If you missed it earlier, I was experimenting with Baroque tuning… lowering my violin strings a half step for a softer, mellower sound.
It’s crazy how much it changes the color and feel of the instrument. Hard to play in tune!
🎻 Curious what you think… have a listen below!
quotingGood morning, Nostr 🎻
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I hope you all had a great weekend! It was a long holiday weekend here, so I took some time to rest and spend time with family, and now I’m back at it.
Today’s video is a fun one (for me, anyway!). I was recently inspired by some Baroque music I heard, and in the Baroque period, or in “historical performance practice”, string instruments were/are actually tuned quite a bit lower than they are today. Usually about a half step lower, or a semitone.
That lower tuning gives the strings a mellower, warmer sound. The strings are literally less tightly strung, so less tension = a mellower sound. So in this video here I’ve tuned my violin a half step down in that Baroque tuning just to explore what that feels like.
It’s funny, though… it totally messed with my ears! I’m so used to the modern tuning… I have a connection of ear to left hand fingers. So in this baroque tuning my fingers are going down, my ear is expecting a certain note, but then what comes out is a semitone lower! So that mind–ear–finger connection felt totally out of whack!
Anyway, here’s a mellow, exploratory improv in Baroque tuning… just enjoying the softer color and trying to play in tune!
Hope you enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions about Baroque tuning or historical performance practice.
#musicstr