Violin Restoration

I was told by my violin teacher that my violin which is less than a year old needs repair. Apparently, the fingerboard or the neck had "dropped" much and the distance between the wood and the strings became more pronounced. Another problem was the sound post which needed to be adjusted for a more mellow sound. Somehow, the "voice" became more screechy.

Immediately after my weekly lesson I hurried my violin with my child to the violin shop in Katong. Its akin to rushing a sick child to see a doctor. I was quoted $150 for the above repair work yet I needed to wait some one month for the spare parts to arrive. My bow too had a slight crack around the eye due to misuse. No I DID NOT hit Rachel with it. I probably wind it up too tight as an overly enthusiastic beginner in the past.

Some time last Christmas, my violin idol, David Garrett slipped and landed on his 1772 GB Guadagnini worth a cool US$1 million after a performance in London. Although he landed on his violin case, the violin was quite severely damaged with cracks running from the "f hole". At this moment, this precious baby was being repaired in New York, a restoration process that would take several months with a estimated bill size of US$100,000. I prayed it will be miraculously restored, sound included.

You know, I feel for him, his pain from the accidental loss of a good "friend". After all the violin was with him since 2003 and had been used from composing to concert performances. This is an instrument that he worked hard and saved up for. He modelled briefly for Vogue and Armani while being coached by the legendary Itzhak Perlman in the Juilliard School, New York. He MODELS, yes no wonder I find him SOOOOOO familiar since I often drool over Armani models in the past. My favourite model was Marcus Schenkenberg of the legendary Calvin Klein Jeans shower ad. Thank God for creating these male beauties, so perfect in physique, David, whose German dad is a lawyer cum an antique violin dealer and whose mum is a american ballerina, is 1.88m while the now much older but still highly marketable Marcus was more than 1.9m.

And there was I, a bubbly teenager, I WANTED to model badly and for all things lingerie. After all, what i lacked in height,God compensated with a sexy hour glass figure. I'm a mere 1.57m, blame it on my parents who refused to let me drink milk after 10 years old, "Milk are for babies" I remembered my mum scolding me for wanting to buy the pyramid packet Marigold? chocolate milk in the 1980s. Singapore was struggling with recession then.

When David Garrett was born in Aachen Germany in 1980, I was already in primary one, what a MILESTONE locally. Genes played a part too, both my parents are short and I became the most vertically challenged among my siblings. Shortest but not the dumbest, may be my brain was too heavy, Hahahah

If not for my traditional parents and the conservative church that I grew up in, I would GO AHEAD and model all sorts of sexy underwear. I am afterall someone who cares about the feelings of others. Posing nude will be difficult since I felt my body is not perfect enough. But my man, well, he would gladly do it for ART. It does not matter to him whether the ART was "appreciated" by the gay community even. To him, God made us to look good in the buff and clothes are so unneccessary. He even laments the lack of an official NUDE beach here. Looks like I am the conservative one here. MUAHAHAHA.

Back to the violin repair,

I really need to upgrade my bow. At the moment, this original "unbalanced" bow is kind of too heavy for my weak shoulder. I am still recovering from tendonitis of the rotator cuff sustained on a gym ball exercise last year. I was arched on my back over the gym ball when Rachel woke from sleep and pushed me over suddenly. I did not hear or see her approach and boy she, a breast-fed baby had great strength. I probably ruptured some muscular fibres, it hurt so much and was so inflammed that I needed physiotheraphy. Bowing triggered the injury as scar tissues that made my then frozen right shoulder, moved. It was searing pain some what like a flesh cut. SHARP and continuous. My mistake according to the physiotherapist was to do nothing after the fall off the gym ball. Since it was a really sharp bout of pain I should have consulted a doctor. Instead I merely prayed over and avoided using my right hand if possible. At one stage brushing teeth and stir frying hurt much. By not seeking treatment early, scar tissue formed over the tears and when I started to bow learning the violin, I practically moved the scar tissues and aggravated the old tears. Sounds scary. From now on, its prayer with medical consultation for me so I could pray with understanding.

Well, back to the basics of choosing a bow. A good bow I was told can cost up to thousands, but at this moment when my violin cost only about $2000, a $200 bow should suffice. By the way, i need to wait for my violin to "recover" from the damage before I could choose a bow since they sound different on different violins. According to the Violin Owner's Manual by Strings Letter publishing, a good bow should weigh bet 60 to 65 grams. It should also dig into the strings without the wood hitting the string. If you're digging you can get that nice accented sound. But if the bow isn't strong enough, the stick will flex so much that the hair is caught between the string and the bow and you don't have as much control over it. Elasticity is another difficult to understand concept, it measures how "responsive" the bow is. My teacher Amy Tan recommends French bows and she showed me one that costs above $3000. She is afterall a amateur violin performer who recently commissioned the making of an italian violin costing above $10000. She already owns several violins, including China made ones.

Oh Violins, i love them. David Garrett is blest with a 1718 Stradivarius worth US$4.5million that was part of a quartet made for the Grand Duke of San Lorenzo. That's why its called the San Lorenzo, it was a gift to him when he was only 12. He's such a incredibly blessed child having studied under Ida Haendel as a very gifted kid. David had been performing since he was 10 and started to learn the violin when he was 4. Rachel started just before her 3rd birthday, hmmmmm, we shall see if God would prosper her the same way.

Perhaps even more blessed is Anne Sophie Mutter who owns not one but two Stradivarius violins (The Emiliani of 1703, and the Lord Dunn-Raven of 1710) each worth around US $2.5 million.I particularly loved the sound of her violins, they are so velvety and mesmerising.

Someday, I hope I could play my favourite Bach Chaccone on a really good violin. I asked God for a genuine Giuseppe Guarneri Del Gesu and looked forward to bidding for one at Sotheby's. It does not harm to dream big does it?

I better go work on my Minuet 3, Suzuki Vol 1 now............................................