WHAT IS A VIBRATO ??????

Vibrato

Vibrato is a technique of the left hand and arm in which the pitch of a note varies in a pulsating rhythm. While various parts of the hand or arm may be involved in the motion, the end result is a movement of the fingertip bringing about a slight change in vibrating string length. Violinists oscillate backwards, or lower in pitch from the actual note when using vibrato, since perception favors the highest pitch in a varying sound. Vibrato does little, if anything, to disguise an out-of-tune note: in other words, vibrato is a poor substitute for good intonation. Still, scales and other exercises meant to work on intonation are typically played without vibrato to make the work easier and more effective. Music students are taught that unless otherwise marked in music, vibrato is assumed or even mandatory. This can be an obstacle to a classically-trained violinist wishing to play in a style that uses little or no vibrato at all, such as baroque music played in period style and many traditional fiddling styles.

Vibrato can be produced by a proper combination of finger, wrist and arm motions. One method, called "hand vibrato," involves rocking the hand back at the wrist to achieve oscillation, while another method, "arm vibrato," modulates the pitch by rocking at the elbow. A combination of these techniques allows a player to produce a large variety of tonal effects.

The "when" and "what for" of violin vibrato are artistic matters of style and taste. In acoustical terms, the interest that vibrato adds to the sound has to do with the way that the overtone mix (or tone color, or timbre) and the directional pattern of sound projection change with changes in pitch. By "pointing" the sound at different parts of the room in a rhythmic way, vibrato adds a "shimmer" or "liveliness" to the sound of a well-made violin

PLAYING A VIOLIN

The standard way of holding the violin is with the left side of the jaw resting on the chinrest of the violin, and supported by the left shoulder, often assisted by a shoulder rest. This practice varies in some cultures; for instance, Indian (Carnatic and Hindustani) violinists play seated on the floor and rest the scroll of the instrument on the side of their foot. The strings may be sounded by drawing the hair of the bow across them (arco) or by plucking them (pizzicato). The left hand regulates the sounding length of the string by stopping it against the fingerboard with the fingertips, producing different pitches.

First Position Fingerings

[edit] Left hand and pitch production

As the violin has no frets to stop the strings, the player must know exactly where to place the fingers on the strings to play with good intonation. Through practice and ear training, the violinist's left hand finds the notes intuitively by muscle memory. Beginners sometimes rely on tapes placed on the fingerboard for proper left hand finger placement, but usually abandon the tapes quickly as they advance. Another commonly-used marking technique uses dots of white-out on the fingerboard, which wear off in a few weeks of regular practice. This practice, unfortunately, is used sometimes in lieu of adequate ear-training, guiding the placement of fingers by eye and not by ear. Especially in the early stages of learning to play, the so-called "ringing tones" are useful. There are nine such notes in first position, where a stopped note sounds a unison or octave with another (open) string, causing it to vibrate sympathetically.

The fingers are conventionally numbered 1 (index) through 4 (little finger). Especially in instructional editions of violin music, numbers over the notes may indicate which finger to use, with "0" indicating "open" string. The chart to the left shows the arrangement of notes reachable in first position. Not shown on this chart is the way the spacing between note positions becomes closer as the fingers move up (in pitch) from the nut. The bars at the sides of the chart represent three of the usual tape placements for beginners, at 1^st, high 2^nd, and 3^rd fingers.

[edit] Positions

The placement of the left hand on the fingerboard is characterized by "positions". First position, where most beginners start (although some methods start in third position), is the most commonly used position in string music. The lowest note available in this position in standard tuning is an open G; the highest note in first position is played with the fourth finger on the E-string, sounding a B, or reaching up a half step (also known as the "extended fourth finger") to the C two octaves above middle C.

Moving the hand up the neck, so the first finger takes the place of the second finger, brings the player into second position. Letting the first finger take the first-position place of the third finger brings the player to third position, and so on. The upper limit of the violin's range is largely determined by the skill of the player, who may easily play more than two octaves on a single string, and four octaves on the instrument as a whole, although when a violinist has progressed to the point of being able to use the entire range of the instrument, references to particular positions become less common. Position names are mostly used for the lower positions and in method books; for this reason, it is uncommon to hear references to anything higher than fifth position. The lowest position on a violin is half-position, where the first finger is a half-step away from the nut. This position is less frequently used. The highest position, practically speaking, is 15^th position.

