indessed roscivs

Another reason for my dislike of the violin, especially in comparison with the instruments I currently favor (piano and guitar) is its lack of flexibility. The violin is, for the most part, a single-voice instrument. It is not capable of producing harmonies or chords as a solo instrument. As such, its range of musical options are limited primarily to classical works, typically orchestral.

The piano, to take a contrasting example, is considerably more broad in its range and adaptability. It can play not only classical works, solo as well as accompanied by an orchestra, but also has free range across nearly every musical genre, from jazz to pop to country and more. If I hear a song on the radio that I like—no matter whether it’s Debussy on the classical station or Third Eye Blind on the pop station—I will almost definitely be able to find or create an arranged version of it for the piano. The same is simply not true of the violin.

The guitar has almost as much versatility as the piano, although it requires more skill perhaps to play some works than the piano might. (I think particularly of Kurt Rodarmer’s arrangement of the Goldberg Variations for guitar, although even that required overdubbing for some variations.) But again, no matter what song I hear, I can almost definitely find a guitar version that is instantly recognizable.

Sealionii mentions a difference between orchestral violin and folk violin or electric violin. I think part of this difference might be due to the lack of flexibility in the instrument. For starters, just showing the instrument in a different light than its stereotypical role implies some adaptability that might be aesthetically appealing. Furthermore, I would say that in its folk music role, the fiddle is primarily an instrument to accompany dancing—and when talking about folk music to dance to, the violin shows much more versatility in this respect. It can serve as a useful instrument for nearly any song in such a context. Personally I’m still not a fan of the violin in its folksy “fiddle” role, but that may be more because I’m not particularly interested in that type of music to begin with.

The electric violin, however, I must confess holds some appeal for me. I wonder if again it may be linked to this issue of versatility. The electric violin is more prominent in popular music, again giving that façade of broader utility. But it also can be more easily recorded and overdubbed, allowing for a single melodic instrument to provide the chords and harmony that it previously lacked. I have even seen devices that you can connect to an electric violin that will loop what you have previously played at some delay, so you can improvise and harmonize with yourself in real-time, no overdubbing required!

In learning and playing an instrument, motivation is hugely important. And what better motivation than to hear an awesome-sounding song that you want to be able to play yourself? The violin, along with its other faults that I mentioned last week, just doesn’t feature that strongly into our daily musical routines. It is rare enough that we’ll hear a song that could be suitably arranged for violin, much less hear one that makes us exclaim, “I want to be able to play that song!” Yet another reason to pick up another, more versatile instrument.

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