下面是一篇很值得读的文章，题目是《选择你的第一把高级琴》(“Considering Your First Good Instrument”)。作者是Susan M. Barbieri，节选自《Violin Owner’s Manual》。文章是用英文写的，最近我比较忙，等有空了我再翻译成中文给大家。
Considering Your First Good Instrument
After conquering the “Bach double” last year, I knew I was ready. I’d logged three years of work as an adult beginner on the violin and was playing first violin in a string quartet. My student instrument was starting to sound shrill under my ear, sluggish under my hand, and too bright to blend with the quartet. It was time to step up.
With a rough budget in mind, I visited a reputable dealer and began the windowing process. I played about a half dozen fine instrument and quickly narrowed to two the violins I would take home and bring to my lesson. One was lovely sounding violin costing $4,000; the other, which I’d begun calling “the Chicago” because of where it was made, cost about $2,000. I was leaning toward the less expensive instrument, which had the rich, silky tone and effortless response I wanted. But I wasn’t sure, so without telling my teacher or friends the prices, I conducted blind “taste tests” to get listeners’ opinions.
Each time, “the Chicago”, the less expensive instrument, won out – prompting “oohs” and “aahs” from teachers and friends. I couldn’t be happier with my beautiful violin.
An instrument-buying experience can be fairly straightforward and stress-free, but not every beginning- to intermediate-level musician has an easy time making that first step up. For many, the process of buying a good instrument is an agonizing one. But with the right preparation and right attitude, experts say, it does not have to be. The key to making a good decision lies in asking the right questions of yourself, of the instrument seller, and of those who are closest to you musically.
ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
How do you know when you’re ready to move on to your first good instrument? Susan Leek-Dedon, who teaches at the University of St. Thomas Conservatory and sells instruments part-time for Miller and Fein Violins in St. Paul, Minnesota, says that usually an $800 student instrument will hold a player for a few years – whether he or she is a young or an adult beginner.
“This is especially true at beginner levels. You are still learning how to hold the bow. But once you get to a certain level, you start to outgrow your instrument,” says Leek-Dedon, who has taught for more than 20 years.
“For instance, when you’re trying to play a passage, it may not be as clear as you think it should be because the instrument doesn’t respond. And when you’re going up in position, again, it’s not doing what you want. Another telltale sign is, ‘Wow, I’m hunkered down on my bow arm but it’s just not giving me the power I want – even though I’m doing everything my teacher tells me to do.’”
Once you know you’re ready for a new instrument, it’s important to consider your goals as a player before you actually go shopping. Claire Givens, owner of Claire Givens Violins in Minneapolis, asks prospective buyers to consider how their instrument will be used. In a hall? In a church? Are you a young prodigy or an adult amateur playing for your own enjoyment?
“Figure all the out. Then go into it with an absolute open mind about sound and response”, Givens says. “People get the best instrument when they come in and don’t say, ‘I want something old’ or ‘I really like brown violins’ or ‘I was told to stay away from French instrument.’ Instead, they come in and say, ‘I really want to experience every one of these instrument and see what they can do for me.’”
SETTING A BUDGET
People often ask Givens about pricing. She says there are four things that go into pricing any instrument: authenticity, quality of craftsmanship, condition, and sound. First-time buyers won’t be able to determine authenticity and quality of workmanship, but Givens says that if you do business with a reputable dealer, you can get a crash course in how to listen and how to look at the condition of an instrument.
How much to spend depends on a lot of things, Leek-Dedon agrees, but as a general rule she advises that it’s reasonable to double or triple the value on your first step up from beginning instrument to a quality instrument. “I had a young woman come into the shop who had been playing less than a year,” she recalls, “She was not that good, but she showed good consideration, had a good ear, and probably could do well with it in the future. She had been told by a public school teacher that she should spend $3,000 or $4,000 on her first instrument. I said, ‘Well, I think that’s really high.’ Sure, I’d like to sell a more expensive instrument. But sometimes you place yourself with a too-expensive instrument and you’re not ready for it.”
WHERE TO PURCHASE YOUR INSTRUMENT
Several experts warn against trying to buy your first good instrument at an auction, although prices there may be low. As St. Paul instrument maker and dealer John Waddle points out, auction house’s viewing room will be big and unfamiliar, with lots of other people playing and talking. You’re not going to have sufficient time, they’re not going to let you take the instrument out for a week and try it, and no follow-up services will be provided.
Teacher commissions can be another potential pitfall for the unwary or uninformed buyer. Some dealers pay teachers who help students pick out an instrument from their shop. The commission is usually a percentage of the sale price of the instrument. Not all shops and teacher engage in the practice, and when the buyer is informed that a commission is being paid, there is nothing unethical about a teacher being reimbursed for the time and effort he or she puts into helping a student make a difficult choice. But buyers should be aware that in some cases commissions are paid without their knowledge, and then the objectivity of the teacher’s advice can legitimately be questioned.
Even putting aside the question of teacher commissions, Mark Bjork, a professor of violin and pedagogy in the University of Minnesota’s music department, advices buyers to take their teacher’s opinion into account, but never to neglect their own feelings about it. He recalls his own experience with a student who was trying to decide between two violins.
“I had had a chance to try them before she did, and they were both very nice examples, but one of them, I felt, was much better sounding than the other one. She came in after a week or so of trying them and said she had made her decision, and it was not the instrument I would have chosen. And I was a little bit surprised until heard her play them. She sounded much better on the one she had chosen. I didn’t, but she did,” Bjork says.
Bjork adds that students should consider instruments being made by contemporary makers because of their high quality as well as the fact that old instruments frequently are out of shopper’s price range. In fact, he adds, sometimes a top-of-the-line mass-produce instrument will be better than a bad handmade one.
