..it works!
So, for the concert tomorrow that I wrote about yesterday (wow, that was a bit of a confusing sentence!)... I'm playing this piece that is not written for the viola d'amore and so it already sits pretty awkwardly under the hands... less in the left hand, but more in the bow hand.
My 7 string d'amore is one string too many for what the piece needs... ideally, I would use a 6 string one, but I have a 7 string! I know that there are some people that have versions of the d'amore in 5/6/7 variants... both with and without resonant strings! However, that is a bit too much for me, and when I asked for a maker to build me an instrument, I opted for the seven string. after all, you can just not use all the strings!
... well, in theory! In practice, a seven string d'amore has less room for error in how the player hits the strings. The bridge is already flatter than a violin-family instrument, so there is less curvature to allow for some room for error in how the bow contacts the string (without hitting other strings), and when you add in one more string, that margin of error gets smaller.
When playing on the d'amore... although it is held like a violin, it requires more of a viol mindset. With a violin-type instrument you have a certain balance of weight and speed of bow (plus contact point and tilt) that are the factors that can be altered in their balances to get the violin to speak with a certain "colour" or type of sound. Think about how you use your voice... the amount of attack in consonants, the wideness/shape of mouth and speed of air flow... these are all the subconscious things that you alter when you are saying the same words, but with different affects and meaning. Such as when you are screaming at your child... or speaking lovingly to them... you say they the same word (their name...), but the output and meaning is different!
Same for musical instruments... and as I'm primarily a violin-type player, I can subconsciously alter these balances by only thinking about the desired character of the sound. However, on the d'amore, it is more of a secondary instrument... and I often have to consciously over-ride the haitual responses from my violin mind! Due to the curvature of the bridge and strings, that primarily means that I have less leeway for weight (too much weight means I hit more of the unwanted strings!) and need to compensate with more speed in the bow. Of course, that is a touch simplistic, but that is the general rebalance that needs to be made!
Anyway, that does mean that on the bass end... if I'm not using the actual lowest string (the seventh string), I have to hit the bass notes with more carefulness than I would like to, otherwise I would end up sounding a really odd sounding note on the unused string. Normally, I would just use an extra finger on the left hand to damp the string so it wouldn't sound, but for this piece I just don't have the extra brain-space to keep doing that... and so it would be better if it was just impossible for the lowest string to actually sound! Plus, that means that I can use more weight and power on the second lowest string (which is the de facto bass string in this piece).
So, the solution that I came up with... was not to remove the string. Removing the string would mean that the tension balance across the instrument would be out, and it would get out of tune quite easily and sound a bit strange as well!
Using some cotton, I threaded the cotton under the six used playing strings and over the unused seventh. Tying it quite tightly, it would be held down flush against the fingerboard... which would give me a few more millimetres of clearance on the bass end of the 6th string! It's not much, but when you are playing with tolerances of a few millimetres anyway... it makes a world of difference!
Being functional more than pretty... I probably should have used a nice ribbon or something. I will cut the loose ends at least! Especially as I have now been told that it isn't just a concert and recording... but will also have a stream as well, which might be close enough to see my hacked together handiwork!
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