The same note will sound substantially different, depending on what string is used to play it. Sometimes the composer or arranger will specify the string to be used in order to achieve the desired tone quality; this is indicated in the music by the marking, for example, sul G, meaning to play on the G string. For example, playing very high up on the lower strings gives a distinctive quality to the sound. Otherwise, moving into different positions is usually done for ease of playing.

VIOLIN BOWS

A violin is usually played using a bow consisting of a stick with a ribbon of horsehair strung between the tip and frog (or nut, or heel) at opposite ends. A typical violin bow may be 75 cm (29 inches) overall, and weigh about 60 g (2 oz). Viola bows may be about 5 mm (3/16") shorter and 10 g (1/3 oz) heavier.

At the frog end, a screw adjuster tightens or loosens the hair. Just forward of the frog, a leather thumb cushion and winding protect the stick and provide grip for the player's hand. The winding may be wire, silk, or whalebone (now imitated by alternating strips of yellow and black plastic.) Some student bows (particularly the ones made of solid fiberglass) substitute a plastic sleeve for grip and winding.

The hair of the bow traditionally comes from the tail of a "white" (technically, a grey) male horse, although some cheaper bows use synthetic fiber. Occasional rubbing with rosin makes the hair grip the strings intermittently, causing them to vibrate. The stick is traditionally made of brazilwood, although a stick made from this type of wood which is of a more select quality (and higher price) is referred to as pernambuco (both types are taken from the same tree species). Some student bows are made of fiberglass or various cheap woods. Recent innovations have allowed carbon fiber to be used as a material for the stick at all levels of craftsmanship.

VIOLIN YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS ONE

Strings

Strings were first made of sheep gut (commonly known as catgut), stretched, dried and twisted. Modern strings may be gut, solid steel, stranded steel, or various synthetic materials, wound with various metals. Most E strings are unwound, either plain or gold-plated steel.

Violinists often carry replacement strings with their instruments to have one available in case a string breaks.Strings have a limited lifetime; apart from obvious things, such as the winding of a string coming undone from wear, a player will generally change a string when it no longer plays "true," with a negative effect on intonation, or when it loses the desired tone. The longevity of a string depends on how much and how intensely one plays. The E string, being the thinnest, tends to break or lose the desired tone more quickly than the others.

For more information, see the strings section of Violin construction. There is also a five string violin.

[edit] Pitch range

The compass of the violin is from G3 (G below middle C) to the highest note of the modern piano. The top notes, however, are often produced by natural or artificial harmonics.

[edit] Acoustics

See also Sound production (string instruments)

The arched shape, the thickness of the wood, and its physical qualities govern the sound of a violin. Patterns of the nodes made by sand or glitter sprinkled on the plates with the plate vibrated at certain frequencies, called "Chladni patterns," are occasionally used by luthiers to verify their work before assembling the instrument. [1]

[edit] Sizes

Children typically use smaller string instruments than adults. Violins are made in so-called "fractional" sizes for young students: Apart from full-size (4/4) violins, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/10, 1/16, and even 1/32-sized instruments exist.Extremely small sizes were developed, along with the Suzuki program for violin students as young as 3 years old. Finely-made fractional sized violins, especially smaller than 1/2 size, are extremely rare or nonexistent. Such small instruments, are typically intended for beginners needing a rugged violin, and whose rudimentary technique does not justify the expense of a more carefully made one.

These fractional sizes have nothing to do with the actual dimensions of an instrument; in other words, a 3/4-sized instrument is not three-quarters the length of a full size instrument. The body length (not including the neck) of a "full-size" or 4/4 violin is about 14 inches (35 cm), smaller in some 17th century models. A 3/4 violin is about 13 inches (33 cm), and a 1/2 size is approximately 12 inches (30 cm). With the violin's closest family member, the viola, size is specified as body length in inches or centimeters rather than fractional sizes. A "full-size" viola averages 16 inches (40 cm).

Occasionally, an adult with a small frame may use a so-called "7/8" size violin instead of a full-size instrument. Sometimes called a "lady's violin", these instruments are slightly shorter than a full size violin, but tend to be high-quality instruments capable of producing a sound that is comparable to fine full size violins.