But if he believes the student will run up against certain limitation with a particular instrument, Bjork doesn’t hesitate to point that out. And if he sees a student leaning toward something that he thinks is going to be a bad investment, he says so. Bjork believes it’s important to think of that first good instrument as an investment. He advices students to buy from a reputable dealer who will give them a good trade-in policy on the one that they’re purchasing. Buy from someone who is apt to have a selection of things for you to view if and when you do decide to trade up, he says.
But according to Waddle, some shoppers seem excessively worried about investment value. “Many people understand investment value more than they understand sound,” he says. His view is that in the lower price ranges, say $2,000 and under for a violin, you’re not going to get an investment instrument. So you need to decide how important that is to you.
Waddle always tells people to sit down and figure out a comfortable price range, then look at instruments within that range and call and make an appointment with the instrument maker or sealer. Tell him or her price range. That way, the maker or dealer can have several appropriate choices ready for you to try. (Givens adds that it is helpful to bring in your present instrument and bow to give the shop owner an idea of what you are accustomed to hearing.) Then begins the process of testing and narrowing down the choices.
HOW BEST TO SHOP FOR YOUR NEXT VIOLIN
Leek-Dedon has three criteria she asks prospective buyers to think about when they come into the shop: How clear and responsive is the instrument? How do you like the sound? Is it comfortable to play or does your hand become fatigued?
A common mistake, Waddle says, is that shoppers set forth without a plan. Be organized. Know what you’re going to play and do it fairly quickly. “I don’t recommend practicing in the shop,” he says. “And don’t try to impress the other people in the shop with your playing. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve had pick up the violin, launch into the Tchaikovsky violin concerto, and about two bars into realize the violin is not in tune.”
Another problem, Waddle has observed, is that very shy, young players who come in with their partners are frequently afraid and don’t know what to do. “They need to say to themselves, ‘OK, I’m going to play a G-major scale, I’m going to start on the G string, I’m going to play all the way up to the E string, then I’m going to play a simple piece, maybe a slow piece, and then I’m going to play a fast piece.’ You need to pick a violin up, do that process, and put it down. It doesn’t need to take more than an hour to try six violins.”
“People can only keep a sound in their mind for a few seconds,” says Givens. “So don’t play long excerpts. That way, you can sense a contrast immediately. As you get more practice, you can retain the effect of sound and memory of sound longer, but at first, ten or fifteen seconds might be it. I line up four instruments at a time, max. And I put shoulder rests on every single one so they’re ready to just pick up, put under the chin, and play. I ask the shopper to narrow those four instruments down to two or one. Then I bring in some more. And I keep doing that until it’s impossible to be discriminating. And I try to get people to move ahead as much as possible, quickly, because for about 20 minutes you have your maximum concentration. After that, it’s really hard work to remember and discriminate and focus.”
Givens also tries to help people develop a vocabulary to use in evaluating instruments. You’re going to get your best help if you can develop the words to communicate what you’re experiencing. “This one’s too bright,” for instance. “This one’s too edgy.” “I don’t like the E string on this; it dies after second position.”
And while it’s common to take a used car to a mechanic or two for an opinion, Waddle says evaluating instruments from other shop makes many makers uncomfortable. “It really bothers me when somebody takes an instrument out on trial from my shop and brings it to another shop for their opinion – like they’re going to get an objective opinion from the other shop. And if people call me and they’ve got a violin from another shop, my feeling is, why are they asking me? If they don’t trust the other person, why they want to buy from them?”
MAKING THE FINAL DECISION
Once you’ve been to a shop and have narrowed the selection to one or two instruments, it’s a standard procedure to take it out for a week, try it at home, take it to a lesson, and take it to orchestra rehearsal. You need to try it in all the situations in which you play. You should remember that instruments might not sound their best until you’ve played them for a half hour. “If an instrument has some essence or quality that you like, give it some time,” Givens says, “because you need to play a lot of instruments for half an hour before they warm up, before the colors and the responsiveness really show themselves.”
Givens also emphasizes the importance of buying an instrument in good condition. Otherwise two years may pass and old repairs will fail, old cracks will develop into something more serious, or the neck will collapse. All of a sudden, your instrument has to go in for a major restoration that costs thousands of dollars – and it comes out sounding and feeling much different from what you remembered and loved. That’s a heartbreaker, Givens says. So do business with places that are concerned about condition and can offer follow-up support and care.
In addition, do business with a shop that offers future trading or selling options. Most places will give 100 percent trade minus any kind of repair necessary to put the instrument into saleable condition. Also, find out if the company you bought the instrument from will put it on the market for you if you don’t need it anymore. Some always will, and some never will, Givens says.
Above all, the thing to remember about buying the first nice instrument is that you’re the one who needs to be happy with it because you’re the one who is going to be playing it. There are many audiences to consider, but the most important audience is yourself. The sound that instrument makes under your ear must be pleasing. Trust your own judgment about its responsiveness, its voice.
“When you practice, you want a sound that’s really inspiring and satisfying,” Givens says, “I feel that way about my cello. When I sit down to play, regardless of how much time I’ve had to practice, I want that sound to be glorious.”
各位中文翻译来了
选择你的第一把高级琴
去年在攻克《巴赫小提琴和双簧管协奏曲》之后，我知道我已经准备好了。我成年学琴三年了，已经开始在弦乐四重奏担任第一小提琴了。我觉得我的那把学生琴的声音开始变得刺耳，反应不灵敏，同时太明亮的声音与四重奏显得不协调。是到了换琴的时候了。
