the sound quality.

The sound column is cylindrical wood, close to the piano body, which is very important for timbre. A small action may change the timbre of the violin, and it should not be too long or too short, which will affect the timbre of the violin. If the product is too long, it is likely to cause cracks on the surface of your piano. If it is too short, the string may loosen when you loosen it. If the sound quality of your violin is not good, you may need to adjust it or change it to a new one.

A violin consists of a body (including the head, neck, fingerboard and resonance box), a string system (including the shaft, hanging board, bridge and strings) and a bow. Piano, as a wooden structure, is made of maple and spruce with the best timbre. The strings are metal wires; Bows are made of ponytails. Violin is a high-pitched instrument in the violin family, which is rich in artistic expression, excellent in timbre, subtle in expression and changeable, and has the charm of singing. Violin is one of the most expressive instruments, and its playing skills are extremely rich. Composers often use it to trigger the tone of their works. Violins are divided into the first violin and the second violin in the symphony orchestra. The first violin is often the main theme, and the second violin is the harmony accompaniment of the main part of music. In addition, the violin is often used for chamber music and solo in sketches. In recent years, violin has become one of the main instruments of contemporary pop music and jazz.

First, the role of violin pigments

The texture, luster and transparency of paint are intrinsically related to the sound of violin, which is a factor that we must consider when making violin. In this regard, a lot of work has been done at home and abroad, and the preparation methods and processes of violin coatings have been discussed and studied. There are many materials introduced, but few of them can be applied in practice. Violin resonance boxes with different structures, different materials and different manufacturing methods should use different paints. Using a single painting method can't make up for the defective sound. Therefore, a good white violin can't be a perfect instrument without good paint.

Since the reform and opening up, the level of violin making industry in China has improved by leaps and bounds, but in the whole process of violin making, the imbalance of coatings is particularly obvious. Therefore, I hope that everyone will not be satisfied with the status quo and work harder on violin painting. Violin paint has a special material and formula, but now some people paint the violin with wood paint. There is an essential difference between wood lacquer and violin lacquer. Wood lacquer only has a protective effect, without considering the impact on vibration. If wood paint is used, experienced people will find that there is very fine powder on the paint surface at the end of polishing, which shows that wood paint is too hard to play a good role in the sound of violin. The violin with wood lacquer has a dull sound, no sound and a low volume. Therefore, some producers made the soundboard very thin and enlarged the arch. In this way, the sound is even more dull after being painted with wood paint. You can listen nearby, but you can't hear it in the distance. There is no explosive force in the voice part, and painting wood can't play a good role.

Second, about the materials of violin pigments.

After years of research, I have summarized some better materials suitable for violin coatings. There are two kinds of paint materials: one is liquid and the other is solid.

Liquid materials include linseed oil, turpentine, cottonseed oil, castor oil and peanut oil, with different properties; There are semi-drying oil and non-drying oil with different degrees of dryness.

Linseed oil is a dry substance, which can be dissolved in ethanol and turpentine. It is best to oxidize naturally, and it can also be oxidized when heated in water. Flaxseed oil can be oxidized in three ways. One is directly heating with fire, because linseed oil will not catch fire when heated directly to 300℃, and it is most suitable to heat it for 6 hours to promote drying faster. Generally, it can be dried after 24 hours of brushing. Second, the method of waterproof heating is slow. Another way is natural oxidation. Linseed oil dissolves quickly in paint and can be directly dissolved in ethanol and turpentine.

Cottonseed oil is semi-drying oil, which is best oxidized naturally, but it is not heated well in water because of its low boiling point and easy to catch fire.

Castor oil belongs to semi-drying oil, and the market is very small.

Turpentine refers to plant turpentine with a boiling point of 160oC. The best method is natural oxidation. The method is to stuff a ball of absorbent cotton in the bottle mouth. After a long time, phosphorus, iron and calcium in turpentine will naturally precipitate. If it is too dangerous to heat directly with fire, it is easy to catch fire, because there are many accidents of burning oxidized turpentine.

Why advocate natural oxidation of turpentine? Because turpentine is mentioned in many violin paint formulations, turpentine plays a major role in violin paint. Mineral turpentine cannot be used.

It is best to use analytical pure alcohol as ethanol, which decomposes immediately after coating synthesis, is easy to precipitate and dissolves quickly.

Solid materials of paint, that is, resin part: Cuban gum, frankincense, sandalwood, Danish gum, benzoin, rosin, shellac (paint flake).

