L. writes:
| > I've learned to tune the e string of my fiddle a tiny bit sharp. The
| > reason is that pressure of the bow tends to drive the pitch a bit
| > flat, and this effect is stronger on the lighter strings.
|
| It may amuse you to know that on Fiddle_L a few months ago there was
| discussion as to why bow pressure made the pitch go sharp - and people
| talked about it increasing the tension in the strings etc. It seemed that
| they didn't want to let reality get in the way of a good theory!
Hmmm ... A bit of testing makes me suspect that I see what's going
on. A simple test shows that increasing bow pressure makes the note
go flat. Another simple test shows that increasing bow speed makes
the note go sharp. My guess is that the discussion included a lot of
people who didn't have enough control to be able to distinguish
these. They probably have the subconscious rule that says "louder" =
"faster" = "more pressure". Sorta like how most musicians link volume
and speed, slowing down in quieter passages and speeding up in louder
passages. If you speed up while increasing the pressure, you will
just confuse the two effects.
Part of why I'd guess this is the mention of increasing the tension
in the strings. Speeding up the bow will definitely do this, since
the string's momentum will carry it a bit farther past the point
where the release occurs, causing a bit more stretching. Pressure
wouldn't necessarily have this effect, though. It's true that
pressure will stretch the string, but it will also increase the
friction, with the result that the string will break free of the bow
later, resulting in a lower frequency. The actual frequency is the
rate of bow-string releases, of course, and is only indirectly
related to things like stretching. The way in which the bow grabs and
releases the string is a rather complex phenomenon ...
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