Violin sizes are not standardised and dimensions vary slightly between makers.

WORLD'S FAMOUS VIOLINISTS

The most famous violin makers (luthiers) between the late 16th century and the 18th century included:

• Amati family of Italian violin makers, Andrea Amati (1500-1577), Antonio Amati (1540-1607), Hieronymus Amati I (1561-1630), Nicolo Amati (1596-1684), Hieronymus Amati II (1649-1740)
• Guarneri family of Italian violin makers, Andrea Guarneri (1626-1698), Pietro of Mantua (1655-1720), Giuseppe Guarneri (Joseph filius Andreae) (1666-1739), Pietro Guarneri (of Venice) (1695-1762), and Giuseppe (del Gesu) (1698-1744)
• Stradivari family (1644-1737) of Cremona
• Gagliano family of Italian violin makers, Alexander, Nicolo I and Ferdinand are outstanding of these
• Giovanni Battista Guadagnini of Piacenza (1711-1786)
• Jacob Stainer (1617-1683) of Absam in Tyrol

Significant changes occurred in the construction of the violin in the 18th century, particularly in the length and angle of the neck, as well as a heavier bass bar. The majority of old instruments have undergone these modifications, and hence are in a significantly different state than when they left the hands of their makers, doubtless with differences in sound and response.^[8] But these instruments in their present condition set the standard for perfection in violin craftsmanship and sound, and violin makers all over the world try to come as close to this ideal as possible.

To this day, instruments from the "Golden Age" of violin making, especially those made by Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesù, are the most sought-after instruments by both collectors and performers.

CONSRTUCTING A VIOLIN- PART 2

The neck is usually maple with a flamed figure compatible with that of the ribs and back. It carries the fingerboard, typically made of ebony, but often some other wood stained or painted black. Ebony is the preferred material because of its hardness, beauty, and superior resistance to wear.^[9] Fingerboards are dressed to a particular transverse curve, and have a small lengthwise "scoop," or concavity, slightly more pronounced on the lower strings, especially when meant for gut or synthetic strings.

Some old violins (and some made to appear old) have a grafted scroll, evidenced by a glue joint between the pegbox and neck. Many authentic old instruments have had their necks reset to a slightly increased angle, and lengthened by about a centimeter. The neck graft allows the original scroll to be kept with a Baroque violin when bringing its neck into conformance with modern standards.

Bridge blank and finished bridge

Sound post seen through f-hole

The bridge is a precisely cut piece of maple that forms the lower anchor point of the vibrating length of the strings and transmits the vibration of the strings to the body of the instrument. Its top curve holds the strings at the proper height from the fingerboard in an arc, allowing each to be sounded separately by the bow. The sound post, or "soul post," fits precisely inside the instrument between the back and top, below the treble foot of the bridge, which it helps support. It also transmits vibrations between the top and the back of the instrument.

The tailpiece anchors the strings to the lower bout of the violin by means of the tailgut, which loops around the endpin, which fits into a tapered hole in the bottom block. Very often the E string will have a fine tuning lever worked by a small screw turned by the fingers. Fine tuners may also be applied to the other strings, especially on a student instrument, and are sometimes built in to the tailpiece.

At the scroll end, the strings wind around the tuning pegs in the pegbox. Strings usually have a colored silk wrapping at both ends, for identification and to provide friction against the pegs. The tapered pegs allow friction to be increased or decreased by the player applying appropriate pressure along the axis of the peg while turning it.

Violin and bow.

CONSRTUCTING A VIOLIN- PART 1

A violin typically consists of a spruce top (the soundboard, also known as the top plate, table, or belly), maple ribs and back, two endblocks, a neck, a bridge, a soundpost, four strings, and various fittings, optionally including a chinrest, which may attach directly over, or to the left of, the tailpiece. A distinctive feature of a violin body is its "hourglass" shape and the arching of its top and back. The hourglass shape comprises two upper bouts, two lower bouts, and two concave C-bouts at the "waist," providing clearance for the bow.