Cuban gum is a hard resin. The material is semi-soluble in ethanol and has good toughness and transparency. The melting point is above 200oC, which is higher than rosin and amber. It is easier to heat after being made into paint, and there is no problem at 200 oc ~ 250 oc.

Frankincense belongs to soft resin. Semi-soluble in ethanol and turpentine, this substance is characterized by high viscosity and opacity. As the Chinese herbal medicine industry in China is relatively developed, it can be purchased from Chinese medicine shops. However, when making paint, the amount of frankincense is not appropriate, it is not easy to dry and the transparency is not good.

Sandals and Danish chewing gum are hard to buy and expensive. Sandals are a better material. It is colorless, completely soluble in ethanol and semi-soluble in turpentine.

Danish gum and sandalwood, on the other hand, are semi-soluble in ethanol and fully soluble in turpentine, but the above two materials are very expensive.

Benzoin, soluble in ethanol, semi-soluble in turpentine, colorless. Benzoin is superior to Cuban gum and frankincense because it can dissolve ethanol and turpentine, make paintings colorless and promote drying. Benzoin conjunctiva is not thick and has strong toughness, which can play the role of brightening agent and toughening agent in paint.

Rosin is a common material, which is directly soluble in ethanol and turpentine. It can promote the quick drying and bright effect of paint. But the amount added should not be too much, especially when the weather is hot in the south, the paint tends to soften. Rosin should be directly heated with slow fire 1 ~ 3 hours to soften it, and the iron and calcium absorbed by rosin from soil will be precipitated and carbonized by heating.

Shellac (paint flake), completely soluble in ethanol. Fast drying, strong adhesion, will not fall off, belonging to hard paint. However, we'd better use raw lacquer for violin, which is a kind of soft resin, not a processed piece of lacquer. Raw rubber dissolves well, has strong adhesion and is light golden yellow. This is a very advanced resin.

Pigment part

Rosewood can give off a good golden color and can be soaked in ethanol. In order to make the color of rosewood better, we remove the sediment from the solution and put it into rosewood again to continue dissolving. Rosewood is a beautiful pigment, which has good light resistance and is not easy to fade. The brighter the sun, the darker the color.

Dragon blood and gamboge, anyone who has seen the Italian guqin knows that there is no yellow component in the background color of the violin, and yellow is dissolved in brown. So when I was matching colors, I put dragon blood and gamboge together and dissolved them into one color, that is, the dark red dragon blood color has the golden gamboge color, so that they can be integrated. If I do this, my color may be close to the color of Italian guqin after 100 years, but this color is very difficult. We have taken many detours before, because these two substances are hard resins with different boiling points and cracking degrees, so it is very difficult to combine them. We first grind dragon's blood and gamboge into powder, and then heat it with slow fire. After heating, we don't put anything until about 290oC. When the dragon's blood and gamboge are dissolved, we add a certain amount of linseed oil and a small amount of linseed oil to make it paste, and then slowly cool it, but we must pay attention to how much it drops. Because the boiling point of turpentine is 160oC, when the purple paste solution drops to 150oC, it is diluted with turpentine, and then the golden yellow becomes black red. With this color, it can be directly used in the background color of violin. This black, red and Huang San color can get the best and most ideal color through the refraction of violin wood. Even if the paint loses its color, it still exists.

In fact, the alcohol-soluble red, alcohol-soluble yellow, alcohol-soluble brown and oil-soluble black sold in the market are not reliable. Because every batch of standards is inaccurate, and these things we use are for the future. If you want to make a perfect violin, you must have a long-term concept, so the chemical pigments bought from the market are not reliable.

Peach gum is good in color, but it is hard to buy in the market. Zheng Quan is currently doing experiments in this field. It's a good brown, but it lacks the golden color of rosewood.

In our piano making process, we can't use alkaline substances and active substances. There are 60 ~ 70 kinds of resins suitable for our piano making, including pigments.

Third, the preparation of violin pigments

I

Through repeated experiments and hard study, after more than 40 years of exploration, three more suitable violin pigment formulas were summarized.

The first one belongs to hard paint.

Shellac100g

Castor oil 2ml

Ethanol 400 ml

Castor oil is non-drying oil, which has good toughness and materials are easily available. It is also very simple to do.

The second formula is neutral paint.

