by John Rihani | Jan 26, 2016 | Uncategorized
I attended a concert recently at the Center for the Performing Arts. It was a fabulous concert featuring the D-major violin concerto by Beethoven. The audience clapped at the end of the first movement – traditionally a “no-no” in the classical...
by John Rihani | Jan 19, 2016 | Uncategorized
BAM France is a manufacturer of cases for musical instruments. In the string world, they are well known for their “Hightech” line of cases. Most of the cellists I know either own, or aspire to own, a case from the Hightech line because of their strength...
by John Rihani | Dec 21, 2015 | Uncategorized
I hadn’t planned on writing a blog post about Sloane tuning gears for the bass, but after seeing the first set installed on a customer’s bass, I had to change my plans. String players are used to tuning their instrument every time they play, so they...
by John Rihani | Dec 15, 2015 | Uncategorized
When you stop and think about it, there aren’t very many opportunities for a string musician to accessorize their instrument. Unless the player was involved in the commission of the instrument, the maker decides the wood, the outline, the varnish, and usually...
by John Rihani | Dec 8, 2015 | Uncategorized
One of the most frequent questions I hear in the shop when discussing various price levels of violins is, “what’s the difference between more and less expensive violins?” Here’s an answer I composed to help the rest of our sales staff address...
by John Rihani | Dec 1, 2015 | Uncategorized
My high school English teacher would be so proud…I didn’t end a sentence with a preposition when writing the title for this blog post. The question I hear most often when talking about the construction of a violin (viola/cello/bass) is “What is it...
by John Rihani | Nov 24, 2015 | Uncategorized
Playing a string instrument well is the work of a lifetime. Making a great instrument is the work of a lifetime. Doing anything with passion and excellence usually takes a considerable amount of time and energy spread over many years. How do you maintain enthusiasm...
by John Rihani | Nov 17, 2015 | Uncategorized
If you come to shop for bows at Encore, you’ll likely hear me talk about how much I like carbon fiber bows for certain applications. When the budget doesn’t allow for a high-quality pernambuco (wood) bow, carbon fiber bows can offer similar performance...
by John Rihani | Nov 11, 2015 | Uncategorized
We continue our journey through the parts of the violin and focus on the fingerboard. The fingerboard is the portion of the neck directly underneath the strings against which the strings are pressed to create different pitches. In early instruments, the fingerboard...
by John Rihani | Nov 4, 2015 | Uncategorized
A more thorough introduction will follow, but I wanted to take a moment and welcome Leilah Smith to the team at Encore Orchestral Strings! Leilah is a recent graduate of the University in Indianapolis where she studied music education. She teaches at the...
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