The "voice" of a violin depends on its shape, the wood it is made from, the graduation (the thickness profile) of both the top and back, and the varnish which coats its outside surface. The varnish and especially the wood continue to improve with age, making the fixed supply of old violins much sought-after.

All parts of the instrument which are glued together are done so using animal hide glue, a traditional strong water-based adhesive that is reversible, as glued joints can be disassembled if needed. Weaker, diluted glue is usually used to fasten the top to the ribs, and the nut to the fingerboard, since common repairs involve removing these parts.

The purfling running around the edge of the spruce top provides some protection against cracks originating at the edge. It also allows the top to flex more independently of the rib structure. Painted-on faux purfling on the top is a sign of an inferior instrument. The back and ribs are typically made of maple, most often with a matching striped figure, referred to as "flame," "fiddleback" or "tiger stripe" (technically called curly maple).

VIOLIN

The earliest stringed instruments were mostly plucked (e.g. the Greek lyre). Bowed instruments may have originated in the equestrian cultures of Central Asia, an example being the Mongolian instrument Morin huur:

Turkic and Mongolian horsemen from Inner Asia were probably the world’s earliest fiddlers. Their two-stringed upright fiddles are strung with horsehair strings, played with horsehair bows, and often feature a carved horse’s head at the end of the neck. ... The violins, violas, and cellos we play today, and whose bows are still strung with horsehair, are a legacy of the nomads.^[2].

It is believed that these instruments eventually spread to China, India, and the Middle East, where they developed into instruments such as the erhu (China) and rebab (Middle East), and esraj (India). The violin in its present form emerged in early 16th century in Northern Italy, where the port towns of Venice and Genoa maintained extensive ties through the trade routes of the Mongol Empire.

The modern European violin evolved from various bowed stringed instruments which were brought from the Middle East.^[3] Most likely the first makers of violins borrowed from three types of current instruments: the rebec, in use since the 10th century (itself derived from the Arabic rebab), the Renaissance fiddle, and the lira da braccio.^[4] One of the earliest explicit descriptions of the instrument, including its tuning, was in the Epitome musical by Jambe de Fer, published in Lyon in 1556.^[5] By this time, the violin had already begun to spread throughout Europe.

The oldest documented violin to have four strings, like the modern violin, was constructed in 1555 by Andrea Amati. (Other violins, documented significantly earlier, only had three strings.) The violin immediately became very popular, both among street musicians and the nobility, illustrated by the fact that the French king Charles IX ordered Amati to construct 24 violins for him in 1560.^[6] The oldest surviving violin, dated inside, is from this set, and is known as the "Charles IX," made in Cremona c. 1560. "The Messiah" or "Le Messie" (also known as the "Salabue") made by Antonio Stradivari in 1716 remains pristine, never having been used. It is now located in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford.

Pigeon point light house

Once per year at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse they shut down the weak insipid modern (presumably electric) light and switch over the 5 kerosene lamps and lens of the original, as it was 135 years ago… it's really quite a sight. When they fire it up there's really a collective sense of "whoa!" from the audience.

Dhan dhana dhan goal-review

Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal turns out to be a film about noise and nose. The noisy background score tries to infuse “emotions” in otherwise caricature scenes and the sunny hero John Abraham keeps hurting his nose, writes Bikas Mishra

After watching Lagaan, Iqbal and Chak De India, if you thought sports underdog drama is the recipe to set box office on fire, you’re wrong. No other movie could prove it better than Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal.

It’s evident from the first ten minutes that the director wants nothing else but to capitalize on the recent successes of the genre, hence he takes no trouble of setting up the story. Things are sorted out from the very beginning. We know the story from the word go of the Goal and the director seems to have no qualms about it. Hence Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal turns out to be a film about noise and nose. The noisy background score tries to infuse “emotions” in otherwise caricature scenes and the sunny hero John Abraham keeps hurting his nose.

Do I need to tell you the plot, if you feel so, then here it is: an underdog English football team, surprisingly made of only Asians, need to win the championship to save their club. Every twist in the plot is a cliché.

The film is not only stupid and silly but it’s also highly jingoistic. Perhaps the only novelty the director tries to bring in is that here the underdog saga envelops the whole south east Asia and the team is made of Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Indians. Britons are the villains, who’re racists and keep dropping talented Indian players from their teams. Even the city council mayor plots to take away the club ground to sell it off to a Punjabi builder. Despite every other Englishmen being racists, interestingly the coach and captain both have English wives!