Shellac 70g

Rosin 5g

Cuba glue 25g

5ml turpentine

Linseed oil 2ml

Alcohol 400 ml (95%)

When turpentine is used in this formula, it must be treated and naturally oxidized, otherwise it will crack. There are two reasons for cracking, one is the use of turpentine, and the other is that alkaline substances have played a role, such as sweat stains. The use of this formula is more problematic in the south, because the weather is humid and there is no such problem in the north.

The third coating formula belongs to semi-oily coating.

Shellac 35g

50 grams of frankincense

Danish glue 12g

Turpentine 8 ml

Linseed oil 2ml

Ethanol 400 ml

Liquid substances must be oxidized, and flaxseed oil needs at least 3 hours of heat treatment.

Fourth, about brushing methods:

First of all, it should be polished and smooth. There are two ways: burning with alcohol, but it is more dangerous, and the sound hole winglet is easy to burn out. Treat the burr with water to stand up, and then wipe it with emery cloth 10 times.

The next step is color processing, also known as background color processing. There are several methods circulating in the world:

1. is potassium dichromate, which is not recommended internationally.

2. Direct color contact method. (by wood color)

3. Acidic treatment, such as nitric acid and hydrochloric acid. Acid treatment will cause uneven color and corrode the strings.

4. In order to make the annual rings clear, directly brush varnish to seal the wood hole fibers. Then color it to make it clear. This is one way. It looks good on the surface, but it is not necessarily good in fact. Compared with the method mentioned above, this method is not as good as the wood color method in the long run. The method of painting the piano directly looks not as clear as the ring painted with varnish, but it is good in the long run and is also good for the sound (regardless of the sound for the time being). The method of wooden color is the best method, but it is difficult to make the violin "rough" and "dirty". In order to avoid these problems, it is best not to add yellow or black, but only add a very light red. When the red color enters the wooden pipe hole, it will produce golden yellow, which will not look rough. If yellow is added, it will enter the wooden pipe hole, and it will appear black when combined with red. Finally, it is worth noting that when brushing the background color, don't use a cotton ball brush. As long as the color is uneven after repeated brushing, it will be rough after uneven. It is best to use spraying method, and artistic photography pen is best. Background color is very important in the whole painting process.

Start painting varnish after the background color is finished. Play the film after 6 ~ 7 times, and then add color after the film is played. Color lies in everyone's hobbies and personal pursuits. The paint surface is beautiful, beautiful, transparent, three-dimensional and true, which is the key to the color of the violin. In the process of gradually increasing color, after brushing several times, once it is found to be dirty, cover it with varnish immediately. The purpose of covering the varnish is to polish the dirty things together, brush the varnish for 4 ~ 5 times, then use water sandpaper and then brush the colored varnish. After 40 ~ 50 times of repeated work, you can get a beautiful work. The color needs to be darker than the ideal requirement, and the color will be lighter when it is finally lit. Be sure to use more than 500 sandpaper when polishing, and then polish with sand wax or toothpaste. There is another method of varnish for oil painting, also called varnish, which belongs to art supplies and has a protective effect on oil painting. This kind of material is more useful to us. It is worth emphasizing that there is no need for too much varnish to enhance the color gradually. Too much varnish will increase the thickness of paint film, which will affect the sound. The purpose of paint film thickness is to cover wood micropores, and the best paint film thickness is to reach this level. At present, satisfactory coatings can be obtained by the above methods.

The best thing about Strati Vari violin is its paint. It is only because he has such good violin paint that the elasticity and sound of his piano are protected. In the past 300 ~ 400 years, the piano is still like a modern piano. Why is this? Because the middle part of the piano in Italy is yellow and the side part is black, why can't so many people in the modern world make pianos with such a good color? This is the secret of piano. The edge of the ancient violin was covered with black because the oil dissolved the black. Black oil is so light that it cannot be completely dissolved even in turpentine. But you can't make a good color without black. Due to the loss of Italian violin pigment formula, we can only assume that Strati Wali was also hacked at that time. With the touch every day, some black is gone, and black remains out of reach. Where you often touch, the best gold appears.

In the process of making a piano, we can't ignore the composition of paint materials to achieve the best level, but can only make unremitting exploration and research. The above viewpoints are all inferred from the loss of the paint formula of the piano, which is for reference only.

I also have a suggestion here. I suggest you repair the guqin more and explore the mystery of the violin. We China pianists have to go our own way, and it is not easy to get it from others. This is a very simple truth. We can constantly improve the skills and theoretical knowledge of piano making by repairing the guqin.