Bipasha, plays the team doctor. She’s the sister of the captain and is in love with the star striker John. She has really got the most stupid role in the film, where she has to say silly dialogues, call herself “an asshole” and compare herself to a “football” to prove her point. Poor girl, a talent wasted.

Except some jokes and football match sequences, the film is really crappy. I wonder how intelligent actors like Boman Irani, Arshad Warsi and even John for that matter accepted to act in it.

The real problem of Goal lies nowhere else but in the script, that no actor, dialogue writer could salvage. IMDB credits say Anurag Kashyap wrote the dialogues, except a few lighter moments even they sounded cheap and sad.

A highly disappointing film. I wasted my precious more than two hours, if you want to do so, Go(al) Ahead!!

SUPER COMPUTERS IN INDIA

After proving its mettle in areas like steel, automotive and IT services on this global arena, corporate behemoth the Tata group has now developed the world's fourth fastest supercomputer that can do more than 117.9 trillion calculations per second.

The supercomputer “EKA”, which means NO.1 in Sanskrit, was named Asia's fastest and the world's fourth fastest in the Top 500 Supercomputer list announced at an International Conference for High Performance Computing at Reno (California), USA.

This is the first time that such a system developed in India has been ranked among the world's ten fastest computers.

Supercomputers are primarily used by universities, military and scientific research labs. They are used in high calculation-intensive jobs like quantum physics, weather and climate research, study of chemical compounds, simulation of aircraft in wind tunnels and detonation of nuclear weapons.

A total of nine supercomputers developed in India have appeared in the Top 500 list, including one more system (179th) developed at Tata Sons' wholly-owned subsidiary Computational Research Laboratories (CRL) in Pune, where EKA was developed.

Others include a system developed at Indian Institute of Science (58th) and six IBM systems (ranked at 152nd, 158th, 336th, 339th, 340th and 371st) developed in the country.

The group chairman Ratan Tata said in a statement, “High performance computing solutions have an ever-increasing role in the scientific and new technological space the world over. The Tata group has supported this development activity and is extremely proud of the team that has developed and built this supercomputer, which is now ranked the world's fourth fastest.”

“I am sure this supercomputer and its successor systems will make a major contribution to India's ongoing scientific and technological initiatives,” he added.

The Top 500 list has been topped by BlueGene/L System, a joint development of IBM and the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and installed at DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.

Another system developed by IBM is at the second position and is installed in Germany, followed by one developed by SGI and installed in New Mexico Computing Applications Center.

EKA has been ranked even higher than a new HP system installed at a Swedish government agency. The HP system is ranked fifth in the world.

“EKA marks a milestone in the Tata group's effort to build an indigenous high performance computing solution. CRL built the supercomputer facility using dense data centre layout and novel network routing and parallel processing library technologies developed by its scientists,” Tata group said in a statement.

The fastest supercomputer recorded a speed of 478.2 teraflops per second (trillions of calculations per second), while EKA recorded a performance of 117.9 teraflops per second.

“EKA has put India at the forefront of high performance and supercomputing technology globally. It gives us the ability to address applications in multiple disciplines including software development and research,” CRL Chairman and TCS CEO and MD S Ramadorai said.

The CRL supercomputer includes nodes and racks built by HP. The CRL team has been actively supported by scientists and engineers at Tata Consultancy Services.

In the near term, CRL is targeting and developing applications such as neural simulation, molecular simulation, computational fluid dynamics, crash simulation and digital media animation and rendering.

The longer term application areas would include financial modelling, seismic modelling, geophysical signal processing, weather prediction, medical imaging, nanotechnology, personalised drug discovery, real time rendering, and virtual worlds among others.

CRL also intends to offer high performance and supercomputer system integration, research, applications and software services to its customers around the globe in the area of high performance computing.

Supercomputers were first developed early in 1960s by Seymour Cray at Control Data Corporation (CDC). These days the supercomputer market is dominated by companies like IBM and HP, while Cray, who later left CDC and founded his own company Cray Inc is also building supercomputers.
SOURCE: ELECTRONICS FOR U

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